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U n iv e r s it y o f O reron L ib r a r y
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What happened
to Blazers?
Page 13
LU
Namibian
prisoners
It's
the Ducks!
Page 2
Page 12
PORTLAND OBSERVER
December 1,1962
Volume XIII, Number 8
25C Per Copy
USPS 959-680-855
City pays in possum incident suit
A n o u t-o f-c o u rt settlement has
been reached in the ’ •possum” suit
against the C ity o f Portland, to be
approved by the C ity C o u n c il
Thursday.
The suit was filed by George and
Geraldine Powc, operators o f the
Hiirgar Barn on Union Avenue. The
settlem ent is reported to be
approxim ately $65,000 to $75,000.
Named as dependents in the federal
suit were ten o ffic e rs in vo lve d in
depositin g dead possums on the
sidewalk in fro n t o f the restaurant
while on uniform and on duty. The
possums were killed by the officers,
ihen brought to the scene.
I wo officers, Craig C. Ward and
James E. G allow ay, who adm itted
responsibility, were term inated by
then Police Commissioner Charles
Jordan follow ing wide-spread com­
m u n ity protests. F o llo w in g th e ir
dism issal, the Police U n io n gave
Jordan a vote o f " n o confidence”
and took the matter to binding arbi­
tration. The arbitrator ordered that
the officers be reinstated.
The suit asked fo r $1 m illio n in
general damages and $2.8 m illion in
p u n itiv e damages, but Powe has
expressed his wish th a t another
outcom e o f his suit w ould be the
in s ta lla tio n o f a police review
process that w ould provide justice
fo r citizens who believe they have
been harassed or abused by police.
The suit had called fo r an
injunction to prohibit the C ity from
continuing any policy or practice o f
racial discrimination or harassment.
The settlement does not include this
in ju n c tio n but Powe has indicated
that he feels the new a u d it
com m ittee w ill a lle via te some o f
those concerns.
A fte rm a th
o f the possum
in c id e n t, w hich b ro u g h t m uch
disrepute to the Bureau (together
w ith a series o f revelations about
police involvement in drug sales and
fa ls ific a tio n o f evidence), was
extensive. C om m issioner Jordan
was removed from his post as Police
C om m issioner by M a yo r Francis
Ivancie, who now heads the Bureau.
Upon the retirement o f Chief Bruce
Strike opposes concessions
Baker, the M ayor named Ron S till
to that position.
P rio r to the possum in c id e n t
Jordan had responded to allegations
o f police abuse by a p p o in tin g a
citizen task fo rce -th e “ S torrs
Com m ittee” — to look at the intern­
al in v e s tig a tio n process by w hich
com plaints against police o ffice rs
are investigate d. The com m ittee
reported lack o f e q u ity in the
process
and
am ong
th e ir
recom m endations was a citize n
police audit committee.
M a yo r Ivancie and C h ie f S till
opposed the committee, but Jordan
pushed it through the C ity Council.
The po lice u n io n to o k the
m a tte r— th ro u g h the referendum
process— to a vote o f the people.
The measure was passed by the
voters and the com m ittee is in
process o f organization.
C alled
one o f
the
most
president. They dumped incumbent
blatently
racist
actions
in
the
history
Sam Church, who had infuriated his
o f the state, the possum in cid e n t
membership w ith concessions, and
comes fu ll circle w ith the payment
OETRQtT. M IC H IG A N - W M e
elected the re fo rm -m in d e d R ich
* t o the Powes. T h is, in p a rt, com ­
the N ovem ber elections may not
Trumka.
pensates fo r the embarassment, pain
have demonstrated any across-the-
These events took place against a
and
loss o f business caused by these
board d is a ffe c tio n w ith President
little noticed p a tte rn o f strikes
police
officers.
Reagan’s economic policies, a revolt
against concessions in Illin o is , Ne­
has suddenly materialized from an
braska, Pennsylvania, Massachu­
unexpected quarter: organized la­
setts and Rhode Island, where w ork­
bor.
ers, often in isolated circumstances,
The la b o r re b e llio n , o n ly ju s t
decided to fight rather than give in.
starting, not only promises real re­
Then, in m id-N ovem ber, the steel
A recent affirm ative action report
sistance to Reaganomics, but also is
workers turned down a new contract
for the State o f Oregon reports that
a sharp challenge to union leaders
containing concessions.
although state employment declined
who have sided with corporations in
In Detroit, nearly 1,000 rank-and-
by nearly 2,000 d u rin g fiscal year
insisting that their members accept
file members fro m a v a rie ty o f
1981-82, the State "has been able to
concessions or risk losing their jobs
unions recently tu rn e d out fo r a
maintain the proportional represen­
altogether.
