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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1985)
Coach of the Tina Turner Page 8 Page 2 Year^ PORTLAND OBSERVER Volume XV, Number 18 February 27, 1985 25c Copy Two Sections USFS MB BSD «ft / nr f o /<•> /« M School starts program to avoid drug pushers by Io n ita Duke Benson High School's Travis West (can tar I won his third straight state wrestling title Saturday at the U S. National Bank OSAA Class AAA stats tournament. Sea story on Paga 8. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Campbell boycott continues by Robert Lothian D uring his historic speech to the Democratic convention, Jesse Jack- son acknowledged efforts by migrant farm w orkers in the M idw est to achieve better wages and w orking conditions. The Farm Labor Organizing C o m mittee o f Toledo, Ohio, worked close ly with the Rainbow C oalition in o r ganizing a boycott o f C a m p b e ll’ s products. F L O C called for the boy cott in support o f M idw est tom ato pickers. C am pbell’s is the m ajor m anufac turer of tomato juice and other toma to products in the M idw est. F a rm w orkers, m any o f them M exicans, say that huge processing companies like C a m p b e ll’s, through their con trol o f the industry, force them to work under conditions sim ilar to those in the Third W orld. Jackson met w ith F L O C presi dent Baldem ar Velasquex and then tried to bring C a m p b e ll’ s to the ne- gotiating table, ’ ’ but soon discovered that C a m p b e ll’s Soup C o m p an y is not as easy to reason with as the Syr ian g o vern m en t,” said the F L O C newsletter. C a m p b e ll’ s has refused to negotiate. The farmworkers are struggling for "ju s tic e , self-d eterm in atio n and a contract with C a m p b e ll’s,” said the newsletter. C om panies like C a m p bell’s, according to F L O C , are reap ing huge profits by charging consum ers exho rb itan t prices com pared to what they pay farm ers and fa rm workers. The people who produce the tomatoes — farm w orkers, farm ers and cannery workers — receive 17 percent o f the gross receipts, w hile processing companies take 83 percent of gross receipts, said FLO C . Hard-pressed farm ers, many o f whom face ban kru p tcy and having their farm s auctioned o f f to a g ri business conglomerates like C a m p bell’s, can’t affo rd decent wages and living conditions fo r their m igrant workers, according to FLO C . Living conditions fo r the w o rk ers are predictable — "housing with no inside p lum bing, water must be carried fro m a com m on building. Lighting in rooms is fashioned from festooned extension cords and bare bulbs. A hard rain transform s the camp's grassless grounds into a mud- bath.” " F o r bending, stooping and pick ing a hamperful o f tomatoes (33 lbs ), a w orker in northern O h io gets any where fro m 19 - 25 cents, at least ten cents less per hamper than is re ceived by workers in other states,” according to F L O C . T he com m ittee is now concerned about the return o f sharecropping Under this arrangement, which (hey call "Reaganism in the nelds," farm workers become “ independent con tractors.” The companies avoid social security, unemployment and workers' compensation taxes, w hile workers tPlease turn to Page 7. Column I ) Death penalty seen as drain by Lam ia Duke G R A S S R O O T N E W S . N .W .— As the dust from election year '84 settles, voters not only selected political lead ers but m arked th eir ballots to re establish the death penalty. Ballot Measure 6 exempts the death penalty from the constitutional prohi bition o f cruel and unusual punish ment. Ballot Measure 7 imposes the death penalty as the sentence fo r aggravated murder. M a rk K ram e r, an attorney at St. Andrews Legal Clinic and a constant opponent o f the death penalty, said iu use is not a deterrent and predicts it w ill be a tremendous drain on the criminal justice system. Michael Schrunk, District Attorney for M ultnom ah County, said Kramer is right. “ I t ’ s a te rrib le expense fo r the courts, prosecutors and defense. It will be a drain on resources and draw away from other prosecutions,” he said. Schrunk opposes the death pen alty: " I t ’ s a self-in flicted w o u n d ,” and stated his office will prosecute all appropriate cases. He said he expects the death p en alty to be applied to those “ co m m ittin g the most ag grieved crimes.” K ram er added that voters re in stated the