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.
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Learn how our focus of Community, Urban and Global Studies
encourages cross-age relationships, social awareness and critical
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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
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