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Page 4, Portland Observer, July 10, 1986
EDITORIAL/OPINION
usy weekfor Keystone Cops
W ith reckless disregard for the life o f a hos-
or a relative a fraid to leave her home, the
police bureau by its actions, Chief Penny Har
rington by her defensive posture and the arro
gance o f Bud C lark’s aide dismissed the death o f
an 85-year-old woman as an example o f police
restraint.
The Black community is horrified, shocked
and righteously indignant that a so-called metro
politan police force did as little as it could to
save an elderly woman during an incident where
Tommy Graves, a mentally impaired adult,
snapped. The police never bothered to ask, so
they did not know, that Graves lived with Mrs.
Alberta Tate for 14 years in a group home for
adults. Mrs. Tate’s recently deceased daughter-
in-law ran the group home. During this seige,
Graves thought he was protecting Mrs. Tate.
The tragic outcome is an example o f an inade
quate police policy to deal with violent, men
tally impaired adults.
There is plenty o f blame to go around and
Chief Harrington’s assertion that there is none is
ignorant and insensitive. Among the questions
to ask is, “ Why did the police wait until Graves
escalated the situation to its tragic boiling
point?” The police containment procedure
failed miserably because it resulted in the death
o f an innocent victim.
During the seige, the police shot out all the
street lights, put inexperienced cops in a situa
tion that required special training, and shot
Graves in the front door and Mrs. Tate as she
was running out the back door. Mrs. Tate was
a casualty o f impromptu police procedure.
Families in that area were subjected to tear
gas fall-out which led to a variety o f irritants.
Why didn’ t the police warn residents o f possible
effects? Like Keystone Cops, the Portland po
lice deployed their tactical response unit after
both the suspect and the victim were dead.
You can bet your bottom dollar that had
Graves or Mrs. Tate been white and in a differ
ent neighborhood, the police would still be out
there trying to negotiate a solution. But they
have proven time after time again that they do
not care about Black people or the Black com
munity. It’s alright to throw dead opossum in
front o f a Black-owned restaurant. I t ’s alright to
incorrectly administer a sleeper (choke) hold
on an off-duty security officer, and then stand
around and watch him die because CPR was not
administered in time.
In this seige, Mrs. Tate was safer with Graves.
A t least she was alive.
As taxpayers we should not accept the official
version or conclusion. As in the Stevenson trag
edy, incompetence, racism and indifference will
start to come out. A public informational ses
sion on the scale o f a public inquest is in order.
The officials will let M r. Cover-up — District
Attorney Michael Schrunk — investigate. But
that is like letting the fox guard the chicken
coop. The blood of Tony Stevenson is still wet
on his hands.
This new City Administration is not yet six.
months old and there have been three Black
people dead at the hands o f the police. The
thorns in the City o f Roses have pricked two in
nocent victims: Tony Stevenson who was trying
to calm a confrontation, and Mrs. Tate.
How many more innocent Portlanders will
have to die before a major or national evalua
tion o f the police bureau is conducted? It does
not seem that the rank and file of the police bu
reau respects its new chief.
Letters to the Editor
The Observer welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typed or neatly printed and signed
with the author's name and address taddresses are not published) We reserve the right to edit f o r
length. M a il to: Portland Observer, P. O. Box 3137. Portland. O B 9720ft
Rev. Coleman speaks in
hushed and pious tones
participants, including the "m edia
tors.” Even if the mediators were
professions, I hardly see how they
could do a good job without a repre
sentative sample of the parents who
brought the concern.
James Harrison was hurt by this
year’s events, but he was not the only
one hurt. A secretary and a number
of excellent teachers remain unem
ployed because they chose conscience
over continued employment. In addi
tion, children suffered with their
teachers, and tears were common
during the last months o f the school
year.
I urge any parent who plans to send
a child to the school next year to ques
tion the Rev. Coleman, the new prin
cipal, and new staff members care
fully.
especially
concerning
the
Clothes Closet operation in the
school. The parents who have re
moved their childred from the school
did so for good reasons.
have been confused by his use of that
term. W hile it may be true that a
majority o f the families at the school
are struggling economically, poor
children do not deserve a lesser stan
dard o f safety than other children. No
child is expendable, and the school
should be closed if the Clothes Closet
is more important than a safe and
orderly learning environment for
children.
