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
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