Paga 2 Portland Observar April 30. 1961
A place called Brixton
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Convicting the innocent
The statement of police Chief Bruce Baker
that "I d o n 't know of a single case which has
in vo lve d a to ta lly in n o c e n t p e rs o n ” w h ile
d iscussin g the pra ctice s o f p o lice o ffic e rs
p la n tin g n a rco tics on suspe cts, o b ta in in g
search warrants illegally, and com m iting per
jury in court to insure conviction, is extremely
distressing.
w n e th e r the p ra ctice was used aga inst
known drug dealers, suspected drug dealers or
innocent persons is of no consequence. The
manufacture of evidence to convict a person -
who according to our Constitution must be in
nocent until proven guilty - negates not only
th a t in d iv id u a l's c iv il rig h ts b u t the e n tire
c rim in a l ju s tic e system . To give even the
slig h e st excuse fo r th is p ra ctice aga inst
anyone is to negate our entire system of laws -
our entire system of government.
The slo ppy p o licie s and p ra ctice s th a t
allowed this abuse of power by some police of-
ficers is not news. It was all b ro u g h t to lig h t
over a year ago in the Christopher trial. That it
has taken an entire year to make procedural
changes is still a mystery. To com pound that
fact by even the slighest hint that perhaps the
illegal activities of the officers involved were
not so bad after all cannot be tolerated.
Chief Baker needs to explain his th o u g h ts
m ore adequately and insure the p u b lic th a t
c o n s p ira c y a g a in s t c itiz e n s w ill n o t be
tolerated w ithin the police departm ent.
The City will be faced w ith m ultiitude of law
suits and hundreds of persons c o n v ic te d of
drug crimes will seek reversals. The City needs
to supply them and their attorneys w ith all per-
tinant inform ation im m ediately - w ith o u t legal
hassles about w h ich is and w h a t is n o t c o n
fid e n tia l - so th a t in n o ce n t persons w ill n o t
have to spend more m onths in jail while a tto r
neys make repeated efforts to obtain records.
Cutting the pie
This Friday the Committee on Elections and
R e p p o rtio n m e n t w ill make its fin a l re co m
m e n d a tio n s on how M u ltn o m a h C o unty
should be divided among thirteen legislative
districts.
Ten years ago the area of N orth/N ortheast
Portland that includes the largest proportion of
Black residents was divided, and portions of it
were placed in four d iffe re n t legislative d is
tricts. The theory then - and the theory now
being espoused by those w h o p ro m o te a
sim ilar division this tim e - is th a t Blacks w ill
have more influence in Salem by having a little
influence on four legislators than they would if
they controlled the election of one legislator
who would be responsible to them. The other
im plication is that by being divided into three
districts, Blacks could potentially elect three
Black representatives. The history of the last
ten years should refute that claim.
Legislators involved in this decision m ust
put aside their own interests and put aside the
interests of those Blacks and whites who seek
to enhance their own power by preventing the
development of a strong Black voice in Port
land and those Blacks and whites who seek a
district that would further their own ambitions.
They must look at the com m unity in light of
their own rules - that no com m unity of com
mon interest be divided and that the political
influence of a minority group not be diluted.
Associations became the nucleus of the Model
C ities C itizens A d v is o ry B oard th a t w as
responsible for planning and operation of the
Model Cities Program. W hen Model Cities was
phased out, the board was incorporated as the
N ortheast C o a litio n of N e igh borhood s. The
P ie d m o n t and C o n co rd ia N e ig h b o rh o o d
A s s o c ia tio n s jo in e d in 1974 and 1976. The
C o a litio n a lo n g w ith the N e ig h b o rh o o d
A sso ciatio ns - co n tin u e s to be the p lanning
body for this com m unity and is so recognized
by the City of Portland.
The c o m m u n ity is w o rk in g to g e th e r to
re b u ild its e c o n o m ic base, p ro v id e a m ore
liveable environment, meet the social needs of
the residents and develop c o m m u n ity pride.
The Union Avenue R edevelopm ent Program
and the e ffo rts o f the In n e r N o rth e a s t
Economic Development Council to attract new
business developm ent are examples of these
efforts.
By Fungai Kumbula
Th • scene could have been Watts,
CLos Angeles); H arlem , (New
Y o rk); L ib e rty C ity , (M ia m i);
W rig h tsville , (G eorgia); Soweto,
(South A fric a ) or any other such
place. In fa ct, as the ruins lay
smouldering after the two days o f
rioting, they were referring to it as
" th e new H a rle m .” The victim s
were the same; the system the same;
the grievances the same; the
“ shock” the same and the response
the same. The only thing different
was the locale - a section o f London
called Brixton.
It also started out basically the
same way; a “ m inor” incident that
sparked o f f the biggest rio t and
most extensive orgy o f destruction
England had seen since the Nazis
were bombing London in W W II.
