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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1980)
Pago 2 Portland Obaarvar November 13,1980 EDITORIAL/OPINION The rise and fall of one Peter Walls By Fungai Kumbula Criteria for new police chief Commission Charles Jordan will soon be faced with the task of selecting a new police chief to replace ailing Bruce Baker. In light of the past year - allegations of police brutality, opposition to the police - schools program, dismissal of indictments due to police misbehavior, the police suit against the city's affirmative action hiring procedure - the appointment will be controversial. The police officers generally prefer a promotion from w ithin the ranks and are capable of making life miserable for anyone coming in. Others point to the difficulty an in sider would have in bringing fundamental changes to the bureau that would adversely affect old friends. Many believe this appoint ment is an opportunity to find someone who could bring new sensitivity to the bureau, and that this type of person is not to be found in Portland. Several overriding concerns should be con sidered in hiring a new chief: 1) Affirmative action - across the nation police bureaus are being required by court order to add Blacks and other minority o f ficers. Portland's statistics show this is a clear possibility for Portland. To avoid the costs of a suit, the new chief must be one who will sup port the City's two-list civil service system which is currently in litigation. 2) A new chief will have to be commited to recruiting and hiring m inorities, and to eliminating the environment that leads Black officers, once hired, to leave the bureau. 3, A new chief will have to redefine the use of physical force in making arrests or dealing with citizens. Elimination of abuse and un necessary force would go far to improve police-community relations. Proper, repeated training could do much to eliminate reliance on improper force. 4) A new chief should have an attitude of respect toward minorities and the poor that will not tolerate disrespect by his officers. 5, A new chief should be willing to include citizens in the process of investigation of com plaints against police officers. He must be willing to enforce policies and regulations, and discipline officers who do not conform. If someone can be found within the Portland Police Bureau who can prove by his actions that he has met these criteria, then he should be selected. If not, there should be no reluc tance to undertake a national search to find the right person. The next few years are crucial. This appoint ment will set the tone for the Police Bureau for many years to come. It should be taken as an opportunity to bring positive change. Another point o f view On Robert Blanchard By Marko Haggard, KA TO I did not know Robert Blanchard well...I have no credentials to pretend to speak pro foundly about the man or his contributions. But I, like many of you, am stunned by the sudden loss of this 53 year old nationally recognized educator. And I, like you, grieve for his wife, children and family. I am also concerned that in light of the events of the pasj few months, we do not in dulge in instant, impulsive autopsies. In fair ness, we do not know precisely what caused such a tragedy. Was it a consequence of style...a style which demands endless meetings, poor nutrition, smoking, constant stress for achievement etc? Was it a con sequence of genes...one’s inheritance? Was it a consequence of forced idleness...the abrupt transition from center stage? Was it a con sequence of living in an environment that is becoming increasingly hostile, in which our relations (on both or all sides) is becoming in creasingly adversariable? In fairness to the man, it may well be that one or all of the above were causal factors. At this moment of concern, what might we, the living, ask of ourselves? Might we not ask if our life style is getting too fixed on tension, confrontation, anger, bitterness, retaliation? Does it not appear that we/they is context in which most of our lives is intertwined...the tensions between management/labor; admin istrators/personnel; bureaucracy/citizenry; media/audience...power struggles all over the place. Can we reasonably ask people to be in volved in school board meetings which go on for eternity day after d a y ...fo r marathon negotiations that may end up in exhausting all parties physically, mentally, emotionally... wounds that never heal? S ensitivity to legitimate, human concerns is required of the school board, the adm inistration, the teachers. As we grieve and regret, lets resolve to try to be more sensitive to the concerns, fears and hopes of others...and lets give more time and thought to easing up on our own rat race. I hope, Robert Blanchard, that you approve these awkward but heartfelt comments. Portland Observer The Portland Observer IUSPS 959 6801 is published every Thurs day by Exle Publishing Company, Inc . 2201 North Killingsworlh, Portland Oregon 97217, Post Office Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 97208 Second class postage paid at Portland, Oregon 1st Place Best Ad Result ONPA 1973 Subscriptions 110 00 per year in Tri-County area P ostm aster Send address changes to the Portland Observer, P O Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208 5th Place Best Editorial ONPA 1973 The Portland Observer was founded in October of 1970 by Alfred Lee Henderson The Portland Observer is a champion of justice, equality and liberation; an alert guard against social evils; a thorough analyst and critic of discriminatory practices and policies; a sentinel to warn of impending and existing racist trends and practices, and a defender against persecution and oppression The real problems of the Black population will be viewed and presented from the perspective of their causality; unrestrained and chronoically en tren c h ed racism . N ational and in tern atio n al arrangements that prolong and increase the oppression of Third World peoples shall be considered in the context of their ex ploitation and manipulation by the colonial nations, including the United States, and their relationship to this nation’s historical treatment of its Black population Bruce Broussard Editor/Publisher i: 1 ■ Ml Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association ¿ f g . 