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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1981)
Page 2 Portland Observer, October 1, 1981 EDITORIAL/OPINION ■ ■ ■ w ■ I w Children require adult help The HOST program that is to be initiated in several Portland schools including Beach, Hum boldt, King, Sabin and Irvington, is a prime op portunity for parents ana members o f the com m unity to take a meaningful role in our ch il dren’s education. The HOST program will use adult community members as tutors fo r elementary school chil dren in reading and math. This provides not only ind ivid ual academic assistance fo r the child, but also a relationship with an adult who can serve as a role model. Too often the only successful Black adults our children can ide ntify w ith are the pimps and drug dealers w ith the ir big cars and fancy clothes. They do not have the opportunity to know lawyers, scientists, nurses, truck drivers, business people, telephone operators, etc. They do not have the opportunity to know and emu late those who are building the community. Another opportunity is the Urban League’ s Northwest Youth Service Center which needs adults to provide companionship, examples and opportunities for youth to provide community service. These youth, many o f whom have al ready had their first conflict with the law, need adult guidance and direction. These programs and others offer opportuni ties for our com m unity’ s leading citizens, to gether w ith persons from all walks o f life, to help our children learn to read and learn to value education. Commendations to Jeff students Much has been written and said about the in cidents that took place at Jefferson High School last week and many questions remain to be an swered. To what degree was the fighting among youngsters the result o f school district policies— both the closure o f Adams and W ashington/ Monroe High Schools, and the district’s transfer policies? How much o f the fighting actually involved non-students who hang around the school build ing? W'as the fighting among a small number o f students just the usual "beginning o f the year’ ’ establishment o f pecking order, that was blown out o f proportion by the media because it in volved Black and white students? According to most reports the fighting in volved a small number o f students and occurred outside the school building. Most o f the Jeffer son students were in classes where they be longed. Those students who helped quell the problem and those who resisted the temptation to join the fracas deserve commendation and the support o f the community. Letters to the Editor Questions Fred Myer investment To the editor: la m concerned about the pro posed investment o f over $100 lion by the Oregon State Treasurer and the Oregon Investment Council o f Public Employees Retirement System funds in the buy-out o f Fred Meyer, by a New York investment firm. This does not seem to be in keep ing with the "Prudent Man” theory in the management o f retirement funds. I am a retired educator, and feel that retirees should not be called upon to bear the risk o f a loss that stockholders and creditors arc re warded for bearing. With the continuation o f difficult economic times, if bad management decisions occurred, further public tax moneys could be required to meet the future obligations o f the Pension Fund. I do not believe that Oregon's Pension Fund should be used to help buy out any private retail firm, particularly when it will set a prece dent for other retailers to come to the State to help cure their economic woes. 1 am also concerned about con flict o f interest problems. W hat will happen when the State o f Oregon, as a substantial equity holder (owner) has to, through its regula tory agencies, rule on controversial land use, labor and liq u or prob lems? 1 can appreciate the Treasurer's and Investment Council’ s efforts to invest in proposals that promise a good rate o f return; but. using Ore gon retirees' pension funds to help Eastern financiers buy out an Ore gon private company is not the wav to go! Robert Van Houte Salem Gray Panthers Coordinator, Retired Member Services, National Education Association NOW WC H f iV t CATSUP) ANO PICKLC R t llS H J Klan b r u its white youth m IC rw u n O N n . r C i A i i L F I F - T — h The e R HM ND worst attacks began a little more than a year ago. As Harold Phipps sat on his front porch in a housing project near this San Francisco East Bay com m unity, a Ch^vy pickup camper cruised slowly down the street fo r the second time. Suspi cious, Phipps told everyone to get inside. In the next few, tense mo ments, five shots rang out from a black rifle barrel poked out the back door o f the camper. The truck's en gine gave a roar and disappeared. Phipps is a Mexican, but the ap parent target o f (he shooting was a Black neighbor, Junoel Guess, who previously had been subjected to white harassment. The attack was no surprise to the many Blacks who live in the project and in the nearby towns here in Contra Costa C ounty. They say they have suffered a steady escala tion of racial violence in recent years —so much so that legal investigators now believe that the Ku Klux Kian has come to use the area as one o f its principal West Coast recruiting grounds. As a result o f this and other at tacks, Black people here have learned to be afraid—afraid o f teen age toughs plowing through their lawns, afraid o f rocks throw n through their windows, o f