B rixto n , a spraw ling London
ghetto made up mostly o f West In
dian Blacks, Indians, Pakistanis and
other East Asians, finally exploded
as if on cue. To a country that for so
long has sought to hide its racial
problems or sweep them under the
rug, this was a most embrassing oc
curence. A nybody who knew the
plight o f these immigrants was sur
prised not so much that it happened
but that it took this long. Like the
other powder kegs throughout the
USA, South A frica and other areas
plagued by racial strife, Brixton was
just waiting for the spark to ignite
the fuse.
Umemployment statistics in this
section o f the capital o f England
range from an o ffic ia l low o f 27-
40% to a more realistic street figure
o f 67-80% . C om pounding that is
the endless clash between the police
and the com m unity. Incidents o f
charges o f police b ru ta lity and
harassment
have
escalated
sig n ifica n tly over the past several
months as Brixton has been targeted
a “ high crim e” area and been
assigned the largest contingent o f
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Black people can never rio t on
their own; they need some “ outside
agitator” to tell them that they do
not have a jo b , th e ir homes are
(ailing apart; they are getting short
changed. They need someone else to
tell them that they too are entitled to
freedom, justice and equality like
every other citizen, right?
One lesson that seems to have
been missed is that while Hitler was
the leader of the Nazis, he was by no
means the whole movement himself.
A lot o f people were just as culpable
for the excesses o f Nazism as those
who actually pulled the switches
because they stood by and did
nothing.
The rio tin g in B rixton under
scored one thing; that Black people
are suitering not just in this country
but the world over - any place where
they are not in control o f their lives.
On the other hand, it was en
couraging that after the rioting in
Brixton, a number o f white citizens
stood up to condemn police harass
ment and to point out some o f the
real reasons for the disturbances.
On the other hand, it was
discouraging that these dem on
strations look place on the back
drop o f increasing attacks on
A fte r Soweto, W atts, L ib e rty
C ity, and now Brixton, we all cer
tainly hope that personkind (it used
to be called “ m ankind” before we
were better enlightened) has learned
to be more tolerant o f those o f us
who do not necessarily look like us.
It not, that hell that was supposed
to be way out somewhere back o f
beyond may be right here amongst
us betore we could say, “ I ’ m not
guilty.”
“ For evil to triumph, it is enough
that good men do n o th in g ,” Ed
mond Burke.
By Norman Hill
A . Phillip Randolph Institute
The elim ination o f the legal aid
program w ill result in fewer such
suits being brought to the courts and
in fewer direct benefits to workers
and minorities.
In the distant past lawsuits were
relatively straightforw ard matters
and the legal system was turned to
only as a m atter o f last resort.
Today, w ith the increased com
plexity o f government regulations
and laws, access to inform ed legal
advice and legal aid is an absolute
necessity. I f the poor are to
challenge eviction orders, or learn
how legally to withhold rent from a
landlord who refused to supply heat
or hot water, the advice o f a lawyer
is indispensable. M oreover, it the
poor seek to dissolve a marriage
through divorce, such procedures
are often so complicated and costly
as to be beyond the means o f low-
income Americans.
The legal aid program has also in
tervened in behalf o f unemployed
workers denied w elfare benefits,
ille g itim a te children, and Social
Security recipients who couldn’ t get
cases reopened fo r government
hearings. This list o f issues hardly
suggests that legal aid programs are
being run by ultra-leftist extremists.
Rather it suggests that the legal aid
system is tru ly defending the in
terests o f the poor.
Our system has prided itself on its
basis in equal protection under the
law. The unfortunate consequence
o f President Reagan’ s proposed
elim in a tio n o f the legal Services
Corporation is that it w ill make the
courts accessible only to those who
are well o ff. Putting the poor o u t
side the law w ill lead to greater bit-
terness and alienation. It w ill serve
to exacerbate class and racial ten
sions.
Conservatives have claimed that
well-intentioned programs designed
to deal with poverty have often
resulted in consequences more
harmful than the benefits that have
been provided.
What we w ill learn from the
Reagan era is that the elimination of
certain government programs may
have consequences which are in the
long-run more costly and damaging
than the im m ediate budgetary
savings that they bring.
Roy Stubbs
(C o n tin u e d fro m page 1 col. 6)
Black Studies Department, George
Rankins from the Urban League,
and Grant H igh’ s Gospel Chorus.
Everyone’ s glad that’ s happened.”
Never one to be satisfied w ith
what is accom plished, Stubbs is
already starting on a master’s degree
in music and claims, “ A fte r I get
Catlin Gabel’ s music program on its
feet, I ’ d like to work on a Black
concert choir in Portland. I guess
I ’ d like to go back south and teach
in a college someday, but I ’ ve got
things to do here first.”
Black
editor
Frederick
Douglass published the first
issue of his abolitionist
newspaper, The North Star,
in Rochester, N Y , in 1847
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m inorities by gangs o f neo-Nazis
some o f whom are barely in their
teens. The rioting also gave vent to
louder calls fo r the forced
re p a tria tio n o f all non-w hite
B ritons. Doesn’ t that also sound
disturbingly familiar?