283 2486 MEMBER N ê WIA peb 1st Place Community Service ONPA 1973 N ational A d vertisin g R ep resentative A m a lg a m a te d Publishers. Inc N ew York Honorable Mention Herrick Editorial Award NNA 1973 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place Community Leadership ONPA 1975 3rd Place Community Leadership ONPA 1978 3rd Place In depth coverage ONPA 1979 O«“ n atio n a l I • Association • Fourtdod IM S Subscribe n o w and receive your Observer by mail $10 per year Name______________________________________________ Add ress ________________ C ity____________Zip_______ P. O. Box 3137 • Portland, O regon 97208 I "T o the victor belong the spoils; to the vanquished, the soils" is an ancient piece o f wisdom shared by all o f humanity. In this country it is referred to as the "spoils system” and should soon become quite evident fo llo w in g last Tuesday’ s massacre at the polls. (For us, it ’s going to be a very bad year.) This rule o f thumb was not honored in Zimbabwe, much to the surprise of everybody. I f anybody deserved "th e soils” in Zimbabwe, it was Peter Walls, form er commander of the Rhodesian forces. It was he who had persecuted the war against the liberation forces for most o f the past ten years. He had directed raids into neighboring Zambia, Mozam bique and Angola with the resultant deaths o f hundreds o f innocent A frican women and children. He had directed the destruction o f African crops and livestock so they w ould not feed the freedom fighters. In short, Peter W alls provided the m ilitary muscle that kept the whites in control. Come independence and, fa r from being prosecuted for crimes against the state as he should have been. Walls was instead appointed supreme commander o f all o f Zim babwe’ s armies and charged with the task o f forging a single army out o f the three then in existence. It was very surprising, yes, but quite in line with the Africans spirit o f recon ciliation. A ll along the Africans had said all they were really interested in was building a single nation out o f the ruins o f the nine decades o f colonial misrule. Walls accepted the appointment but abruptly resigned recently and took a trip to South Africa where he made some very uncomplimentary statements about Zimbabwe and its new leadership. He "p re d ic te d ” there w ill be a c iv il war p ittin g African against African before too long. He also fo r the firs t time publicly revealed the coup that he had formented to overthrow the hours old government o f Robert Mugabe shortly after he had won his stunning electoral victory. Walls further revealed the other plans that had been laid down to bomb the assembly camps where the 30,000 guerrillas were housed during the elections as well as the letters he had sent to M argaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, asking her to declare the elections null and void to prevent Mugabe from assuming power. A ll these revelations were being filmed by a British Broad casting Corporation TV film crew. Naturally, when the Zimabawean government heard all this, it was understandly upset and several parliamentarians called for legal ac tion to be taken against the errant Walls. Prime Minister Mugabe felt particularly betrayed. In the end the government simple decided to fire General Peter Walls. True, he had already resigned but, that would have made him eligible for a govern ment pension. By firin g him, the government made sure he will now not be eligible to receive the pension or any other benefits normally ex tended to former civil servants. F urther, W alls is now barred from ever returning to Zimbabwe. He is fifty-seven, and has no skills other than being a soldier. He has no pension or retirement fund to live o ff on the rest o f his days and no readily employable skills. What he had hoped to gain by turning on the very government that had not only forgiven him all his sins, but also actually adopted him no one really knows. So far it as brought him nothing but grief. If he had hoped to bring chaos by his resignation, he has been disap pointed. Nothing o f the sort has happened. None o f the whites who stayed on in the army have followed his example If he had hoped to lead a new exodus o f the whites who he believed are the backbone o f the Zimbabwean economy, he has been disappointed in that respect to. He has not even been able to shake foreign investors’ confidence in Zimbabwe in spite o f these damaging but false accusations. Zimbabwe keeps on humming merrily along. The only logical explanation one comes up with has to be that, being the hard-core racist he has been all his life, Walls could not reconcile him self to living in a Zimbabwe that has suddenly become a normal society where each and everyone is judged on merit and not on colour. In such a society, he knows he can not survive because, based on merit, he cannot qualify for anything other than menial iabour. The world has suddenly become torpsy-turvy; it is the A fricans who are giving the orders and the Walls who are doing the running around. I f anyone has use for a fired, racist, former child killer, terrorist, bomber, segregationist, w ith ten years experience in bombing refugee camps, violating sovereign coun tries’ territo ria l integrity, civilian crop destruction and other such nefarious activities, please contact this columnist at the Portland Ob server. This man comes with