crosses burnt in to (heir lawns, a fraid o f white sheets draped across their cars. On October 5-7, the C a lifo rn ia Fair Employment and Housing Commission will open four days o f hearings into racial violence and harassment w ith in C ontra Costa County, focusing on a scries o f at tacks that lasted through the final six months o f last year. In the meantime, the attacks are continuing: In August a Black fam ily's house in Rollingwood was fire- bombed. Another Black family who had moved into the neighborhood in mid-August had their house spat tered with eggs and returned home one day to find their garage painted with a swastika, a lightening bold and the letters KKK. "T h is used to be a white neigh borhood -until a jew tpontju ago,” qne neighbor said, "T h e y mess them over if Blacks move in. They're destroying this neighbor hood with their stupid beliefs.” I awyers and legal investigators who have worked with Black resi dents and with the Commission fear that the new school year could bring even more attacks, especially by the proliferating campus and neighbor hood gangs that police believe have been responsible for most o f the vio lence to date. Discussing the pattern o f racial attacks, a preliminary Commission report highlighted both the youth fulness o f the attackers and their personal association w ith adult KKK members. The most common characteristics o f the attackers seem to be rootlessness, lack o f regular work and, the investigators said, a shooting, legal investigators say, but f - a m o f f i n .c U n ir r ” shooting, general " "fear loss o f i v power. he denied any p articipa tio n when "B u t when a gang takes on overt questioned by police. ly racist and ideological symbols Mendonsa, whose shop is close to such as KKK or the swastika, I think the Richmond High School, has dis they are no, longer simply a young tributed KKK flyers to students. Ap gang. They have made themselves parent Kian members dressed in something more,” said state attor robes have been reported at high ney David Oppenheimer, who is school fo o tb a ll games and other conducting the hearings. school events in the area. Kian iiter- The key events under examination ature was discovered during a racial include the following: fight at Richmond High in Novem •In July 1980, Roosevelt and ber 1980. C harlotte Presley o f El Sobrante According to a 43-page report o f found a note attached to a white the Investigative Task Fotcc o f the hood on their automobile antenna. 1 egal Alliance for Racial Justice, an The note read, " I f you don’ , leave, ad-hoc group o f lawyers, investi we w ill force you. Leave, nigger. gators and county prosecutors, the We're after you. We will kill you.” incidents were "K la n -in s p ire d , if •Las, November 8, six Black not Kian perpetrated." Alliance in youths were sitting in a car, alleged vestigators, however, view the a t ly smoking marijuana, in front o f tacks not so much as a the Tara Hills home o f Mary Han conspiratorial assault coordinated dy, a Black woman, when a white by the Klu Klux K ian, but as the male approached them asking to ex work o f a rising p o p u la tion o f change a six-pack o f beer for some young white kids, many o f them or dope. When he was refused, the ganized into gangs, who are engaged white male left and returned with a in various crim in a l a ctivities and frie n d , carrying baseball bats. A who follo w Kian members as au fight broke out in which one o f the thority figures. two whites was severely beaten. Suspects in the attacks— which •O n November I I , Lovett noticeabley subsided as soon as pub Moore, the son o f Mary Handy, was lic attention began to be directed at chased by two white youths bran the Kian—are said to maintain close dishing a tire iron. He found refuge friendships or fam ily ties to adult in the home o f Otis and Geraldine Kian members, according to both Ireland—whose windows had been Alliance investigators and the broken bv rocks the previous day. Sean Wilkes, Black and 15, was county sheriffs department. A lthough Michael Mcndonsa's chased by three whites driving in a Ku Klux Kian o f C a lifo rn ia is not pickup and badly beaten near the officially allied with (he national In Handy home, also on November 11. visible Empire o f the KKK (it was •On November 13, a mob o f expelled a year ago for alleged crim angry white males carrying large inal drug activity), its concentration sticks gathered before the Ireland on recruiting school-age youth is home. When a deputy s h e riff ar part o f a national movement. Both rived, members o f the mob said that they " d id n 't lik e " what had hap the Invisible Empire and Knights of pened to their white buddy who had the KKK, another breakaway fac tio n , boast o f running their own been beaten up five days earlier. "Y o u th C o rp s ," and the older •On November 19, the Irelands* United Kians o f Am erica has a 17-ycar-old son received several death threats in school. The same "Junior Kian.” day a cross was burnt into the lawn In Texas, Alabama, Mississippi o f John Marion, a Black man living* and even New England, Kian organ in nearby Pinole. The next day a car izers have been reported proselytiz drove past the home o f Roosevelt ing on college and especially high and Charlotte Presley and a shotgun school campuses. Said Tom Metz blast hit the front door and several ger, the "G ra n d D ragon” o f the windows. C a lifo rn ia Kian who won 50,000 Similar incidents continued tb the votes