Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, March 26, 2003, Page 2, Image 2

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    Page A2
(Elje Jlortlanh (©baeruer
March 26. 2003
P olice
Clark County Plans
for Terrorism Threat
Marchers Block Roads
Police arrest
135 anti-war
demonstrators
Public asked to report suspicious activities
With the start of military action
in Iraq .Clark County Sheriff Garry
Lucas has adopted a contingency
plan that governs how the county
will respond if the Homeland Secu­
rity Advisory System goes from
orange to red, indicating a severe
risk o f terrorist attack.
"We want to be responsive to
the federal threat assessm ent,”
Lucas said. "Even though the in­
formation we presently have indi-
cates that there are no credible ter­
rorism threats to Clark County and
the Portland/Vancouver area.”
With this in mind, he is asking
citizens to stay calm, remain alert
and report any suspicious activi­
ties to the S h eriffs Office.
“Just as we do for other issues
related to public safety, we have
plans in place and believe we are
well prepared,” Lucas added.
His office is coordinating with
Looking f
State and Regional terrorism task
forces, which sifts raw intelligence
data and formulates regional and
local response plans.
P re p a re d n e ss su g g e stio n s
and ad v ice on how can c iti­
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like a te rro rist attac k is a v a il­
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(AP) — Police in Portland ar­
rested about 135 protesters after a
day of freewheeling anti-war dem ­
onstrations shut down several
bridges, freeways and intersec­
tions.
Late Thursday, police warned
hundreds of protesters at the foot
o f the Burnside Bridge to leave the
area. Some left, but about 100 seated
themselves on the rain-slicked road
and linked arms in defiance.
Soon after, police began picking
up the seated demonstrators one-
by-one, and putting them in police
vans.
Most of those arrested Thurs­
day were charged with disorderly
conduct or criminal mischief. Police
spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz
said.
Police used pepper spray to clear
crowds near the bridge and threat­
ened people on a nearby street with
“impact weapons and chemical
spray.”
Demonstrators, accompanied by
m edical team s w earing black
crosses and equipped with basic-
remedies for tear gas, said they
were prepared for clashes with the
police.
The vast majority of protesters
sought peace, not trouble. The mood
on the streets was generally festive,
with people dancing and chanting
anti-war slogans. Many of the war
protesters were college students,
joining a nationwide walkout.
At a pro-war rally also held
Thursday, nearly 100 people waved
American flags and carried plac­
ards w ith m essages like “ Kill
Saddam” and “Support Our Troops
— Not the U.N.”
Teen Admits Killing Girlfriend
Karl Cramer
faces 25-year'
sentence rather
than life in prison
(AP) — A Portland teen was
spared from life in jail after agreeing
to plead guilty to murdering his
girlfriend and then abusing her
corpse.
Benjamin Karl Cramer, 18, faces
a 25-year minimum sentence for the
murder o f his former girlfriend,
Cassondra Brown.
If he is deem ed fit to return to
society at the end o f 25 years, he
will serve three more years for
dism em bering Brow n’s body af­
ter killing her and could be re­
leased at age 46.
Prompted by questions from
Multnomah County Circuit Court
Judge Henry Kantor, Cramer stood
before his mother and the victim’s
family and said he “intentionally
caused the death o f Cassondra
Brown by strangulation.”
When Kantor asked whether he
Cassondra Brown
~ The whole thing
is just so sad, sad
all around.
- Michael Brown, fatherof murder
victim Cassondra Brown
V
strangled her w ith his hands,
Cramer said, “Yes.”
“Did you use anything else?”
Kantor asked.
“A bungee cord,” Cramer re­
plied.
As C ram er spoke, M ichael
Brown, Cassondra’s father who
was seated in the front row o f the
courtroom, put his arm around his
wife, Carolyn Brown.
“The whole thing is just so sad,
sad all around,” Michael Brown
said.
Cram er’s mother, her eyes wet
with tears, declined comment.
Police said C ram er strangled
Brown in his hom e in the 6000
block o f North D enver Avenue
som etim e between Saturday, Jan.
4, and early Sunday, Jan. 5, d is­
m em bered her, and stuffed her
rem ains into a green arm y-type
duffel bag. Then, police said he
dum ped the bag into the C olum ­
bia Slough o ff K elley Point Park.
