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"The Eyes and Ears of the Community'
Volume XVIII, Number 11
Public Forum on "Prostitution And The Law
by Nyewusi Askari
Sharon M cC orm ack was the m oderator for the
"P ro s titu tio n and the Law " fo ru m held at M artin
Luther King School. P articipating on the forum
were (L R) Janet Johnson, ACLU; Judge D orothy
According to the laws relating to
prostitution as stated in the State of
Oregon Criminal Code and the City
of Portland Code manual, prostitu­
tion is defined as "Engaging in, o f­
fering to engage in, or agreeing to
engage in an act of sexual conduct
or sexual contact for a fee.
The
law goes on to say: "It is unlaw­
ful for any person to loiter in or near
any street or public place in a man­
ner and under circumstances mani­
festing the purpose of inducing, en­
ticing, soliciting or procuring an­
other to commit an act of prostitu­
tion."
In an attempt to define "circum­
stances" the law becomes vague.
It says: "Among the circumstances
which may be considered in deter­
mining whether such purpose is
manifested are that the person re­
Baker, D is tric t C ourt; Wayne Pearson, D istrict
A tto rn e y's O ffice; and Capt. Tom Potter, North
Precinct.
Photo by Richard J. B row n
peatedly beckons to, stops or at­
tempts to stop motor vehicle opera­
tors by hailing them or gesturing
to them ."
In an effort to give citizens a
clearer definition and understanding
of such laws and other issues of
concern, the Eliot/King Crime Pre­
vention Committee sponsored a
public forum, "Prostitution & The
Law", in the Martin Luther King
School cafeteria last Thursday
night. Participating in the forum
were representatives from the Dist­
rict Attorney's Office, the ACLU,
Portland Police North Precinct,
Neighborhoods Against Crime and
Multnomah County District Court.
The tone of the meeting was set
by moderator Sharon McCormack.
"W e join hands tonight in the most
organized way that we have with
Inner Northeast people and othw
citizens of the City who are con­
cerned about following the issue of
prositution to the end," she ex­
plained as she addressed the
audience and the panel. "We've
done the protests, the marches, and
they have all been worth it.
It
meant that we got to know each
other, it meant that we shared
values that took us to this point.
But the time has come for us to
have a coordinated, more sophisti­
cated plan in which not only are we
venting our screams and expressing
our righteous indignation about the
problems, but getting answers,"
she said.
Concerning the current laws on
prositution activity, Judge Baker
said, "W e're limited with what we
have to work with. We're limited
with the law, and we re also limited
by some other things. We're limited
by jail space, and we are not able
to do some of the same things that
we did a few years ago, as far as
sentencing and keeping people in
custody."
Judge Baker noted that when the
Justice Center first opened, the lack
of jail space wasn't nearly the pro­
blem it is now. "I am even faced
with the problem that if I have a
felon that I have in custody that's
dangerous, that person is still going
to get matrixed o ut," she explained.
Citing the problems created by the
lack of jail space, she said even if
prostitutes are sentenced to lengthy
jail terms, they would not spend
much time in jail.
Judge Baker recently gained na­
tional attention when she ruled that
a dangerous sex offender must post
a "dangerous sex offender sign on
the outside of his place of resi­
dence. She recommended that citi­
zens vote and work for more jail
space, call for regular meetings at
the Justice Center and the District
Attorney's office, and organize a
citizens' crime watch.
Wayne Pearson, District Attor­
ney's Office, said that 1987 statistics
show that the DA's Office process­
ed roughly 1670 adults for prostitu­
tion. "As a prosecutor, it doesn't
appear as though we're having
much success in combating this
problem for this community," he
said. "O f those 1670 cases, there
was only one, to my knowledge,
that occurred outside the City of
Portland. Of those 1670 cases that
were reviewed in 1987, 45% of them
had been disposed of by the end of
1987 by way of a guilty plea. The
rest are generally pending and the
majority by way of bench warrant."
It was explained that the DA’s
Office encourages prostitutes to
plead guilty to the charge of pro­
stitution because there are no
charge reductions. For first time of­
fenders, the DA recommends to the
court a $300 fine, 24 hours of alter­
native community service work, and
one-year probation. For a second
conviction, the recommendation is
a $300 fine, ten days in jail, and
two-years' probation. On a third
conviction, there is a $500 fine, 30
days in jail, and two-years' proba-
O fficer Harry Jackson . . .
a
com passionate person and he
understands the problem they
[p rostitu tes] face. - Capt Potter
Photo by Richard J. Brown
tion. The judge makes the final
decision as to what the actual sen­
tence will be.
Captain Potter, North Precinct,
Sgt. Mike Bell, and Officer Harry
Jackson teamed up to give a broad
picture of how Portland police are
r i
attempting to upgrade their strate
gies and tactics in the area of pro
stitution.
Sgt. Bell and Officer
Jackson were introduced as the pri­
mary designers of law enforcement
of prostitution in North Portland.
Captain Potter said the prostitution
problem is along Union Avenue and
Interstate Avenue.
He said that
793 (47%) of the 1670 cases were
from North Pricinct and had occur­
red along Union and Interstate.
Out of the 793 cases, 187 males
were arrested on various charges of
prostitution. Twenty-four cases in­
volved compelling or promoting
prostitution (pimping).
