Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2002)
May 08, 2002 Page A6 Jury Accuses Police of Cover-Up A large group attended the Diversity Summit at Oregon Convention Center. Whose America is This? continued from Front land General Electric, to pick up the torch of tolerance and carry it with him. “You never know the influence you will have on others,” Dees explained. To reinforce his point. Dees told the audience about a Jewish karate expert and a gay rugby player. The two "ordinary” Ameri can men were unknown to each other or the rest o f us— until they helped bring down United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania on Sept. 11. “America is great because of our diversity, not in spite of it,” he said. To help teach tolerance, Dees has launched www.tolerance.org. a website dedicated to acceptance of those who are different and the belief that building on those dif ferences will make the world great. The website includes several on-line “tests” that help identify hidden biases that influence our perceptions and actions. people. Our nation's success de pends on our commitment to jus tice for all." As co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that specializes in lawsuits involv ing civil rights violations and ra cially motivated crimes. Dees has worked on multi-million dollar judgments against the KKK and the Aryan Nation. Here in Portland, he was the lead attorney in a civil suit that resulted in a $ 12.5 million verdict against Tom Metzger, founder of the White Aryan Resistance, and his son, John. The Metzgers had trained and organized the Skinheads who murdered an Ethiopian college student out side his southeast Portland apart ment in 1988. Dees challenged everyone at the April 30 summit, which was organized and presented by Port 1 Created by psychologists at Yale University and the Univer sity of Washington, the five- minute tests, which are privacy- protected, measure unconscious bias as it relates to ethnic back ground, skin tone, weapons, sexual orientation, gender, age and body image. Because a hate crime is com m itte d e v e ry h o u r, w w w .tolerance.org also pro vides 10 principles for fighting hate, along with a collection of inspiring stories of people who acted, often alone at first, to push hate out of their communities. Before sending summit par ticipants to breakout sessions dealing with diversity issues, Dees reminded them that bridges will be built by friendship, ac ceptance, tolerance and love. Quoting the Biblical prophet Amos, he said, “Let’s not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters.” Trillivw bfartw fo M LEARNING FOR CHANGE Trillium seeks to create an environment of Independent learning w ith in a small school, small m ulti-age class setting. ■ Learn how our focus of Community, Urban and Global Studies encourages cross-age relationships, social awareness and critical thinking. Call (503) 285-3833 fo r information and appl ¡cations A New Portland Public K -12 Charter School « I Opening in the Fall of 2002 Alternatives...Choice...Change www.trilliumcharterschool.org from ,43 continued investigation was done was left to O fficer Lee, who was a new hire still on probationary status. He is the only one w ho seem ed interested in determ ining what occurred and then he was told by his superiors not to w rite a police report, but rather to record things in his private notebook. N o one ever took the tim e to ask O fficer Lee the vital in fo rm a tio n H he had gathered > b ecau se in our m in d s m o st o f the police offic ers did not want to k n o w w h a t had o c c u rre d . W e felt O fficer L ee sh o u ld be com m ended for th e e f f o r ts he m ade that night. We w e re shocked by the testim ony that dem onstrated that there was a com plete lack of control o f any criminal investigation. This lack o f control created a vacuum betw een the com m anders, the supervisors and the street o f ficers. W e believe that sergeants and lieutenants are paid to su pervise, to obtain all relevant facts, make decisions and to fully inform their superiors. That did happen here. W ith the ex ception o f O fficer Lee, no one seem ed interested in or capable o f ascertaining the facts. The first report that w ent to the C om m ander at C entral Pre cinct decried the victim ’s inju ries as m erely being a bloody nose. hope that this never happens again, and that no grand jury has to hear the very poor ex cuses offered in this case. Po lice officers are professionals, and we expect them to m aintain higher standards o f investiga tion and coordination than we have seen in this case. W e were not im pressed w ith the finger pointing and shifting responsi bility to other people. W hen felony conduct is perp etrated by police offic e rs, even though the vic tim d o e s n o t w ant to p ro s ecute, the Port land Police B u re a u s h o u ld