(Please turn to page 13. column I)
tation o f its m inorities.”
M in o r ity representa tion in the
State w orkforce continues to be 5.8
percent. M inorities make up 7.9 per­
cent o f the state’ s p o p u la tio n and
4.1 percent o f the labor force (per­
sons employed, plus those registered
fo r em ploym ent w ith the e m ploy­
ment service).
The percentage o f black em ploy­
ees has dropped s lig h tly , fro m 1.7
percent to 1.6 percent, through loss
o f 21 jobs. Hispanic employment re­
mained at the same percentage, 1.5
percent, although 27 jobs were lost.
Asians and A m e rica n In dians
gained by 0.1 percent each. Employ­
ment o f women has dropped from
SENATOR BILL McCOY
REP ED LEEK
REP. WALLY PRIESTLEY
50.3 percent to 49.8 percent.
There has been an increase o f m i­
The Observer invitea the public to participate in a
ant (Grand Avenue across from Sears). Discuss
norities
in the middle management
community fo r u m -' The Legislature and You" on
the issues that will be before the 1983 Legislative
level (22-24) w ith salary ranges o f
December 4th, 10:00 a.m., at the Rustler Restaur-
Session and how the public can affect legislation.
$1,592 to $2,285 per m o n th . C u r­
by James Ridgeway
Pacific News Service
The focus o f resistance is the
Canadian C hrysler strike. S hortly
after the election. 10,000 Canadian
Chrvsler workers refused to accept
further concessions and struck. The
company immediately threatened to
lay o f f A m erican w orkers and
warned that i f the strike continued it
m ight close down altogether. Fear
o f the loss o f jobs spread through
D etroit and at first brought an an­
gry reaction to the Canadian strike.
Then, as the Canadians stuck fast
and the issue was aired in U .S.
Chrysler plants, the anger turned to
grudging admiration.
As the Chrysler strike developed,
U nited M ine W orkers members
were going to the polls to elect a new
Mahji Hail of Seattle recently visited the Talking Drum Book
store to promote paper dolls made in her likeness.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Minorities gain in mid-level jobs
rently there are 119 m inority w ork­
ers at this level, including 30 black
workers and 22 Hispanics.
There are 84 m in o rity employees
in the 25-31 + range, w ith salaries
o f $1,832 to $3,218 and above, per
month. O f these 21 are black and 17
are Hispanic.
M in o ritie s continue to be hired
most often in professional (5.4 per­
cent), protective services (5.9 per­
cent), p a ra p ro fe ssio n a l (9.2 p e r­
cent), service m aintenance (8.1
percent) and office/clerical (5.2 per­
cent). M inorities are still underutil­
ized in the technician, skilled craft
and o fficia l/a d m in istra tive classifi­
cations.
However, there has been a drop in
the o ffic ia ls /a d m in is tra tio n cate­
gory o f from 98 to 73 minorities and
in the p ro fe ssio n a l c la s s ific a tio n
fro m 327 to 304. B oth categories
have also declined in percentage.
The only gains in percentage o f m i­
norities employed were in protective
services, skilled crafts and service
maintenance.
Each year three state agencies are
analyzed by the state A ffirm a tiv e
Action Office. This year those agen­
cies were M e n ta l H e a lth , O regon
L iq u o r C o n tro l C om m ission, and
the University o f Oregon.
M ental H ealth has increased its
percentage o f employees during the
year except in a d m in is tra tio n .
O LC C has made slow progress in
h irin g m in o ritie s and wom en, but
women are concentrated in the 00-
18 salary ranges and men in 19-
31 + . The U. o f O ’ s female partici­
pation had decreased and blacks are
u n d erutilize d in salary ranges 14-
31 + .
C redit fo r the fact that there has
not been a drop in m inority employ­
ment during a period o f loss o f em­
ployees due to budget cuts is given
to managers who exercized careful
planning in s ta ff reduction; estab­
lishm ent o f q u a lific a tio n c rite ria
that preclude displacement o f highly
qualified persons w ith lesser q u a li­
fie d persons, and n e tw o rk in g to
id e n tify vacancies in state agencies
fo r which la id -o ff employees could
apply.