last year in his San Diego end of the year, including the torch t ounty campaign lo r Congress: ing o f a San Pablo duplex a part "W e 're interested in a strongly de ment rented by Verna Barnett, a termined. intelligent young Klans- Black woman. The letters " K K K " man lor leadership later on. They're were painted on the ground outside fresh enough that you can give them the house and a suspect in the case, a logical, ra tio na l argument and a young white male, lives with two they'll see that you're rig h t." other men who have been observed One Kian Youth Corps pamphlet entering a KKK meeting and wear distributed in the schools declares ing white hoods over their heads. that racial integration has "brought Concomitant with these incidents, crim e, diugs, forced sex. disease there has been heightened activity in and general havoc.” an independent branch o f the Ku In fact. A lliance investigators Klux Kian headed by Michael Leon argue, it is the Kian its e lf, along ard Mendonsa, a tattoo shop oper with other white supremacist groups ator who works in the vicinity of the like the Aryan Brotherhood, that incidents. Mendonsa owns a Chevy has stimulated drug dealing and vio pickup truck with a camper on it de lence among the d isa llccte d and scribed as similar to the one seen at floating youth population ol Contra the first housing project shootout. Costa County. He has boasted o f taking part in the f.iuh. M u A 'h h f, lux| Humboldt asks police assistance (Continued fro m page I column 6) The residents asked that their calls to the police and the inform a tion they provide be taken seriously and be given credibility. Several per sons claimed their calls to the police HEH 'H EH ' itwas a u d u i r produced no results. AM ILLUSION, FOLKS. l ’ VA CWAN6F0 The police response was less than IT BACK NOU. OR ? Hem H tH reassuring. The courts, the laws and community standards were blamed. The representatives o f the C ity and Police Bureau blamed their lack o f response to the community prob lem on permissive courts and on lack o f jail space. Captain McCabe, commander o f North Precinct, said Supreme Cour, decisions have removed laws against lo ite rin g and vagrancy and have strengthened in d ivid u a l rights against arrest and detainment. " I t used to be illegal to loiter on the cor ner, beg, be a narcotics addict.” He explained that in the old days a po lice o ffic e r’ s word that a man was o* » * I * < an addict was enough to convict him. Now the courts require proof. "Law s virtually are unenforcea **wt*A*fe The P o rtla n d Observer (U S P S 969 6001 i t published every ble,” he added. Thursday by Exie Publishing Compery, Inc , 2201 North Killings worth. Portland, Oregon 97217. Post Office Box 3137, Portland " I t used to be that you could in Oregon 97206 Second dees postage paid at Portland, Oregon terrogate a girl for a couple o f hours and rnaybe get it through their skull MÍMWR Subscriptions 910 00 per yeer m Tri County area Postm aster and they would see that we were try Send eddreee changes to the Portland Observer, P O Box 3137. == Oregon = Portland. Oregon 97208 ing to help— and she would testify.” W Newsoaper ■ Her inform ation would be enough B MB Publishers 283 2486 to arrest the pimp. J 8 ■)■ Association McCabe 8 advocated citizen pres National Advertising Representative MEMBER sure fo r new laws. " In d iv id u a l A m elgem eted Publishers. Inc N ew York rights have become more important than community rights. We used to have stales' rights, community stan Association - Founded IM S dards now community standards arc non-existant." Jim C uffner o f Mayor Ivancie’ s office agreed that the major prob lems are the laws, the courts and ab sence o f ja il space for prostitution. He explained that during the 1960s the nation was in a permissive mood; the State legislature followed the national trend and rewrote the laws. He advised that more ja il bids be opened and that arrests and jail time signal prostitutes that Portland is no longer an "easy” city. Lt. Bob Pcschka, afternoon shift commander at North Precinct, said his officers are young and have no training to deal with drugs. They do not have the expertise to deal with pimps. "S om e day we may have that training." Therefore, North’s activities have been largely limited to sweeps to ar rest prostitutes. A fte r two special actions in which 18 prostitutes and Portland Observer 4 Bruce Broussard Editor/Publisher N M A PEfí six " J o h n s " were arrested, L t, Pelschka found that the local prosti tutes had moved o ff the streets and into motels. They also had moved south o f Frem ont, in to East Pre cinct, where they were "very prolific and brazen." His only suggestion was to conduct an arrest mission every week or two. I he Police Bureau has requested the addition o f two investigators Io deal with taverns and liquour o ut lets. The City has the right to refuse any license application or renewal but currently there is no one to in vestigate complaints. Therefore, the only licenses the city rejects arc those that receive sustained neigh borhood opposition. Residents described their frustra tions ol daily observing law viola tions and their unsuccessful efforts to obtain police assistance. The main question repeatedly was never answered: "W h a t can we really do?" Subscribe Today! Receive your Observer by mail Only $10 per year. Name _ Address City __ Zip Make checks payable to: Portland Observer P O Box 3137 Portland Oregon 97208 J
