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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1980)
I i k Portland Observer March S, 1M0 Page 3 Organization supports BUFplan REVEREND and MRS. MARVIN L. LEWIS. Sunday over one bun drsd people, repreaenting five generations of the "Lewis Clan," came together to celebrate the Eighty-Fourth birthday of its patriarch. Reverend M.L. Lewis. (Photo: by Richard J. Brown) The Committee to support the Black United F ro n t, a group o f white parents, students, teachers and com m unity members, today announced its support for the Black U nited F ro n t's recent school proposal "W e believe that the plan put forth by the Black United Front addresses the issues of equality and quality education for Black students more directly and efficiently than either plan drawn up by the Port land School B o a rd ," Marcia LaKose, the Com m ittee Co- Chairpcrson, said Tuesday. Ms. LaRose said the committee recognizes the right of members of the Black community to decide the educational policies which affect their children and that the current Black United Front plan is an outgrowth and response to the need- articulated by the Black Com munity. The comm ittee spokesperson stated that the implementation o f the Black United Front plan would give Black students the options that have always been available to white students. In a d d itio n , the committee is initiating a petition drive calling for the resignation of Dr. Robert Blanc hard, as the Superintendent o f the Portland Public Schools because o f his role in creating and administer ing the current in teg ra tion /d e- segregation policies. DESEGREGATION D R A F T II Your Chance To Speak * PU BLIC M E E T IN G S New Hope Missionary Baptist Church 3725 N. Gantenbein Ave. March 7 7:30 TO 10:30 P.M. * PORTLAND PUBLIC SC HOOLS Board of Education FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CALI DESEGREGATION INFOR M ATIO N (E N T E R - 249-3311. Williams announces House race Harold C. Williams will formerly announce his candidacy fo r the House o f Representatives, District 14, at Paradise Baptist C hurch, 4735 N. Commercial at 7:30 pm. W illiam s, who is a .Labor Relations Manager to the State Executive Dept. is seeking the position held by D r. Howard Cherry. Williams was a State affirmative action officer from August o f 1975 to January 1979, appointed by Governor Bob Straub. He was responsible for affirmative action in 51 state agencies: increasing the em ployees o f minorities and women from 5 percent to 20 percent. Previous to that he was employed by the Personnel Division, developing minority recruitment programs. He taught at Oregon State U niversity, L in fie ld College and Linn-Benson Community College. Williams helped develop the Port land State U niversity Education Center and was its director for four years. Under his direction the center served 1500 students. Among Williams community ac tivities are: memberships in the City Club, the Urban L eague o f Port land, the N AA C P , the American Association o f Affirm ative Action Officers. The Moms Morks House 1501SW Harrison Street Portland 97201 Telephone 227-26Ô8 W illiam s received awards from the Oregon Education Association and the Anti-Defamation League o f B’ nai B'rith. He was awarded Full- bright Scholarship to study at University o f Zagreb, Yugoslavia. He was Jaycee man o f the year in 1973. W illiam s was an O utstanding Young Man o f America in 1974 and in June o f that year was featured in " J e t " magazine fo r outstanding achievement in human services. He was nominated as a White House Fellow in 1975. Williams is a member ot Bethel A M L Church. DES CONNALL Professional Corporation Black mayors vs white police (Continued from page 1 col. 6) mince words with either the police or criminals. “ I issue open warning now to all dope pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It's time to leave Detroit,” he warned. "A n d I don’t give a datn i f they are Black or white, if they wear superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road!" Young openly attacked corrup tion in the police narcotics squads and eliminated the departm ent’ s controversial STRESS (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets) unit, a police decoy operation which many inner-city Blacks viewed as an armed white occupation force. Regardless o f its characterization, STRESS did not seem to solve the city's rising crime problems, and it did seem to exacerbate the city’ s racial tensions. In one 30-month span, S TRESS mounted almost 500 warrantless raids which resulted in 20 killings, mostly o f Black teenagers, according to one contem porary tally. Young also elevated one o f his own allies, Frajik Blount, to the deputy chiefs slot, the highest post a Black man had ever held in the department. When Blount fell vic tim to bitter political in-fighting, Young appointed the c ity ’ s first Black police chief, W illiam Hart. He also froze all hiring and pro motions pending affirmative action suits, and required all police officers to live within city limits. Says Justin Ravitz, a prominent judge on the city's felony recorder’s court, "Y oung's people have fo r cibly and consistently pushed for af firmative action in Ihe force. It's a battle they've fought competently, valiantly and