When w ill people ever learn to
stop looking for scapegoats for the
failures o f governments to rule and
start in vo lvin g all citizens in the
search fo r solutions to these
failures? Let’s just suppose that the
extremists succeed in their plans to
repatriate all non-w hite Britons,
who w ill they blame next fo r the
next failures? The Irish? The Scot-
ts? The Turks? The Aussies? I t ’ s
been three decades since H itle r
faded from the scene, but with the
recent upsurge in the Kian, fascist
and other racial “ supremacist” ac
tiv itie s , one wonders whether
another H ilter is not about to rise.
Maybe in some “ more respectful”
form?
Denying justice to the poor
While President Reagan’ s budget
cuts will eliminate a number o f vital
In the last couple of years a new sense of
programs, few o f the cuts w ill have
more
far-reaching consequences
com m unity has developed - largely due to the
than
the
proposed elimination o f the
w ork of the Black U nited Front. Some sm all
Legal Services Corporation.
battles have been w on. A school b o yco tt in
Created in the 1960s in the con
v o lv in g 85 p e rc e n t of the d is tr ic t's B lack
text o f the Great Society, and the
students, and a recent m arch in volving 1500 War on Poverty, the Legal Services
C orporation has been he most sig
person s, is p ro o f o f th e c o n c e rn o f B lack
nificant instrument the poor possess
people fo r th e ir c o m m u n ity . It is also p ro o f
to
insure adequate representation
th a t w h en a llo w e d to com e to g e th e r fo r a
before the courts. A number o f
The area of N o rth /N o rth e a s t P ortland
co m m o n purpo se, Black people can e ffe c t
President
Reagan’ s
u ltra
co m m o n ly referred to as " A lb in a '' or the
change.
conservative advisers have suggested
''Black com m unity" has a common history. It
The drawing of a new legislative district will
that the federally-funded legal aid
is a interracial community that was formed out
either enhance the e ffo rts of the Black c o m program is a hotbed o f radicalism
of racism - the refusal to sell or rent to Blacks
and le ftis t p o litic s . In tru th , the
munity to organize, to define its own goals and
program’
s 6,000 lawyers who serve
in other areas of the City. It is a com m unity
to w ork to g ether to atta in those goals - or it
330 com m unities througho ut the
that has unique problem s: discrim ination in
w ill be a move to dilute that effo rt. There are
U .S ., are involved most often in
education, unemployment, police harassment,
those who fear allowing the Black com m unity
such c ritic a l issues as landlord-
redlining, neglect. It is a com m unity that has
a strong voice in Salem - a voice that w ill ad tenant relations, welfare rights, and
been devastated by state sponsored removal
dress the deep econom ic and social problems civil rights.
of its residential areas for highways, hospitals
Over the years m illions o f poor
facing the residents of the com m unity, to deal
and w orking poor have benefited
and public buildings.
w ith the discrim ination that still prevades our
from this legal aid netw ork. The
It is also a co m m u n ity th a t is s ta rtin g to
State.
poor have used the system to
build - a com munity that is developing a sense
But if the legislators now in office are true to challenge improper dismissals from
of pride.
their ow n rules fo r reapportionm ent they w ill
w ork, la n d lo rd harassment and
This com m unity was the first in the City of
find that they must draw a district that w ill in building-code violations, and dis
P o rtla n d to develop a n e tw o rk of n e ig h
corporate the Eliot, Boise, H u m b o ld t, P ied crimination in employment.
An im p o rta n t instrum ent by
borhood organizations - co m m u nity people
m o n t, W o o d la w n , V e rno n and King n e ig h
which m illions o f Americans have
together to effect the common good. In 1968
borhoods and as much of the Irvington, Sabin indirectly benefited is the class ac
the Irv in g to n , Sabin, V ernon, King, E liot,
and C o n co rd ia as is po ssib le u nd er the
tio n suit. In such suits, often
Boise, H um boldt, W oodlaw n Neighborhood
numerical restrictions.
brought by legal aid lawyers, judges
do not sim ply resolve a single
dispute but impose remedial orders
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which have the effect o f improving
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police than any other community in
all o f England. Adding insult to in
ju ry is the notorious “ sus” laws
which empower the police to stop
and search anyone “ who looks
suspicious and m ight be seen as
lo o kin g like he may com m it a
c rim e .” C om m unity leaders and
residents in Brixton charge that this
law almost always is invoked only in
cases in vo lvin g Black people and
other minorities.
Police and o ffic ia l denials o f
these charges o f racism n o tw ith
standing, a look at the number o f
inmates in British penal institutions
shows a disporportionate represent
ation o f minorities. O f course to us,
whether here in Oregon or in South
A fric a or N aim bia, this should
come as no surprise, right? Who do
you think the police blame for these
riots? Why, “ outside agitators” , of
course, isn’t that the same thing that
is mouthed every time Black people
demonstrate, strike or riot?
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ONPA 1973
Honorable Mention
Herrick Editorial Award
NNA 1973
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