New weapons trends usher in an era of super-violence
by Michael Klare
Pacific News Service
President Reagan’ s latest gesture
to superpower arms control is espe­
cially welcome as we approach the
cod o f a year in which international
violence reached near epidemic pro­
portions. But as the conflicts o f the
past year aptly demonstrate, mere
management o f some aspects o f the
U.S Soviet nuclear arms com peti­
tion only thaws the tip o f an iceberg
that is expanding ra p id ly in every
other direction.
Not only did we witness the o u t­
break o f tw o m ajor in te rn a tio n a l
conflicts in 1982—in the Falklands
and in Lebanon—but also the escal­
ation o f existing co nflicts in Iran,
Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola, E th io ­
pia and El Salvador.
I hese c o n flic ts are n o te w o rth y
no, only for their intensity, but also
for the premier appearance o f many
untried weapons, such as the "E xo-
c e t" a n ti-s h ip m issile used in the
F alklands and the radar-jam m ing
devices used in Lebanon When
combined w ith other recent trends,
these events suggest the w orld may
be headed into an era in which inter­
national disputes w ill increasingly
be settled by wars o f super violent
intensity.
Analysis
C o m p o u n d in g the new w ill to
com bat among nations is the fact
that the w orld is witnessing an un­
precedented re volution in m ilita ry
technology encompassing both nu­
clear and conventional weapons. A,
the cu ttin g edge o f this revolution
are new guidance technologies that
can direct a weapon towards its in ­
tended target w ith extrem ely high
accuracy.
I o appreciate the scope o f this
revolution, consider the following:
• U.S. scientists are now develop­
ing a th ird generation o f nuclear
m unitions that w ill o ffe r a discrete
choice o f blast, heal and radiation
effects According to Pentagon o f­
ficia ls, weapons researchers have
made considerable progress in devel­
opm ent o f the new weapons, o f
which the enhanced radiation w ar­
head, or " n e u tro n b o m b ," is the
first example.
The aim o f all this, o f course, is to
make nuclear weapons appear more
controlled in their effects and thus
more "useable” as everyday battle­
field weapons. "C o lla te ra l damage
has always been the stu m b lin g
b lo c k " to nuclear weapons use, a
top Pentagon o ffic ia l explained re­
cently.
•N o , o n ly are nuclear weapons
becoming more useable, they’ re also
becoming more available. A ccord­
ing to a recent U.S. intelligence re­
port, as many as 31 nations w ill pos­
sess or be able to produce nuclear
m unitions by the year 2000, includ­
ing such T hird W orld danger zones
as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, T a i­
wan, South Korea, the Philippines,
Argentina and Brazil.
•W hile nuclear weapons are being
made smaller and more like conven­
tional weapons in their radius o f ef­
fe ct, c o n v e n tio n a l weapons are
being made larger and more like nu­
clear weapons in their in d iscrim in ­
ate capacity fo r destruction. Partly are equipped with the same aircraft,
as a result o f public oppositio n to missiles and tanks as the fro n t-lin e
nuclear weapons, laboratories in the states in N A T O «nd the Warsaw
U nited States and Western Europe Pact. Once these countries become
are develop ing new co n ve n tio n a l p ro fic ie n t in the use o f these
m u n itio n s that can be substituted weapons, they will be able to conduct
fo r tactical nuclear weapons in a t­ m ilitary operations at the same level
tacks on significant targets. These o f intensity that we would expect in
armaments combine the accuracy o f a m ajor war in Europe.
"sm art bom bs" w ith the spread-out
Add these developments up, and
effects o f "cluster bom bs" and the it is hard to escape concluding that
damage p o te n tia l o f "co n cu ssio n fu tu re w ars— however and w h e n ­
bombs” to produce a new order o f ever they s ta rt— w ill be fo u g h t at
m unitions best described as "n e a r- unprecedented levels o f violence and
nuclear weapons.”
destructiveness, w ith an attendant
• Because o f com petition between risk o f nuclear escalation. In a pre­
the m a jo r arms suppliers and he view o f such conflicts, the Depart­
new -found w ealth o f many T h ird ment o f Defense noted in its " g u id ­
W o rld resource producers, most ance” document fo r Fiscal 1984 that
barriers to the export o f high-tech "C om bat against Soviet (and) Sovi­
c o n ve n tio n a l weapons have long et-equipped forces w ill be o f higher
since been eradicated. As a result, intensity and longer d u ra tio n , and
many aspiring Third W orld powers (Please turn to page 4 column /,