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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 7, 1981)
For the children o f Atlanta and fo r all children who are hungry, suffer and live in fear. Racial harassment défendent called 'not guilty' By Nyewusi Askari A M arion County C ircuit Court ju ry has acquitted a Salem white man, accused o f dousing a Black man with gasoline in a Salem bar. Richard R. M o rriso n , 43, was found innocent Monday, o f third- degree assault and recklessly en dangering the life of another person after only 70 minutes o f deliberation by an all-white jury. The defense contended the November 19th incident was pro voked by M aurice H arm on, o f Salem, when he was accompanied to Mr. D’ s Tavern by a white woman. M orrison claimed that Harmon became angry after being told by Morrison and the bartender to stop caressing his companion and kicked a can containing gas, spilling it on both men. But Maurice Harmon, 28, has a different version. “ I had just left a PTA conference with my wife and son. A fte r I dropped them o ff, 1 arrived at M r. D's Tavern at ap proxim ately 5:30 p.m ., and upon entering the Tavern, saw a white lady frie n d . 1 sat down and we greeted each other with an embrace. A few moments later, the lady bar tender said, ‘ We don't allow that in here. This is a straight bar.* I re sponded that this is a public place, and I ’ m not doing anything wrong. “ D uring the conversation w ith the bartender, M orrison began to talk about how much he hated ‘ niggers.’ He continued to direct these racial slurs at me, but I turned so 1 wouldn’ t have any eye contact with him. It was my way o f telling him that 1 wanted no confrontation. A pproxim ately fifte e n to tw enty minutes later, M orrison came up behind me and started pouring gasoline on me. “ I turned, in an e ffort to knock the can from his hand, but couldn’t and Morrison started hitting me in the head. He must have hit me four or five times. The funny thing about it is, he was able to walk to the rear o f the Lounge, attack me, and no one said a word, no one warned me or gave me any help." H arm on says he was offered a $500 c iv il com prom ise by M orrison's attorney Neil l.athen, but refused the o ffe r. Present during that meeting were prosecutor Michael Brown, and Mary Annada. Brown told l.athen that what hap pened to H arm on was “ a com munity concern" and that they were going to prosecute Morrison. Harmon charges that the defense used unfair tactics to win the case: 1) l.athen was allowed to introduce witnesses and testimony unrelated to the case, in an effort to prove that he (H arm on), possessed an assaultive personality. 2) the selec tion o f an all-white ju ry and 3) the suggestion that an alleged knee in jury suffered in the altercation with M orrison was in flic te d during a 1977 automobile accident. "1 suffered the knee injury upon being knocked to the flo o r by Morrison. The injury I suffered in the 1977 accident was a back in ju r y ! ” Harm on said angrily. In 1979, H arm on, who has a Bachelor’ s Degree in C rim in a l Justice, won a discrim ination suit against the Department o f Correc tions. The Departm ent o f Labor tound the D ivision gu ilty o f discrim ination involving a physical attack upon H arm on. H arm on’ s supervisor at the tim e was a Sgt. Schijpler who, ironically, testified as a character witness in the “ bar in c id e n t" to H arm on’ s assaultive behavior, altho it was the Division, not Harmon, who was found guilty. At the trial, Morrison admitted he was highly intoxicated at the time o f (Please turn to page 8 col. 1) PORTLAND OBSERVER May 7,1981 Volums XI Number 29 26Cpar copy TWO SECTIONS USPS 959-680-855 African leader speaks here , Portland w ill be host to Johnny M a ka tin i, representative o f the African National Congress (ANC), the leading South African organiza tion struggling against aparthied and for majority rule. M a ka tin i has been the o ffic ia l representative to the United Nations and to the U.S. since 1978. A fo r mer law student, high school teacher, and A N C organizer, M a katini was forced into exile in 1962. Since that time, he has served as representative o f the AN C to Morocco and to Algeries. In 1967 he became a member o f the National Executive Committee o f the AN C and was made Deputy D irector o f International Affairs. Johnny Makatini w ill give a talk, open to the public, at 3:00 p.m., on Tuesday, May 12, at Portland State University, Smith Memorial Center, Room 338. The talk is being sponsored by the A frica n Students Association o f P ortland State U n ive rsity, the American Friends Service Commit tee and the National Anti-Apartheid Campaign. M a ka tin i w ill speak on the current situation in Southern Africa and the status o f the boycott cam paign and proposed United Nations sanctions