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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1982)
Mrs Frances Schoen-’.sw spapsr Poca U n iv e rs ity o f Oregon L ib ra ry School tax base adopted L a g e n e ( O reg o n & 7403 Hearns vs Hagler r ' ' i District 16: ' J Who yyon? IXI LU Page 6 M ay 20, 1982 Volum e XII, Num ber 32 25C Per Copy PORTLAND OBSERVER T w o Sections USPS 959-680-855 Wyden joins 'war on crime' CO NGRESSM AN RON W YDEN Joining the “ war on c rim e ” is His bill is designed to provide pri Oregon Congressman Ron Wyden son space and to demonstrate to the who announced a bill to federalize “ career c rim in a l“ that crime does certain robberies and burglaries to not pay. help “ stop the wave o f crime that is cresting in Portland.” Oregon prison* crowded C alled the Arm ed Robbery and "Oregon is devastated by a severe B urglary Prevention A ct o f 1982, shortage o f prison space. You can’t the bill would establish federal juris open the morning paper, or listen to d ictio n over an in d iv id u a l who is the evening newscast, without hear charged with an armed burglary or ing about the very serious problems robbery after having been convicted created by shortages o f space in o f two previous robberies or b u r Oregon’s jails and prisons. glaries. The two previous convic “ We all know how these short tions need not have involved ages force local authorities to resort fire arm s . I f convicted the person to excessive plea bargaining, proba could face a 15 year federal prison tionary sentences and early parole sentence without possibility o f pa for many serious offenders.” role. According to statistics provided, W yden said the in ten tio n is to two-thirds o f the violent crimes and provide an option to deal w ith the one-half o f all crimes are committed “ career c rim in a l” who should be by a small group o f crim in als: a kept o f f the streets but who often group o f 49 felons com m itted finds his way “ through the re vo l 10,000 felonies in a 20-year period; ving doors o f the state system." 243 d rug-addicted crim in als had “ When senior citizens are afraid committed more than a half-million to go out at night, elected officials crimes in their life-times. have a resp o n sibility to do som e It is this h a n d fu l o f “ h ab itu al thing to protect them. In my public c rim in a ls" that he sees his bill ad forums and meetings in the district I dressing. “ It provides an option for find a real fear. People are afraid to local prosecutors; only a handful o f go out o f their homes at night.” criminals would be involved. The people o f his east P o rtlan d “ I am not talking about the peo district— the poor, the elderly and ple who hustle on corners, hassle m inorities— are most often the vic people on the m all, com mit minor tims o f these crimes, he stated. crimes. I ’m not interested in spend ing a lot o f money on misdemeanors or filling up the prisons with petty criminals. I don’t think I ’m joining Ivancie’s ‘war on crime.’ ” Wyden recognizes that a least part o f the problem that leads to prison overcrowding in Oregon is the use o f prison for persons guilty o f tra f fic offenses and other non-violent crimes. “ As a Congressman I can do nothing about how the state pri sons are used, but I can provide more space by providing an option — an o p p o rtu n ity to put a small num ber o f people in fed eral p ri sons.” Federal prisons now have a very few vacancies, he added. does he see a serious problem o f dis proportionate sentencing for minor ities and the poor. W yden’s bill would include only robberies and burglaries, not violent crimes. “ I am not interested in ex tending it. I would like to see how it works first, though I could see the possibility o f someone introducing legislation later to include other crimes. You w on’ t see me bringing another b ill to include rape, then another to include murder.” He concedes that this could be the first step to placing many serious crimes under federal jurisdiction but does not see that as a problem Deterrent to crime Im pact on minorities “ These crim inals w ill no longer be back on the street again in a mat ter o f a few hours, weeks or months — after pleading guilty to a reduced charge or after being paroled pre maturely because the state peniten tiary or county ja il is overflowing. They w ill no longer be able to as sume that they can thumb their nose at the system and quickly return to a life o f preying on the safety and property o f innocent victims.” Wyden said that it is a known fact that minorities and poor defendants do not have an equal access to legal rights, that they are more likely to be arrested and convicted. In O re gon, blacks are disproportionately arrested, tried, convicted and sen tenced. Blacks, while making up one percent o f the state’ s population are a p p ro x im a te ly 20 per cent o f the Oregon State Penitentiary inmates. This fact insures that a larger per centage o f the individuals meeting The federel threat the criteria o f two previous convic Wyden sees no danger in transfer tions and finding themselves in fed ring jurisdiction over some crim in eral court, facing a 15-year sentence als to the federal government nor (Please turn to page 12 column 3) Fate of District 18 election hangs in balance by C. Eddie Edmondson ED LEEK Scene: M ultnom ah County Elec tion Headquarters. Time: Wednes day m orning, I a .m .: A p o litician keeps pressing a key on one o f several com puter terminals elections o ff i cials have made available to give ob servers the latest tally on every race and measure on the b a llo t. H e makes very little comment, noting " N o change there, “ o r that some humongous lead by one o r m ore candidates was nothing more