diligently pur sue the matter. W e are ask - Letter from Multnomah County Grand Jury. ing you as the district attorney to convey our thoughts to the m ore interested in protecting Portland Police Chief, the M ayor the union rights o f the suspect and the president o f the Port officers than the rights o f the land Police U nion. W e need to victim. As a result, any investi be assured that this does • not gation that has been done was happen again. T heir needs to be severely ham pered. That made clear rules in place that prevent it im possible for anyone to con this from ever happening again. duct a thorough and unbiased W e have seen the best side o f investigation into the conduct the P o rtlan d P o lice B ureau, o f the tw o off duty officers. w hich represents the vast m a O ne officer, in an effort to com jority o f cases we saw. U nfor fort one o f the suspect officers, tunately, that did not happen in threw the suspect officer’s shirt this case. away. T hat shirt had blood on O ur final thought is to thank it, w hich could have been an the chief who, upon receiving im portant piece o f evidence. the anonym ous com plaint, put Because we have such seri together an excellent investiga ous questions about the con tion team that enabled us to a duct o f the police, we feel that case that w as put together in a it is im portant that we bring this very professional m anner. m atter to your attention. We Il appears that many o f the officers put their heads in the sand and did not want to know what happened. W e were dis turbed by inconsistencies in the testimony and some o f the offic ers’ apparent lack o f memory. From the w itnesses, we heard it was evident that on Jan. 24, most o f the officers conducting the investigation and those in su p e rv iso ry c a p a c itie s w ere It was obvious to anyone looking at injuries to the victim that this was an aggravated felony assault by two off-duty officers. Mission Gets Tougher at McCoy continued from Front W hite says som e kids com e to the school w ith “p h e n o m enal auth o rity issu e s.” She d e sc rib e s th e te a c h e r-s tu d e n t relationship at M cC oy as “co n stant p atient p ro d d in g ,” and a d d s, “ P u b lic sc h o o ls ju s t d o n ’t have the tim e .” W hite c ite s a 5 8 -stu d e n t w aitlist as testim o n y to the sc h o o l’s draw and the faith that the com m unity has placed in it. S tu d en ts at the school re ce n tly w on a re g io n a l film aw ard fo r w riting a pro d u cin g a video c alled “ B row n F ields in our B a c k y a rd s.” S tu d en ts are also c re d ite d w ith setting up the first drug free zone in the P o rtlan d S chool D istrict. A n to in e R ouse, 17, cam e to the school from G rant, w hich he d e sc rib e d as “to o big and lo u d .” His attendance at Grant was poor, but after his transfer to M cCoy, it jum ped to 90 percent. “T his school is sm a lle r and m ore c o m fo rta b le ,” he says. “T e a c h e rs h e re know w hat you need to g rad u ate. T hey re a lly care about y o u .” W h ite d e s c rib e s th e sc h o o l’s 45 stu d e n ts as being its b ig g e st an d m o st v o c a l a d v o c a te s fo r th e s c h o o l’s survival. S harie Jack so n has attended M cC oy since fall. She speaks w ith the co n fid e n c e and cool o f som eone, m uch o ld e r than her 16 years. “T e a c h e rs here take th e ir tim e to w ork w ith you in d i v id u a lly ,” Ja c k so n says. “W e need th is sc h o o l.” T o c o n ta c t M cC oy A c a d em y, ca ll 503-2 8 1 -9 5 9 7 Attention SENIORS «sJpSpfk (C \ I ¿SJ I / C j . i Safeway 18-ct. Large AA Eggs SENIORS ONLY... Safeway Senior Shuttle Service! i Smok-A-Roma Whole Boneless Ham NEW FOR Introducing a great new service for W UV*’1' our neighborhood senior citizens. FREE grocery shopping shuttle I serv* e t o y °ur nearby Ainsworth & MLK Blvd Safeway Food & Drug and Renaissance Market . TWICE a I Month' O n or around the 3rd and / 15th of each month. This Service is / FREE to seniors age 60 and over J A m t iwwon Grondr hddrm and ndonb WU N Q T K K W im D Limit 2 (Includes 1 Free). Water added. Whole ham only. SAVE up to $2.55 on 2 SAVE up to $1.30 lb. on ft* ihontr at any on* L O O K F O K O U K S M C IA L K A Z TKAHSFOKTAT1OH T K O L L F Y M K V K K S C H tD U L K F L Y tK A T t o o k m l k il v d S A F fW A Y ond A F M A liiA N C t M A K K F T FO A C OM A L H I D FTA ILS' Safeway Club Price Safeway Club Price (AASAFEWAY A DRUG V > 7 FOOO RtnaUAanct ÏÏkiAlti ¡¡¡¡ffjj Red Ripe Strawberries Boneless Pork Top Loin Chops 1 -lb. containers. Grown in California O r Boneless Top Loin Roast Valu Pack. Broil or gnll. SAVE up to $2.96 on 2 SAVE up to $2.50 lb. PRICES EFteenVE MAY 2002 r Sun o Mon Tue EFI m m Wed 0 Thur [ ÌÒ 1.1 Safeway Club Price I Whole in the bag. Now the savings are in the Card! * f ( Safeway Club Price ALL LIMITS ARE PER HOtSEIIOl.DPERItAY!
