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Page A4
June 2, 1999
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City, State:
o f A m ericans, especially people o f
color, have been victim ized by rogue
police officers— and the pernicious
policies that have given them leeway
to do their dirty work.
These are, as w riter Joe D avidson
noted in an article evocatively titled,
“The Scales on Injustice” in the M ay
issue o f Em erge m agazine, am ong
the “disparities in the crim inal ju s­
tice system [that] are fuel to the fire
o f U.S. racial tensions.”
A m erican society cannot afford
to assum e that adm itted guilt o f Jus­
tin A. V olpe in any w ay addresses the
larger issue o f police disrespect and
m istreatm ent o f people o f color.
It remains to be seen whether the
Federal government, and state and lo­
cal governments, and more state and
local police forces have gotten the
message that a broad coalition o f
Americans have mobilized to ensure
that all police officers extend to all law-
abiding citizens the courtesies and pre­
sumption o f innocence they deserve.
The disgrace o f Justin a. Volpe,
rogue cop and sad ist must be used as
another stepping stone to the establish­
ment o f proper relations between po­
lice departments and the American
citizens-including people o f color-all
law enforcement officers are sworn to
protect and serve.
Not A Part of Their Sentence:
In a recent report, N ot Part o f M y
Sentence, A m nesty International
looks at the frightening increase o f
incarcerated w om en in the U.S. It
looks at some o f the reasons for this
increase and at the conditions under
w hich these w om en are forced to live
and w hat happens to them w hile they
are locked up. W hat they found does
not speak w ell o f a nation w hich calls
itself civilized or espouses ab e lie fin
rehabilitation or fair treatment.
O ne o f the report’s findings was
that the rapid rise o f w omen incar­
cerated is directly attributable to some
o f the draconian drag law s passed in
the past decade or so. “ W ithout any
fanfare, the w ar on d ru g s’ has be­
com e a war on w om en,” it reports
For instance, w om en are placed at a
distinct disadvantage by “ gender-
neutral” federal sentencing guide­
lines w hich do not allow the court to
consider the impact o f im prisonm ent
on single m others or the m inor role
that m any w om en play in drag p o s­
session and sale crim es as a result o f
abusive relationships that they are in.
One o f the m ost shocking parts o f
Continued on page A6
NEW S
Tri-Met Offers Youth Summertime Bargain
Zip-Code: .
T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
To The Editor
Picture a sunny Oregon day in
2030. Crystal clear skies. Y ou can see
all the mountains and hills. There are
more Oregonians and we continue to
drive more for work and play. But the
air we breathe is clean because the
sports utility vehicles, pickup trucks
and com fortable cars we love to drive
are virtually pollution free. O nce the
state’s num ber one source o f air pol­
lution, car exhaust no longer causes
smog that can dam age our health or
haze that destroys our views.
This pleasant vision is w hat the
E nvironm ental Protection A gency
(EPA ) proposes to m ake a reality in
the 21“_century w ith new federal
standards to ensure cleaner cars and
cleaner gasoline.
The proposed standards, begin­
ning in 2004, will dram atically re­
duce em issions from cars and light
tracks, including sports utility ve­
hicles, m inivans and pickup tracks.
These vehicles, w hich em it tw o to-
three tim es m ore pollution than pas­
senger vehicles, now represent more
than 50 percent o f the market.
U nder this proposal, autom akers
w ould sell cleaner cars, and refiner­
ies w ould m ake cleaner gasoline with
ultra low sulfur content.
The Oregon Department ofEnviron-
maital(^uality(DFO)applaudstfus com­
prehensive program to reduce the effects
o f ozone, partxmlaie matter and other
toxic emntnom from motor vehicles.
The proposed new standards would
cut the sulfur content in gasoline by
90 percent. Sulfur in gasoline reduces
the effectiveness o f a vehicle’s emis­
sion control system by fouling the
catalytic converter, the device that
T
assault on Louima. The police report
V olpe m ade at the time stated that
both m en ’s injuries had resulted from
their being involved in the melee.
W e should consider that second
crim e— the sw eep-up o f a second
innocent man in order to cover the
first crim e— as frightening an indi­
cator o f the attitude o f some w hite
police officers toward people ofcolor
as the attack on Louim a itself.
This is not super-heated rhetoric.
The Louima trial opened this month
against the backdrop o f a nationwide
protest o f African Americans and other
people o f color, and o f whites too, o f
several singular, controversial acts o f
questionable police force across the
country. That lead to increased atten­
tion to police policy decisions and prac­
tices that have turned the phrases “driv­
ing while black” and "racial profiling”
into commonly-understood argot
They have also made two things
unm istakably clear.