More than two weeks later, on
Jan. 25, the bag was discovered
washed ashore on the Southwest
W ashington coast. An autopsy
showed Brown died o f “ligature
strangulation.”
A ccording to co u rt papers,
Cram er told authorities he had
known Brown for seven years, but
their relationship only spanned five
months.
w w w .o rp o rt.a n g .a f.m il
Deadly 1968 Protest Revisited
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I
Shooting at
historically
black college
still a mystery
(AP) — A granite marker on the
edge of campus gives the facts no
one can deny about what has come
to be known as the Orangeburg
Massacre.
On the chilly night o f Feb. 8,
1968, highway patrolmen opened
fire on a civil rights protest at his­
torically black South Carolina State
University, killing three students
and wounding 27 others, some of
them shot in the back.
But much of what led up to the
violence that night remains in dis­
pute. Testimony from the trial of
nine troopers clouded the case, and
the aging former governor who
called out the National Guard re­
fuses to speak about it.
“South Carolina has done one
masterful jo b o f keeping it quiet and
keeping it covered up," said state
Sen. Darrell Jackson, among seven
black legislators who have intro­
duced a resolution calling for an
independent investigation.
The shooting at what was then
called South Carolina State College
was the culmination of three days
of unrest that started when some
black students decided to protest
outside a bowling alley that refused
to allow blacks inside.
That day, several students were
beaten by police in the bowling
alley 's parking lot. Police said they
were trying to control a crowd of
300 to 400 that gathered after sev­
eral of the protesters were arrested
for trespassing.
Afterward, students carrying
rocks and bricks broke windows at
a half-dozen businesses and dam ­
aged cars at a dealership.
T hat led then-G ov. R obert
less than 10 seconds, three stu­
dents were dead and 27 others
wounded.
What exactly touched off the
shooting remains in dispute. Sgt.
Henry Morrell Addy testified that
the students charged police, throw­
ing bricks and firing small guns.
But Jack Bass, who covered the
incident for The Charlotte (N.C.)
Observer, and Jack Nelson, a re­
porter for the Los Angeles Times,
say only a few rocks were thrown
and students were standing their
ground, not charging.
No spent bullet cartridges were
found where the students had gath­
ered. No other troopers were seri­
ously injured.
In their book, “The Orangeburg
M assacre,” Bass and Nelson con­
tend the shooting started after a
trooper fired into the air as a warn­
ing. More than a dozen o f his col­
leagues reacted.
W hile no state probe was ever
conducted, an FBI probe led to
charges against nine troopers; all
were acquitted.
Every Feb. 8, the school holds a
ceremony at the granite marker to
rememberthe dead and injured. But
the Orangeburg massacre remains
largely forgotten, overshadowed
by events later in 1968— the assas­
sination o f Martin Luther King Jr.
and race riots in several northern
cities.
Former Gov. McNair, now 80,
told his story to historians, but
ordered his interview sealed, only
to be opened after his death.
South Carolina
has done one
masterful job o f
keeping it quiet
and keeping it
covered up.
- South Carolina State Sen.
Darrell Jackson on the Orange­
burg Massacre of 1968
V
McNair to send 250 National Guard
troops to Orangeburg to help more
than 75 other officers keep the peace.
On the night o f Feb. 8, protesters
built a bonfire. Authorities sent a
fire truck to extinguish the blaze,
but its arrival agitated students.
Troopers, guns drawn, protected
the firefighters. The students re­
treated, then returned, and some
rocks were thrown. A large piece of
wood struck a patrolman in the face.
After five minutes o f uneasy
peace, dozens of shots cracked. In
Fire Kills North Portland Woman
A north Portland woman was under control in about 40 minutes.
killed after a fire started in the
The victim was identified as
kitchen o f her hom e and spread 48-year-old Denise A. Turner. Her
quickly.
tw o teenage daughters w eren 't
Firefighters were called to the hom e when the fire occurred.
Hayden Island Mobile Home Park
A fire department spokesman
at 1:40 a.m. Sunday and had the fire said Turner turned on the wrong
electric burner on her stove in an
attempt to heat a pan of water. Plas­
tic and other combustibles tooclose
to the burner caught fire.
O fficials said the m obile home
was com pletely destroyed by the
fire.
t