against the Republic o f South Africa. At a time when Southern Africa is once again in the headlines, this visit by a representative o f Black South A fric a takes on a special s ig n ifi cance. Community united Legislative district approved Duane P eck, Susan A n gelo n e and Frank T u r ney g a th e r s ig n a tu re s fo r p e titio n a sk in g fo r release from Rockey Butte of parole violator Kurt Angelone. w ho suffers from a rare form of cancer. (Photo: M igel M endoza) Governor receives petition By Nathaniel Scott More than 1000 Portlanders have signed a petition that w ill be pre sented to Governor Vic Atyieh, for the release o f Kurt Angelone. The petition drive was initiated by the Northwest Ex-offenders Associ ation, after Angelone has surgery fo r cancer (plasm ocytom a o f the throat on January 19, 19 8 1), and returned to jail. Angelone spent II months in the Rocky Butte county ja il, and after the diagnosis and surgery fo r can cer, was returned to Rocky Butte ja il, w hile appealing extradition proceeding fo r an alleged parole violation to the State o f C alifornia. The appeal is in the Oregon court of appeals. The petition is to be presented to the Governor, Friday, May 8, in a demonstration that w ill indicate the concern o f the many people who signed the petition. Susan Angelone, Kurt’ s wife, said his last check up show plasm ocytom a cells in his blood. The alleged parole violation is for six additional weeks o f supervised parole. Ms. Angelone is preplexed, hurt and confused. She said, “ I d on’ t understand how they can put mur- ders and rapers on close supervised program s, and tell Kurt he isn’ t eligible fo r release on those same programs. “ I d o n ’ t see how they can economically ju s tify holding Kurt (w ith his medical bills, etc.) when they can’t afford to return Oregon’ s fleeing criminals.” Frank Turney, liason officer for the ex-offenders, said, “ because o f Angelone’ s co n d itio n and the psychological effect confinement has on one, he should not be incar cerated; especially in a place that does not have the proper medical facilities.” Police officers meets citizens A third o f a series of police/com- munity forums will be held Saturday m orning. May 9, 9:30 a.m ., at Bourbon Street restaurant. Police officers w orking in the area have been invited to participate. The firs t meeting provided an opportunity for community people to discuss an array o f complaints - language, harassment, b ru ta lity , lack o f Black officers, inadequate training, lack o f response to com plaints. Last Saturday, the subject was citizen complaints. Present to hear the vic tim s ’ point o f view were Deputy C hief Phil Smith, Lt. Rod Achly, head o f Internal Affairs and Stan Peters, president o f the police union. A lso speaking were Mike Bailey o f the Public Defenders o f fice, which hears many complaints o f police abuse, Barry Sheldahl, from the District A ttorney’s office and DA Mike Schrunk. L t. A ic h ly said there is a disproportionment number o f com plaints from the Black community - mostly consisting o f excessive force, harassment and verbal abuse. Although many persons say they are not notified o f the outcome o f their complaints, he said there is a "rigid p o licy” to n o tify . Regarding charges that persons who call to make complaints are treated rudely, Achley said, “ Being polite has lim itations. When people call with outrageous, unreasonable com plaints” it is impossible to be polite. He denied that police officers are given all o f the testim ony o f the com plaintant p rio r to be questioned, but admitted that they are provided a summary o f the complaint so they can respond to it. Stan Peters denied that police have full access to the testimony and added that the union contract does not prevent release o f inform ation to the public. He would like to have com plaints made under oath to elim inate “ harassment” against police officers. He claims police o f ficers have fewer rights than anyone since they must answer complaints or be terminated. M ike Bailey said in his opinion the only way to stop police abuse is through com m unity organization. “ Justice don't live in the courts no m o re ." He said there is a double standard - what would be called m isbehavior by an upper class woman, becomes disorderly con duct and resisting arrest when a poor Black woman is involved. "T h e misconduct is in the racism and class s tru ctu re .” He said 30 percent o f the persons defended by the Public Defender are Black. DA M ike Schrunk said the im portant thing is “ to let those in government know what the hell is going o n ." The people have a right to open communication w ith their elected officials. He said his door is open and he will accept complaints. Sheldahl said four police officers have been convicted o f crim in a l behavior. Chief