the highest recommendation from co conspirator Ian Douglas Smith. Letters to the Editor Local governments fail Albina community Letter to Editor: I write to you out o f concern for Portland, my home for all o f my 32 years. It has been my observation o f N. and N.E. Portland (A lbina area) where I grew up that the overall quality o f the living environment - houses and business buildings - has steadily deteriorated expanding geographically with occasional stop gap projects that stand out like islands o f progress. It hurts me to know that there has been no sub stantial progress in 30 years and there is no real hope o f change in even my lifetime! I have observed that much favorable p o litic a l fa ll-o u t (our Secretary o f Transportation seems to have benefited most) has occured and h o to rie ty shed on P ortland because o f the follow ing: "m odel railroads (lightrail); "m o d e l” zoos (tw o b a llot measures in vo lvin g millions o f dollars were promoted to provide animals w ith a "m o d e l c ity ” o f their own w ith superior care); ’ ‘ m odel" freeways and air ports; " m o d e l” c iv il stadium ; "m o d e l” w aterfront parks, sky scrapers and in d u stria l parks; "m odel” mass transit system and bus mall; etc...Portland has been proudly acclaimed as the "m o s t" liveable city in A m erica" but for whom? Whatever happened to the idea o f a "M o d e l C ity or Com munity” for people in Albina? M etro (M e tro p o lita n Service District) has clearly missed the ob vious and opportunity to act and take leadership here. P ortland government would rather approve lavish statutes on bus corners and encourage foreign investment than to ensure w arm th fo r children. Multnomah County prefers "urban renewal” in the not so old suburbs along I-2O5 for business and private investment. The federal government cannot be relied upon for adequate corrective effort, and local control. Form er T ra ilb la ze r, M aurice Lucas observation that the Portland Black community is not aggressive enough in pursuing what is right and in their interest may be correct. To date the Black United Front has shown some sign and hope o f correcting this situation. It is abundantly self-evident that the true solution must come from the residents o f A lb in a ! One possible route for housing action and results is for the residents to unite into a coalition for the use of referendum and in itia tiv e to establish a locally controlled organization with an area-wide tax base and tax levies to convert Albina in to a habitation comparable to other refurbished Portland com munities. The 1981 Oregon State Legis lature should not be ignored. Pressure and publicity are required. W ill there be overall improvement and establishment o f a "M o d e l C o m m u n ity” in Albina? The " Irresistable force” is only w ith those in the community who decide to act. George Steveson Disapproves editorial language even an inner-office memo o f that Letter to the Editor: A fte r reading your e d ito ria l grand old gentleman who wanted to "O p p o sitio n as prin cip a l” which rule the world — Adolph Hitler. In appeared in the September 18 issue stead o f representing a respectable o f your paper, I am not certain if 1 publication and the public on the should take up arms against the issue o f the CJO Program, you seem Portland Police Department, or just more prone to headline the event as break out in a good old fashioned would the Revolutionary Worker. What has happened to your role laugh. I would do the latter if I were as a twentieth century leader in the not so concerned about the negative Black community? Are you really so im pact o f your comments upon both the Black and white commu b itte r that you lose sight o f the positive role you must play i f the nity in the Portland M etropolitan defined social evils are ever to be area. broken down so as to provide a First let me say that I respect your wholesome life fo r all citizens opinion as an individual; and surely regardless o f their ethnic, racial or you as an editor o f a major Black socio-economic background. How publication have the right to advise can we as a people bring about im your readership o f issues having a provem ent in our society i f the direct bearing on their daily lives as words o f hatred and aggression are well as to voice an opinion on such heaped so high with such powerful issues. Yet, for the life o f me, I find fertilizers by an influential gardener it d iffic u lt to accept the role you such as yourself. Is there at least one played in the recent editorial. Your good aspect of the CJO Program to comments could not have been more which you could have addressed yourself, or is the tru th o f the caustic and in my judgement, inap propriate. If I didn’t know better, matter that you do not understand what the program is all about? I for when I read such expressions as one feel that we should welcome any "...ra cist, m ilitarist decisions...un program which has any possibility concealed tour de force...police are o f im proving our neighborhood the firs t line o f the organized p o p u la tio n ...” I w ould have livability rather than polluting the believed I was reading a publication minds o f many who could benefit from any form o f education o f the Black Panthers, the KKK, or available. Statistics w ill show that our neighborhoods are already ladened w ith unnecessary crime primarily due, in my judgement, to the lack o f respect that we as a people have for one another. What have you done recently to improve this element of respect within your own area o f influence? I suggest that you take the time to fully read the program proposed by the P ortland Police Juvenile Division and inform your reader- ship as to the truths and good that can be achieved from such a program. Robert Pierson I I J I YES. 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