death penalty because o f a perception that the crim inal justice system was tilting to favor the crim inal. “ That is inaccurate,” said Kramer “ In Multnom ah County 95 percent of persons charged are convicted through trial or plea. There is a maximum of five percent and a m inim um o f one percent thrown out fo r errors or il legal police procedures," he said. "People are m a d ,” Schrunk add ed. “ Those in the system brought this on themselves by m aking mistakes. The public is reacting to those mis takes." In election *84, both Kram er and Schrunk said the public was confused about the " V ic t im 's Rights B i l l, ” Ballot Measure 8 and voted it down. Schrunk said the Justice Service Levy failed because voters did not want to pay more money. “ They looked at the death penalty as a low-cost solution to all the prob lems. But it is not. The rapist, robbers and burglars are still with us,” Schrunk said. Kramer said he expects to see the prosecutor utilize the death penalty as an inducement to get guilty pleas.” It w ill be a barg ain in g chip in the hands of the prosecutor. People who are innocent or certainly not guilty of aggravated murder may be induced to plea to a charge o f life im prison ment because they fear in the hands of the jury they may get the death pen alty,” Kramer said. Kramer has documented the racial discrim ination in the application o f the death penalty “ Discrimination in the application is partly attributable to discrimination in the criminal jus tice system from (he decision to a r rest, to the decision to release,” he added Whites are twice as likely to have a commutation decision and less likely to receive the death sentence for mur dering a Black victim. In 1981 Kramer wrote, "G iven the court's recent stance and the public’s overw helm ing ( i f u n in fo rm e d ) en dorsement o f the death penalty, it is unlikely that a wholesale invalidation of the death penalty will occur in the foreseeable fu tu re . T h e court w ill continue to chip away at the unconsti tu tio n a l sharp edges o f the death penalty statutes w hile avoiding the central issues o f discrim ination and arbitrariness." GRASSROOT NEW S. N W . — Students at King Elementary School will be provided with transportation to avoid w alking through and near open drug trafficin g which recently migrated to the corner of Northeast Grand and Alberta. Harriet A d air, principal o f King, has identified 40 students in need of alternative transportation, “ But every day we get more and more children who express a desire to sign up. Last week a couple of parents stood on the corner and m onitored the students who walked home that way.” A d a ir added that the num ber o f drug pushers on the corner varies. "W e also are identifying times o f the day when the dealers feel they can stand on that corner and sell drugs w ith o u t fear o f h arrassm ent,” she continued. Edna Robertson, co o rd in ato r o f the Northeast Neighborhood office, initiated this solution because o f the growing number o f complaints from parents, other residents and business owners over visible drug transactions a block aw ay fro m the school. O n F eb ru ary I , a co m m u n ity meeting was called and an alternative trans p o rta tio n system was o ffe re d as a short-term solution. Ed Green, Director o f Transporta- tion for the Portland Public Schools, said the transportation will be provid ed u ntil the end o f the school year. M ac L o c k e tt, C h ie f o f Police fo r PPs, said drug trafficking has slowed but not slopped. “ W e are w aitin g to see if drug dealers plan to come out more when the weather improves," Lockett added Lockett said the presence of men in uniform and cars were stopping and slowing sales. The migration o f the drug traffic, which has been the kiss o f death to tavern owners w ill not topple the Eldorado Restaurant. “ W e started charging a cover and when they come into the parking lot, I ask ihem what (lien intentions are," said A rth u r C o x , J r., owner o f the Eldorado. “ I f it is to sell drugs or to search fo r someone selling drugs, I will call the police and press trespass ing charges.” Robertson called the im plem enta tion o f an alternative transportation system, “ a good idea. O u r children should not see drug dealing in their neighborhood.” Cox said, " I don't want to see this sort of thing because I don't want our kids to think that this is a role model." Tw o drug