in an exemplary man ner - and they’ ve won.” Young and Chief Hart claim that 'hose victories - resulting in greater confidence between police and community -- are directly respon sible fo r the steady decline in Detroit murders during recent years, down to 251 in 1979, less than a third o f the homocides recorded in 1974. A year after Young came to power, Maynard Jackson was elec ted mayor o f Atlanta, a city em broiled in similar community con flicts. Jackson also campaigned on a promise to end police harassment of the c ity ’ s Blacks. In 1978, after several years o f wrangling, he suc ceeded in replacing the former white police chief, whose job had been protected under contract from an outdated city charter. But a ffir mative action suits launched by the force’s Afro-American Patrolman's League remain unresolved, and in the words o f one Jackson advisor, the whole situation is at a stalemate. In Birmingham, Alabama, where 90 per cent o f the police force is white though half the population is non-white, a Black city councilman, Richard A rrin g to n , organized a Black voter registration drive last fa ll and successfully won the mayor’ s race - also on a campaign to end police brutality aginst Blacks. During the eight years he held a seat on the council, Arrington had filed more than 200 com plaints o f ill treatment and b ru ta lity by the police. Newark, N J . has suffered similar police-community problems since it entered a severe economic decline in the late 1960s. With a diminishing tax base and a rising welfare load. Mayor Kenneth Gibson, a Black, has been forced into a no-win con flict with his mostly white police, many o f whom live outside (he city. While b ru ta lity is not a m ajor issue in Newark, crime and the size o f the police force is. Contending that there is little correlation bet ween the crime rate and the number o f policemen, Gibson last year laid o ff 200 officers, among some 775 other city employees, in an attempt to balance the budget. The layoffs enraged the rank and file officers and their union, which helped spread a "F e a r In the Streets” sologan campaign to discredit Gib son, and Black police chief Hubert Williams. However, the Mayor has stood his turl and last November vetoed a city council ordinance which would have required the city to hire nearly 300 additional police officers. "C rim e in our society can’ t be stopped by a policeman or by the Mayor,” said Gibson, insisting that the city’s rising crime rate is a fun ction o f its worsening economic condition, not of the lack o f police. On the national level, Benjamin Hooks, director o f the NAACP, has called for an all-out campaign to establish civilian review boards over police activities - activities which he claims resulted in several hundred questionable deaths last year. The campaign, launched in January, promises to be especially pointed in both the Southeast and Southwest regions of the NAACP. "None o f us condone crime,” ex plained Lari Shmhoster, southeast director o f the organization, "b u t we have seen that there were seven shooting o f young Black men in the city o f Pensacola alone last year. None were armed. None were a threat to the police nor to the public. Now three are dead and one is paralyzed.” Virna Canson, the NAACP West Coast director, says that the number o f police k illin g o f Blacks has clearly risen in recent years. " I n Oakland, Sacramento, Portland, Tucson, San Diego and Los Angeles, in all these cities, we have reports o f young Black men mur dered by the police under strange circumstances.” Underlying the conflicts that the Justice Dept., the mayors and the NAACP have reported, however, is the question o f power, o f who holds the ultimate authority in such cities as Oakland and A tla n ta and Newark. “ Police review boards - they’ re really just the tip o f the iceberg," argues Canson. "The real question is whether there’ s going to be a mayor who has the power or not, of whether the police are ready to fully accept the fact that a Black man was elected to run the city.” Copyright PNS 19X0 (Frank Browning, co-author with John Gerassi, o f the soon-to-be published book. The American Way o f Crime (Putnam's) surveys the crisis for PNS) LEGAL CLINIC CONCENTRATING IN THE FIELDS OF: CRIMINAL LAW INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INTOXICANTS DOMESTIC RELATIONS WORKERS' COMPENSATION BANKRUPTCY PERSONAL INJURY WILLS-PROBATE AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS CONSUMER PROTECTION ♦ If you have a problem that is not covered in this list, please call and ask whether we can help. Chances are, we can. If not, we can recommend someone else for you to call. One way or the other, we want to see you get the kind of professional legal counsel you're entitled to. The best time to call us, or any attorney, is before you are embroiled in a legal problem. This is called preventative law and it makes a lot of sense. Regardless, when you call us we will arrange for an initial consultation at your convenience. Cost: $20 We probably can't solve anything in this meeting, but it is a chance for you to explain your particular problem and for us to give you some idea of what it'll take to reach a solution. If you want us to proceed, we'll give you an estimate of the fees you should plan on. In writing