Smith said he w ill pass the complaints expressed at the meeting to C h ie f Baker and Captain M c Cabe o f North Precinct and recom mend adm inistrative attention. “ The fact that people are here with complaints means we aren’ t meeting people needs.” Some o f the problems discussed were: Linda Madsen: Repeated arrests fo r the same alleged v io la tio n . " Y o u can’ t go down the street without being arrested.” Black man: It took three hours for the police to come when called because wife was threatening with a gun. When they arrived they said they couldn't do anything. Vesia Loving: A man was beaten by police, then taken to Rocky Butte with no medical care. Joe Harris: His door was kicked (Please turn to Section II P. 3, C. 3) After hearing overwhelming sup port fo r m aking one legislative district in the inner northeast com m unity, the House Committee on Election and Reappointment voted unanim ously to one d istrict that would have approximately 44 per cent Black population, 47 percent white and 9 percent others. The com m ittee held a form al hearing at King Neighborhood Facility last Thursday night. Testifying in favor o f division o f the area among three legislative districts, with the theory that Blacks could impact three legislators, were C alvin O .L . H enry, President o f Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs; Pina (W illia m s) Bonner, Gail Washington and Bobby Gary. Calvin Henry, saying, "Those o f us who know must teach,” said the one-district proposal might not serve the best interest o f the Black community. Robert P h illip s presented the "one-district plan" that was drawn by Legislative Research to include the greatest possible number o f Blacks and is called the “ P hillips Plan” follows the I-5 freeway on the West and includes the Eliot, Boise, Piedmont, Woodlawn, Vernon and King neighborhoods and portions o f Concordia, Irvington and Sabin. He associated the com m unity’ s request fo r one-district w ith the Am erican revolutionaries “ who struggled for identifiable represen tation.” Ron Herndon, speaking fo r the Black United F ro n t, said no minority group had ever asked to be divided in order to gain power. Fur ther, all the successful Black legislators in history have been elec ted by and responsible to large Black populations. “ Blacks must consolidate their strength rather than divide their s tre n g th ," he said, charging that those who would divide are ignorant o f Black History. Bruce Broussard, publisher o f the Observer, explained the history o f the neighborhood associations and their w orking re lationship , the U nion Avenue re-development project and new economic develop ment plans, demonstrating that the federal, state and city governments consider this as an integral com munity. He asked the committee to fo llo w their own rules that say a com m unity o f common interest cannot be divided. James H ill, calling him self a “ disenfranchized c itiz e n ,” asked fo r “ enpowerment o f my com munity.” The applause, shouts and mood o f the crowd demonstrated support for the "one-district” plan. Among the speakers were Walter Braxton, Bob Boyer, Judy Knawls, represent ing the A. Phillips Randolph and Union Organizations; James H ill, Joe Harris, Brent Hamilton. A t the com m ittee meeting in Salem the next morning. Rep. Jane Jam«« Hill testifies before the House Commit tee on Elections end Reapportionment at King Cease, who had attended the hearing the previous evening pre sented a new plan. It would have formed a district reaching from the W illam ette River, through central A lb in a , through the C oncordia neighborhood and surrounding the airport. She stated that she did not believe the hearing in Portland was representative because the Urban League and NAACP had a banquet that night and could not attend. Chairm an Glen W hallon ex plained that the hearing was held on Thursday because a school district meeting on the possible closure o f Jefferson was on Wednesday, the only other night available to the committee. He added that he had received a phone call from the N AAC P during the previous week saying the organization was for one district, then received another call Monday saying they had changed their m ind. He had not received testimony from either organization. Robert Phillips told the com m it tee that he had sent letters -- and copies o f the four proposed plans - to several organizations including the NAACP and Urban League ex plaining how they could submit testim ony in w ritin g or in person urging them to make their thoughts known to the committee. Most o f the committee members considered the testimony Thursday night to be a strong message fo r “ one-district* and after some discussion the vote was unanimous. (Please turn to Section II P. 4 C .I) Neighborhood Facility. (Photo: Richard Brown)