Short-term aid is admirable, but it
does not change the dynamics which
produce need in the first place. Short
term aid, "n o questions asked," can
indeed trap the needy on a treadmill
going nowhere.
Education, on the other hand, is
long-term service. The highest and
best use of education is to help those
served become servers in their own
right, a process which requires growth
from everyone involved. The '84-'85
St. Andrews School staff aimed for
this, and they will be sorely missed.
The Rev. Coleman convened two
"mediations" this year in which he
or one o f his appointees chose all the
The Clothes Closet operation in
St. Andrews School during school
hours is dangerous. U p to 150 persons
enter the school o f about 80 children,
“ no questions asked," each Thursday
morning during the school year. One
crazy person among 150 is not a sta
tistical improbability. The sheer vol
ume o f bodies in the school insures
noiae and a drain on the bathroom fa
cilities.
Teachers have worried about this
situation since 1975, years before the
'84-'85 staff arrived. The Pastor/
School Board’s solution to a problem
brought up by parents was to get rid
o f an excellent and dedicated staff.
This did indeed punish the parents for
bringing up the subject, but it does
not solve the problem. I f the new
staff is professional, they will also
discover that working conditions are
difficult in the school on Thursday,
and new parents and children will dis
cover the same thing.
The Rev. Coleman speaks in
hushed and pious tones of his concern
for the "p o o r.’ ’ Many o f the parents
¡PORTWND observer
Last week my article on the mis
leading statistics o f lung cancer sur
vival was unfortunately cut o ff mid
sentence. I was in the process o f writ
ing that I hoped the attendees of the
aforementioned conference on “ med
ical quackery” would soon open their
eyes to the vast literature that exists
linking dietary habits with such con
ditions as cancer and heart disease. I
hope that the groups who sponsored
this conference eventually come to
the realization that prevention, alter
native health care and the rights o f in
dividual choice are essential to the
future o f American Medicine. Maybe
at this point these groups will begin
to look into their own self-regulation
with kthe zealousness they put into
the regulation o f others. Afterall,
it is "th eir” system that accounts for
thousands o f deaths and tens of thou
sands o f injuries each year aa a result
of their tre a tm e n t programs
How can I say such a thing as this?
For one, studies kthat have looked
into iatrogenisis (doctor caused ill
ness) have placed the figure of around
one-third of hospital emergency ad
missions to be the result of doctor-
caused conditions. Studies such as the
recent article on lung cancer have
shown areas of care where no benefit
exists yet certainly much injury oc
curs. Drug horror stories such as
D .E .S ., bendictine acutane, etc., re
veal an over-zealousness within the
drug industries to patent and market
their products with inadequate studies
to predict their new products' safety.
And as a final comment, the fact that
the death rate has dropped in cities
such as San Francisco and London
when hospital strikes occurred em
phasizes the dangers o f surgical and
drug treatments.
Modern medicine is neither all bad
nor all good, but has, within its con
fines, areas o f miracles and tragedy.
This grayness is precisely why the
A .M .A . and other organizations need
to spend more ol tneir ettons into
objective self-regulation, and less into
(as the F .T .C . worded it in their cease
and desist order to the A .M .A .) ha
rassment and obstruction o f the
growth o f alternative medicines. The
A .M .A .’s parity with the American
Rifle Assn, as the single biggest
lobbyist at capital hill gives some
idea to the size the A .M .A . and its
children such as the Oregon Medical
Assn, chosen to spend much o f their
time harassing others rather than
concentrating on public safety and
improving the areas o f their health
delivery that cause so many thousands
o f deaths and injuries each year?
