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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2002)
(Elje ÿlnrtlanù ffibseruer August 07,2002 Page A5 Drug Free Zones Face Challenges from Front •e c isio n , police officers rather than judges now order excluded persons to leave drug and prosti tution zones. If the excluded enter the zone, they can be arrested for “failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer.” Excluded people can get “vari ances” that allow them to move through the zones for em ploy ment, health services or their own homes. They may not stop along the way or visit any other destina tion. Variances used to be issued at police precincts; now they will be given, upon request, by the same • officer who made the original ex clusion. This, deputy district at torney Jim Hayden says, answers the complaint that going to the precinct to get the variance was a hardship. “Anyone who still has a prob lem with this just doesn’t like the drug free zone,” Hayden says. The zones have been attacked as a violation of civil liberties. Dave Fidanque of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon says he has not yet seen the latest proposal. He considers the re moval o f some zones a step in the right direction, but says that al lowing police officers, rather than Data Finds Many Struggle for Food At least one in seven Oregon adults live in households that struggle to put food on the table, according to new state health survey data released by the O r egon Center for Public Policy. “During the first year o f the recession, at least 371,000 adults in Oregon lived in households that were ‘food insecure,’ m ean ing they were not always sure where their next meal would come from,” said Michael Leachman, policy analyst at OCPP. Leachman said that the actual number could be a third higher, because the survey w as co n ducted by telephone. “People who are so financially strapped that they are at risk of going hungry are likely to lack a working telephone. Prior to the recession. Census Bureau figures show that Oregon had one o f the highest rates of hunger in the nation,” said Leachman. “Then we got hit by the recession harder than nearly every other state, ex acerbating the problem .” judges, to issue citations “makes them prosecutor.judgeandjury,” in violation of the constitution’s separation of powers. G a rre tt R ic h a rd so n of Multnomah Public Defenders is happy that variances will be easier to get, but says they don’t cover the needs of homeless and indi gent people to “hang out” in the neighborhoods they live in. He notes that people excluded have merely been accused o f a crime by a police officer, not convicted of one. Most neighborhood associa tions have endorsed the proposed drug free zones. An exception is the Sabin Community Associa tion. Sabin Chair Fred Smith says the zones “just move the problem around,” and seems to have had little effect in eliminating drug houses. In fact, he said when one resident complained about a sus pected drug house, he was ar rested. By allowing the police to pick on people they deem criminals, th e law m ay c o n trib u te to gentrification, Smith says. “Don ’ t get me wrong, we don’t want drug dealers in the neigh borhood, but why give up an other part of your civil rights for something that doesn’t help any way?” Smith says. Conversely Rocky Polzin of the King Neighborhood Association claims the zones work. “We haven’t had anyone come to the neighborhood association and say, ‘This is so unfair, people are picking on m e.’ If it works, don’t change it. Our neighbor hood was broke real bad by drugs and prostitution and this was one of the tools Used to combat it.” W o o d law n N eig h b o rh o o d Association President Theresa Lareau is unhappy with the re drawn boundaries excluding her neighborhood. Hayden says his office may extend the I ine northward as far as Northeast Dekum Street, but this would still leave out W oodlawn P ark , fo rm e r h o m e o f the Woodlawn Park Bloods. "W e’re not happy about this at all,” Lareau says. “We had it, and it worked. The problem isn’t solved, it’s been abated. The neighborhood’s on an upswing, property values are going up, people are using the park again, and all that could change if the zone went away.” Eliot Neighborhood Associa tion m ember Neil Swart feels be ing next to a drug free zone makes his community a place for dealers to migrate to, and therefore is happy the zone will be extended to Dawson Park. He says he cannot A revised drug free zone in northeast Portland may extend a boundary as far as Dekum Street, but leave out Woodlawn Park to the objection of the Woodlawn photo by M ark W ashington TT hf . P ortland O bserv er Neighborhood Association. judge the constitutional issues involved. “I’m in favor of tools that allow the pol ice to enforce the law; 1 hope they’re used judiciously,” he says. “I know the police have done an extraordinary jo b o f policing Dawson Park. It’s an exemplary example of community policing.” A nti-crim e activist Richard Brown, chair of the Hope and Hard Work Committee, has been acon- sistent supporter of the zones. “It has worked and I’m getting tired of all the legal challenges,” he says. “People living in a neigh borhood have as much right to be free of cri me as dope dealers ha ve to travel to their own homes - which they can do under this law.” O f W oodlaw n’s com plaint he says, “1 understand why they’re unhappy to lose it - because it has worked. But the nice thing about this law is that it isn’t carved in stone. 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