Page 2 Portland Observer, October 1, 1981
EDITORIAL/OPINION
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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
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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?"
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