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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1982)
Page 6 Portland O bserver, April 1,1982 Ronnie Herndon, co-chairman of the Bieck United Front, ie presented with BUF "Men of the Year" award by co-chairman Reverend John Jack- son. Josephine Mayes and Dr. Derrick Bell. Dean of the University of Oregon Law School, join in the applause. (Photo: Richard Brown) Jimmy "Bang-Bang" Walker was honored on his 50th birthday with a surprise party. Among those who toasted the man of the hour were Bill Hilliard and John Davis. Walker—fighter, publish Noelle explains "S tre e t Crime U n it" agenda by Harris Levon McRae As part o f P o rtla n d ’ s “ war on crim e” plan. M ayor Ivancie and C hief o f Police Ron Still are devel oping a street crime unit. The unit will consist o f one police lieutenant, two sergeants and ten officers to pa trol ‘ high-crime trouble areas.” The unit is to be headed by Lt. Dan N o elle. “ We intend to work all over the city and to try to deal with some o f the real serious ongoing problems. Burglary, robbery, rape, theft, and assault at the street level. We hope to be very flexib le in our opera tion,” L t. Noelle said. M an y citizens w onder how the street crim e unit would be able to deter crime that other police officers haven’t been able to stop in the past. “ The way the situation is now, in order to have any special police work done like having decoy female officers to stop guys from h arass ing w om en, or having unm arked burglary patrol cars, it draws from the existing manpower o f that par ticu lar precinct. This street crime u n it w ill allo w us to do flexib le things with officers. We should be capable o f coming in and not inter fering w ith existing o p erations,” said the lieutenant. According to M ayor Ivancie the street crime unit is being implement ed “ to step up enforcement o f all crimes and disorderly acts by film ing street activity, arresting perpe trators and im pacting significant crime patterns in Portland.” “ Portland has the fourth highest reported crime rate in the U .S ., and to me that is a frightening statistic. I think o f Portland as a livable city, but I ’m over six feet tall and almost 200 pounds, so I feel safe. I f I was 75 years old and 130 pounds, I might not feel as safe. We obviously have a serious crime problem that we have to deal with. I f Portland is slipping into that crime m old, we had better act pretty quickly before dow ntow n P o rtla n d becomes a ghetto,” Lt. Noelle said. The Street C rim e U n it is part o f C h ie f S till’ s and M ay o r Ivan cie’s five-po in t crim efig h tin g program that has been months in the making. Other highlights o f the program include proposals for more immedi ate jail space and a “ process center” that is supposed to be designed to in te rru p t the cycle o f repeated crimes being committed by unpun ished habitual offenders. The effort includes a letter from Mayor Ivancie to President Reagan requesting funds, land or existing facilities un der federal c o n tro l that could be used to give P o rtla n d m ore ja il space immediately. Ivancie said that he had already received an indication o f willingness from the W hite House to volunteer federal resources for local crime- fig h tin g e ffo rts . H e said that he hoped his letter to President Reagan would “ spur a specific response” but “ regardless o f President Rea g an ’s reaction , we w ill develop a definite program to solve Portland’s ja il space crisis as soon as possible.” Other points in the “ battle plan” propose a “ com m u nity a lert and s u p p o rt” emphasis on providing crime prevention leadership to busi ness people, community groups and individual citizens, and a package of seven city ordinances prohibiting specific forms o f disorderly and har- rassing conduct, drinking in certain public areas, loitering and danger ous weapon possession, and an or dinance calling for m andatory ja il LINOLEUM CITY sentences for those convicted o f vio lating certain ordinances. Some citizens refer to M ay o r Ivancie, C h ief S till, and their pro posed ordinances as being like “ the Gestapo.” Stevie Remington o f the A m erican C iv il Lib erties U n io n doubted the c o n s titu tio n a lity o f some o f the proposed ordinances. Ivancie and S till acknowledged that questions probably would be raised about the constitutionality o f some o f the proposals. The feeling was, however, that those questions should not stop the C ity C ouncil from approving the ordinances. “ I f we always worry about whe ther or not an ordinance is constitu tional, we would never pass a law,” the Mayor said. L t. Noelle elaborates: “ As far as the constitutionality o f these ordin ances, they will be reviewed by the C ity Council and the City Attorney before becoming C ity Ordinances. A lot o f the ordinances are similar to ones we have used in the past. I Woman judges meet topic don’t think we were Gestapo in the past when we used those ordinances. People tend to forget that police o f ficers are citizens that live in the com m u nity to o . 1 d o n ’ t w ant the Gestapo but I want my w ife and kids to be safe to go to the park or school without being robbed or as saulted.” “ As far as Stevie Rem ington is concerned, there are a lot o f other things that I w ould ju m p up and down about, like the economy’s ef fect on w hat’ s happening in crime. Less than four per cent o f the total misdeamonors arrested serve sen tenced jail time, because no facility is a v a ila b le — th a t’ s what I would shout about. I f the City Council de cides that they are ordinances that shouldn’t be passed, that’s fine; in the meantime we still have to go out and face and deal w ith the crim e problem.” r y™ I er, businessman, father —Is known end appre ciated for his dedication to the community's young people. (Photo: Richard Brown) ™™ q | ™ ™ ‘’' Headquarters : : s ■ ! 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