than expected given their lack o f opposi tion. But every time he comes to the 18th District race, he mutters. Final ly he says " I f the blacks had played Il smart they wouldn't have run a ll those candidates against each other. " What he is saying is no more than what many people in inner N orth- When Ed Leek went to bed at 5 o’clock Wednesday morning he was about 100 votes ahead of Harold Williams, his nearest black rival for the 18th Dis trict scat. The Oregon Legislature had carved out the District last year to give Portland’s black community an opportunity they had always wanted: to name their own state representative. Four hours later Leek's wife, M in dy, was awakened by a reporter asking for Leek’s reaction to the fact that Williams was now only nine votes away from tying and possibly overcoming Leek’s lead. Williams was equally surprised. He and Leek are involved in the closest primary contest in this election, a contest that might not be resolved for days to come. east P o rtlan d were p rivately con cerned about— that the opportunity to elect a black candidate with black voters would be defeated by a field of black candidates. Five of the eight 18th District candidates in the Dem ocratic p rim a ry were B lack. Be tween them , so fa r, they have to taled 2,502 votes. Ed Leek, who has (Please turn to page 9 column I ) Ivancie seeks better image M a y o r Frank Ivancie wants to change the image o f Portland. He explained that Portland has the rep u tatio n o f being an “ easy” city where people could “ come and do their thing with no protest o f that kind o f behavior." Things have changed with the in crease o f crime in P ortland and a tougher stand must be taken bj the authorities, Ivancie said. Thus the so-called "w ar on crime.” " I l is not a war on crime but a tightening o f the law to enable Portland to be the liveable city it is supposed to b e ." The M ayor, as the chief elected o ffi cial, must make sure that the people o f Portland are protected from the criminal element. M AYOR FRANK IVANCIE Ivancie wants the city council and all o f the people to get behind him in his effort to "clean up" the city. The mayor said that although! the inage he portrays m ight o ffe n d some people, his concerns are valid and the police are holding tight to constitutional guidelines in dealing with crime. Ivancie wants the city to be a fine place to live because he is attem pt ing to attract hig business. The cli mate o f the city must be proper if businesses are to relocate in P o rt land. He wants prostitution elim in ated on the east side so business can prosper. Ivancie expressed concern about the unem ploym ent problem in Northeast and has a summer p ro gram that w ill em ploy 600 young people — the same num ber as last year. The m ayor explained his recent negative remarks about Linda W il liams, reporter for The Oregonian. (Please turn to page 4 column 3) by C. Eddie Edmondson W hen H aro ld W illia m s went to bed in the early, early hours o f Wed nesday m orning, he was a distant third behind his two closest rivals in the 18th District State Representa tive race. When he filed as a candi date fo r the 18th D istrict seat 170 days ago, Dec. 31, 1981, he never dreamed that he would not be the first black representative elected by the people w ith whom he grew up and lived in inner Northeast P o rt land. Going to bed that night was hard, despite his exhaustion from running around taking voters to the polls all day and keeping up the spir its o f his 20 volunteers. But never did he dream a reporter would come by later that morning to tell him he was 10 votes away from winning. And he would have to wait until they finished counting the 200- odd absentee ballots which will fin ally decide who w ill represent the 18th District for the next two years. “ I ran with my heart; I ran w ith out mud s lin g in g ,” W illia m s said later on Wednesday, driving down the street following his uncle and a couple o f other volunteers in a pick up filled with borrowed campaign (Please turn to page 4 column 3) HAROLD W ILLIA M S Chief Still explains crime war C h ie f o f Police Ron Still is adam ant about fhe war on crime. C hief Still states that there is no spe- ific war on crime as the press sees it; he is only doing his job as a career p olicem an. For 30 years he has seen the city change to its present state and he and his departm ent plan to do something about it. The budget he has to work with is very sm all com pared to what he needs. S till slates that $35 m illion per year just isn’t enough to do the com plete jo b . He wants more po licemen, more equipm ent, and the city needs more jail space. The police department is moving in December 1983 to a new location and the number o f beds in the new location is not large enough for the number o f arrests that the depart ment m akes— 450 to 500 per we**k. The ja il space is a m ajo r problem to him in his e ffo rt to com plete his strong thrust to rid Portland o f crime. The people have a perception o f the police bureau and its tactics that is very wrong. S till said the crime rate might be up d ra m atic ally be cause o f u n em p lo ym ent, but the robberies, break-ins and the bully ing of the weak must stop. The good people are aware o f the importance o f the police department, says Still. He wants the wrong doers and the pimps, prostitutes, robbers, etc. in jail. The d ep a rtm en t's image needs fresh paint and he is embarking on a program in the Northeast to change that image. He is going to the A l bina M inisterial Alliance to talk to the ministers about w orking with the police department to change the com m u nity’s perception o f police t Please turn to page 9 col. 3) CHIEF RON STILL ___________________________/