Potter said North Precinct has
three officers, including Officer
Jackson, who are assigned to the
prostitution beat. They make con­
tact, on a regular basis, with pro­
stitutes, developing information and
making arrests.
Officer Jackson
was praised by Potter. "He's a
compassionate person and he
understands the problem they face,
and he also knows that he's enfor­
cing the law against these people.
He gives them ample opportunity
to make their changes, and, if they
don't, then he enforces the law.
And, he enforces it quite strictly,
I might add," he said about Jack-
son.
Prostitution, as Potter explained
it, occurs on different levels. Some
prostitutes work the streets, others
work from hotels, and many work
from houses. He said that many of
the prostitutes come from homes
where they were victimized and that
they continue to be victimized as
prositutes.
It was explained that not all the
See "P ro s titu tio n ", Page 2
A Woman of Vision
egan w ritin g because no one could w rite my story. I need to say
le things about m yself and m y w o rld th a t no one else can say.
Photo by Richard J. Brown
IcElroy
by Nyewusi Askari
To look into the eyes of Colleen
McElroy is to look into a place
where vision takes on shapes and
images that evolve into words that
paint pictures of yesterday, today
and tomorrow. She is a Poet.
To hear her talk is to hear and
feel African drums beating inside
your heart and soul. Strong and
vital messages. Poet Maya Angelou
describes them as "Rich, and pain­
ful, and terribly beautiful." Marge
Piercy says they are "Tight, tough,
lovely."
She has weaved her magic onto
the pages of several books that in­
clude "The Mules Done Long Since
Gone," "Music From Home: Selec
ted Poems,”
"Winters Without
Snow," "Lie and Say You Love
M e," "A Country Under Its Ori­
ginal Name," "Jesus and Fat Tues­
day," and "Queen of the Ebony
Isles" for which she earned the
American Book Award.
On January 21, Ms. McElroy
brought her magic to Catlin Gabel
School. Her visit was sponsored
by the Distinguished Writers Series,
a program that is responsible for
bringing a growing number of nation­
ally known writers to the school.
Following a Thursday morning as­
sembly in the Cabell Center Audi­
torium on the Catlin Gabel campus,
Ms. McElroy conducted a work­
shop with Upper School English and
creative writing classes.
A professor of English at the Uni­
versity of Washington, Seattle, Ms.
McElroy is also a short story writer,
a playwrite, a professor of writing
and literature, and has been a talk
show moderator, and a speech the­
rapist. She earned her Ph.D. in
1973 from the University of Wash­
ington. She also has received a
National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship and a Pushcart: Best of
Small Presses Award.
She explained her visit to Catlin
Gabel School. "I shared mostly
poems with the students and how
to collect stories about their fami­
lies; how to go and ask for grand­
pa's picture; how to imagine your
history when you don't have any­
thing in writing and how to fill in
the gaps. You might have a relative
who will tell you a story. I one case
we had a child who had a letter
from a relative outside of the state,
who, in that letter, because the
child asked, said these are the
things you need to know. Some of
the things weren't clearly explained,
so I told the child to go back and
ask again. That's how you get it.
But most of what we know is by
word of mouth. It's not always
true that we have something as con­
crete as a photograph, but almost
always there is something else that
can take its place.
"There was a Black student in
my class in Nebraska who's grand­
mother could only remember a re­
cipe she had been given by her
mother. We worked together on
that and then we wrote a story
around that recipe. That was as
tangible as anything. It told some­
thing about the geography, where
she came from, and it forced the
child to begin to think and imagine
what life was like then. So, she had
a stronger sense of history.'
Ms. McElroy said she learned
how to tell stories so that she could
win friends in a hurry. "I learned
how to understand what was im­
portant in a story." She explained
that it's important for writers, espe­
cially young Black writers, to use
language that can paint a picture.
"A t Catlin Gabel, I talked about
language being the way that we get
somebody else inside our heads.
Language is what you use to make
the blind see. You can't be in my
childhood, but with the right words,
I can let you see a bit of magic.
Her magic is strong, sweet, can­
did, skillful, sometimes painful, but
never confining.
In the poem
"R uth” from the book "Queen of
PC Peri, recently returned fro m Nicaragua, addresses a crow d
at a rally protesting the latest proposal fo r Contra aid. The rally
was held M onday noon at the Federal B uilding. See related
story on Page 4.
Photo by Richard J. B row n
the Ebony Isles," she speaks to her
mother in a way only a daughter
could. "I have finally faced my­
self in you. For years I have w rit­
ten poems nonstop but yours were
always more difficult. I have even
tried dream language but your
image slips into some zone of black­
ness even deeper in color than your
skin when I am angered. How often
has the venom from your blue­
berry lips stunted the growth of a
poem. How often has your voice
been with me. Wherever I go you
have gone and sometimes gladly
my need to reach out has pulled
you to me. Mama for years I have
hidden hundreds of unfinished ver­
ses in the corners of dark closets.
Read this and count them ."
Powerful, like the magic she
weaves when she talks about why
she became a writer.
"I began writing because no one
could write my story. I need to
say some things about myself and
my world that no one else can say.
It's the drive that keeps me writing.
Because I am conscious of who I
am, what I say touches a lot of peo­
ple and allows them to have one
See "W om an o f V is io n ", Page 4