O ne is that, in its specific, hor­
rible details, the brutalization o f
A bner Louim a was an aberration.
The second is the false arrest o f
A b n e r L o u im a , an d o f P a tric k
A ntoine, were not aberrations.
Rather, they w ere part o f a w ide­
spread pattern o f police misconduct
under w hich hundreds o f thousands
T R I-M E T
Address:
• Protecting Oregon’s Air Quality
With Cleaner Cars, Cleaner Gas
been sentenced to life in prison. Now, his
sentence will be less, but legal experts say
P h im d em . N ational U rban L eague
the minimum sentence for his cranes is
likely to be at least 30 years. So be it
he sw aggering pretense o f mno
Four other N ew Y ork C ity police
cence o f N ew Y ork City police
officers,
charged in connection with
officer Justin A. Volpe ended this week
the
assault,
rem ain on trial. Like
in a Brooklyn Federal courtroom.
Volpe,
they
are
white.
Faced with the overw helm ing evi­
There
are
some
who, from the be­
dence o f his depraved sexual assault
ginning
o
f
this
horrific
case, have
on Abner Louima, an innocent man,
quickly declared that the assault on
Volpe was forced to dec lare his guilt—
Abner Louima was so unusual that no
and to thereby adm it that h e’s not fit
generalizations can be drawn from it.
for the com pany o f decent people.
Well, they are right in one sense:
Volpe admitted that he beat Louima,
this
was a police beating o f “unusual"
a Haitian unmigrant he had wrongly
brutality.
This was the work o f a so­
arrested after a fracas two years ago
ciopath
who
deserves no mercy.
outside a Brooklyn nightclub, while
But
it
is
not
correct to say that no
transporting him to the local police
generalizations
can be draw n from it.
station house. And he admitted that,
To
understand
that, one need only
once there, he marched a handcuffed
rem em ber w hat happened to Patrick
Louima, his trousers around his ankles,
Antoine, another Haitian im m igrant,
into a bathroom, sodomized him with
who was at the nightclub that fateful
a broom handle and then thrust the
night, but had no connection with
stick into the injured m an's mouth,
Louima and had not been involved in
breaking several o f this teeth.
the m elee that had brought the police
This was the behavior o f a savage,
racing there.
an individual w ho is not fit for the
In fact, Antoine was several blocks
com pany o f decent people.
away
from the club w alking hom e
Volpe’sbrief, flat dec larationofguilt
when
V olpe and the police in his
was devoid o f remorse, or o f any
squad car shanghaied him o ff the
acknowledgement o f the pain and suf­
fering he caused an innocent man. The street and took him to the station
New York Times reported that the Rev­ house, beating him on the w ay there.
W hy? A pparently to “cover” their
erend A1 Shaipton, who was sitting with
Io u u n a’smothermthecourtiuom.used
one word to describe V olpe’s state­
ment. He called it “chilling.”
B y B ernice P ow ell J ackson
If the trial had continued and he had
been found guilty, Volpe could have
There are nearly 140.000 Women
in U.S. jails and prison. M ore than half
of these w omen are mothers - some
200,000 children under 18 have incar­
cerated mothers. A ndover thepast five
years the incarceration rate for African
American women has increased an
astounding 828 percent, with most serv­
C om m unity b ased con tracto rs
ing sentence for nonviolent offenses.
w ere not given an equal chance to
participate on the B lack U nited Fund
As troubling as these numbers are,
what is more disturbing are the stories
A lberta Street project.
O ne w o u ld h ope th at th e B lack
behind these numbers - stories o f real
U n ited F u n d w o u ld h av e m o re o f a
women and real families.
co m m itm en t to the co m m u n ity in
w hich it resid es. H irin g c o n tra c ­
tors from o ut o f sta te an d m ajo rity
c o n tra c to rs is h a rd ly c re a tin g "
co m m u n ity w e a lth ” o r eco n o m ic
d ev e lo p m e n t o p p o rtu n ities. S ince
m any o f th ese c o n tra c to rs h ired to
co n stru c t an d ren o v a te th is b u ild ­
ing w ill n ot b e p u ttin g any o f those
d o llars b ac k in to th e co m m u n ity
th at is m o n ey lo st th a t w ill n ot
have the o p p o rtu n ity to turn o v er
in th e co m m u n ity .
M alcom X saidthaf’adollar should
change hands seven times before it
leaves a com m unity” one time as in
this case is hardly acceptable.