dealers calling themselves the Portland Weed Sellers Association said they would never approuch chil dren. “ W e got kids o f our own, and that is what we are doing out here — taking care o f our kids.” The dealers said until they get some decent paying jobs, " th e y can con tinue to take us to jail. W e'll be back up here doing the same thing in three hours." Robertson is calling another in a series o f meetings with tavern owners, co m m un ity residents and o ffic ia ls to develop a plan to keep drug deal ers from congregating. The next meet ing is M arch 12 at the King N eig h borhood Facility. Rights activist decrys U.S. aid by Robert Lothian Speaking with the moral force of a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Artentin- ian hum an rights activist A d o lfo Perez Esquivel called for a withdrawal o f the U.S. military presence in Latin America during talks in M cM innville and Portland last week. Perez Esquivel was the keynote speaker at a peace conference at Linfield College in M cM in nville. He also spoke at Portland State U n iver sity. For his work as head of Service for Peace and Justice, a hum an rights group which works on behalf o f the oppressed throughout I-atin America, Perez Esquivel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980. A fter a m ilitary dictatorship came to power in A rgentin a in 1976, the architect and artist was jailed and tortured for 14 months. He was also jailed in Ecuador and Brazil for his work. Like M artin Luther King, he is a follower of Gandhi. Perez Esquivel expressed disap pointment that the American people seem uninform ed about what he de scribed as the havoc caused by the U .S . government in Latin Am erica. He was especially critical o f the m ili tary aid given to dictatorships. I f that aid isn 't stopped, he said, " C e n tra l A m erica might end up worse than Viet N a m , and nobody wants another Viet N a m .” Perez Esquivel said he would travel to Washington after leaving Portland and ask the Reagan Administrtion for " a w ith d raw al o f the U .S . m ilita ry intervention in C entral A m e ric a .” He will also ask the administration to reopen talks toward a normalization o f relations with Nicaragua, to p ar ticipate in the Contradora peace talks sponsored by Mexico, Venezuela and other countries, to cut o ff aid to the anti-Sandimsta rebels known as “ con tra s ," and in general, to respect the right to self-determination of Central American countries. The Soviet Union, from the stand point o f imperialism, “ must be viewed in the same lig h t,” he said. H e sug gested that the two superpowers do nate to the T hird W orld a sum equal to the value o f a nuclear missile, to be used to build large hospitals. Argentina is a country that could benefit from such aid . he said. It inherited a $45 billion debt. 700 per cent in fla tio n , m a ln u tritio n fo r 40 percent of the population and 6.5 m il lion people who cannot read or write from the military dictatorship, he said The dictatorship was responsible for a seven-year reign o f terror in which 30,000 Argentinians, alleged subversives, died or disappeared. Perez Esquivel described what hap pened as genocide. The m ilitary was stripped o f some o f its power after the Falklands fias co, and Argentina now has a dem o cratic government. But death squads continue to operate; the situation is shaky and could deteriorate, he said. A happy Graca Collins and Clvde Hunter, maintenance worker at the community canter, alt amidst office furniture donated by PNB (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Grace Collins receives grant The Northeast (P o rtla n d ) C o m munity Relations Team from Pacific Northwest Bell helped the Grace C ol lins M em orial Com m unity Center at 128 N E Russell solve a couple p ro b lems M onday. February 25. The team presented (he center w ith a $1,500 check fo r the center's scholarship fund, and delivered an assortment o f much-needed o ffice supplies and furniture. The Collins M em orial Center has been serving the co m m un ity since 1954. It's day care facility serves prin cipally the N orth and Northeast sec tions of Portland. However, because o f its outstanding educational p ro gram, it also draws students from the Gresham and Beaverton areas. The scholarship fund helps mothers w ith lim ited incomes continue to pursue their jobs, w hile allow ing their children to benefit fro m the center’s programs