Probably the single most important
reason is money and the power/
esteem that accompanies it. W hile our
economy has staggered over the last
decade, the increases in health care
dollars have consistently exceeded
inflation and now represent 11 *1» of
our countries G .N .P . Does this mean
that with the increases more people
are receiving health care? N o, the
increases in costs represent a m ulti
tude o f factors including higher costs
for suplies and materials, but pri
marily are due to the extremely high
costs o f high tech medicine (bi-pass
surgery, dialysis, cancer treatments,
etc ). W hile U .S. House hearings
Tuesday (July 9, 1985) featured many
doctors stating that recent Reagan
cuts in M edicare/Medicaid have dev
astated the care programs for the
elderly, the fact remains that close to
two-thirds o f Medicare dollars are
spent in the last six months o f life,
and thus don't represent 'health care"
but crisis medicine, much o f which
serves to sustain life after the body
has determiorated beyond the state
o f self-sufficiency. The ability of
modern medicine to sustain life
through support systems has led many
to make out a "living w ill," so that
their life savings will not be totally
usurped while sustaining a non
functioning body for a few addition
Peters received $16,281 from
City of Portland
M A R Y S . PEARCE
Parent o f Fred Pearce. 6
$15 for one v— '
$25 for tw o years
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STAN PETERS
Tba P o rtla n d (M o e rre r w as aaiabbanad at 1970
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MEMBER
Association - fo un ded IM S
288-0033
Box 3137. Portland Oraoon 97208
Alfred L Henderson. Edito Publisher
A! Williams, Genera! M u
next
• V. .
Dus agreement started in September
1981 when former Police Chief Ron
Still ordered Peters relieved o f all
police duties.
New Police Chief Penny Harring
ton has ordered Peters to begin earn
ing his salary by working for the City
again. Chief Harrington should be
by Jerry Garner
Sobecnpiont »15 00 per year m the Tn County area P oet
m a tte r Sand addraas changea to the P o rtla n d O h w r v r r . P O
N a tio n a l A d v e rtis in g R e p re s e n ta tiv e
A m a lg a m a te d Pubiiehera. inc
N e w York
moments (days to months).
W hy does our system in America
focus so exclusively on drug "cures”
and surgical techniques? There are a
multitude o f reasons for this ap
proach, yet the theme of money and
power again appear as central rea
sons behind this reality. As in the
American Cancer Society where most
o f their research returns to the vested
interests o f the predominant white
male, non-labor, board members who
dictate A C S policy, industry (phar
maceutical, insurance, banking) has
taken an aggressive role in most o f the
policy matters o f American health.
There is a self-sustaining interest in
the continued development o f new
patents for drugs with all the ancillary
industries involved. And there is very
little money to support care that real
izes the individual nature o f disease
and the need to broaden our ap
proach to attempt to prevent many of
the current maladies. Surgery is an
extremely expensive alternative to
prevention and provides much esteem
and power to the individuals who
perform them.
Doctors do not want to give up
their role as “ miracle w orker" and
certainly there is more glamor in per
forming a “ life saving” surgery than
in counseling patients on life style and
diet. For these reasons, and for many
others, I seriously doubt whether
medical colleges will incorporate nu
trition (less than one hour average in
national M .D . programs) or other
individual oriented approaches into
their curriculums in the near future.
For this reason alone it is important
that current level o f harrassmenl of
my profession (Naturopathic M edi
cine) as well as others be allowed
to grow without harrassmenl in order
to fill this important void in American
care.
N e x t w e a k : Conclusion on the
medical quackery conference and
lung cancer.
Recently it was revealed that Stan
Peters, Portland Police Union Pres
ident, was paid $32,563 a year of
which half ($16,281) came from the
City o f Portland. However, he did
not perform any duties for the City.
•
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i
commended for having the political
courage in ordering Peters to work
for his City paycheck.
Citizens o f the City should be out
raged that Peters has been conducting
Union business on City time with pay.
It is not surprising that former Police
Chief Ron Still relieved Peters of
police duties in order for him to work
full time for the union. Both former
Chief Still and Peters believe that the
public has no business questioning the
actions o f the police department.
Both men opposed Ballot Mesure 51,
which was approved by voters to
form a 12-person Audit Committee
designed to review police handling of
public complaints. Peters has used
his position as Union president re
peatedly to attack Ballot Measure 51.
Citizens o f Portland shouldn't be
asked to pay half o f Peters' salary as a
lobbyist for the Police Union, espe
cially when the majority o f the lobby
ing is in the defense of officers in
volved in criminal activities or acts of
racism.
The $16,281 that the City was pay
ing Peters should be used to fund the
Police Internal Investigations A u d it
ing Committee. The Committee is
grossly inadequate to hear appeals for
the citizens who have complaints
against the Portland Police Bureau.
-a xrnCS xv * m r v A
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