A fric an A m eric an co n tra cto rs
in th e c o m m u n ity d ep e n d on th ese
o p p o rtu n itie s to b u ild th e ir ow n
co m m u n ity , to su p p o rt th e ir fam i­
lies m a in ta in th e ir em p lo y ees and
in v est in th eir co m m u n ities. It is
d iffic u lt for th em to sta n d by and
w atch o th ers b u ild th e ir co m m u n i­
ties fo r them w h en th ey h av e the
c a p a b ilitie s th e m se lv es. T h ese a c ­
tio n s tak e aw ay th e ir p rid e and
p re v e n t fu tu re g en e ratio n s o f our
ch ild re n from sh a rin g in th at prid e
by se ein g th ese c o n tra c to rs b u ild ­
ing o u r co m m u n ity .
F ew co m m u n ity p ro jects have
been as ideal w o rk in g w ith co m ­
m unity contractors as B ishop W ells
at E m m anuel T em p le C hurch, Jaki
W alker at N E C D E req u irin g m a­
jo rity co n tracto rs to subcontract
w ith co m m u n ity co n tracto rs and
G erald M cF adden fo rm er C EO -
V o lu n teers o f A m erica in tow n ju st
five sh o rt years b ut im m ediately
p rovided o p p o rtu n ities for com m u­
n ity co n tracto rs.
C o n trib u to rs are in v e stin g in
th e B la c k U n ite d F u n d b ecau se
th e y w an t to in v e s t in th is c o m ­
m u n ity n o t b e c a u s e th e y w ant to
ad d to m a jo rity c o n tra c to rs o r out
o f sta te co ffe rs.
W e are disappointed in the Black
U nited Fund and w e suggest the
B lack U nited Fund, consider m ore
com m unity involvem ent, m ore o ut­
reach efforts, and m uch m ore com ­
m unity netw orking.
Bi H ugh B. P rice
removes pollutants from auto exhaust.
In Oregon, the new standards would
m ean an immediate 30 percent reduc­
tio n in p o llu tio n from v eh icle s
throughout the state, equivalent to
taking half a million cars o ff the road
in the Portland-Salem region.
Oregonians have made tremendous
progress in improving air quality over
the past number o f years. W hile our
communities currently meet federal
air quality standards, Oregon needs
the tighter tailpipe standards and
cleaner fuels to keep our air clean and
allow us the freedom to choose the
type o f car we w ant to drive.
W hen fully implemented in 2030,
the proposed cleaner cars and cleaner
gasoline standards will reduce smog-
producing nitrogen oxide em issions
by 77 percent for passenger vehicles
and 95 percent for sport utility ve­
hicles and light duty tracks. The pro­
posed standards would reduce par­
ticulate m atter em issions from ve­
hicles by about 84 percent.
O regonians can be proud o f the
leadership role our state has played
in getting EPA to introduce these
standards. John Kow alczyk, retired
m anager o f D E Q ’s air quality plan­
ning section, played a m ajor role in
convincing EPA to propose the low-
sulfur gasoline program.
In D ecem ber, I led a state d el­
egation that urged EPA D irector
C arol B row ner to go forw ard w ith
the new veh icle and fuel standards.
N ow I urge O regonians to support
these clean air standards that w ill
m ake an enorm ous d ifference in
p ro tectin g our air quality.
Youth can again enjoy unlimited travel at a bargain price this
summertime on Tri-Met. “The Pass," which goes on sale
Thursday, May 20, also offers discounts at local merchants.
With “The Pass,” youth 18 and under can ride Tri-Met’s
buses and MAX light rail trains all June, July and August for
just $43. That’s half the regular price of three monthly
youth passes. The special pass is available at
participating schools, and Tri-Met sales outlets including
Fred Meyer, Safeway and most Albertson’s stores in the
Portland metropolitan area.
Pass holders qualify for these special discounts:
McDonald’s: Free dessert with purchase of an Extra Value
Meal. Offer excludes McFlurry dessert.
Ice Chalet at Lloyd Center & Clackamas Town Center: $1
off general admission.
OMSI: $1 off general admission.
North Clackamas Aquatic Park: $1 off general admission.
“We’re really pleased to bring back this affordable way of
helping youth meet their summertime travel needs,” said
Fred Hansen, Tri-Met General Manager. “We expect The
Pass to continue to be a big hit.”
More information about The Pass and Tri-Met is available
by calling 238-RIDE.
Regards,
How
E d L . W ilson
Director, Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality
ance and National Association of Minority
Contra ctors-Oregon
238-RIDE
we
get
th e re
m a tte rs
TTY’ 238-5811 • wwM.tri-met.org
Member O A M E. Black Contractors Alli­
L ang d o n M a rc h
TRI-MET
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