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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. If there are more problems,
it can be put back.”
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