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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2004)
2004 C ory W ashington M emorial Saturday at 6 pm The Jammin 95.5 Nike Big Bailers face-off against The Portland Observer CORY COUGARS. See inside special section C 'jjíúxtíanh ©fasettier ‘City of R oses’ Volume XXXIII • Number 15 AVeekin TheReview Established in 1970 www.portlandobserver.eom Committed to Cultural Diversity Wednesday • April 14. 2004 Judges Support Reforms to Help Mentally 111 Bush Understood Threat Under contentious questioning n a tio n a l se c u rity a d v ise r Condoleezza Rice testified last Thursday “there was no silver bullet that could have prevented the deadly terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and disputed sugges tions that President Bush failed to focus on the threat of strikes in advance. Record Electronic Tax Filing Taxpayers have been filing elec tronic tax returns in record num bers, the Internal Revenue Service reported one week before the April 15 filing deadline. The nation’s tax collectors said Thursday that they received 5 million more electroni cally filed returns compared with the same time last year. Hijacking Warnings Shown U.S. government agencies issued repeated warnings in the summer of 2001 about potential terrorist plots against the United States m asterm inded by O sam a bin Laden, including a possible plan to hijack commercial aircraft, docu ments show. While there were no specific targets mentioned in the United States, there was intelli gence indicating al-Qaida might attempt to crash a plane into the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. And other reports said Islamic extremists might try to hijack a plane to gain release of comrades. FBI Investigates 40 Kidnapped In Iraq About 40 foreign hostages from 12 countries are being held by Iraqi insurgents, and the FBI is investigating the abductions, a coalition spokesman said Tues day. Dan Senor, the spokesman for the U.S.-led administration, said it would not negotiate with “terrorists or kidnappers" to gain the hostages' release. Jayson Williams Trial Postponed The judge in the manslaughter trial of Jayson Williams on Tues day p o stp o n e d a ru lin g on whether to drop charges against the retired NBA player because the prosecutor, Steven C. Lember, had a death in the family. Ephedra Banned Nationwide A federal judge allowed a nation wide ban on dietary supplements containing ephedra to take effect Monday, turning aside a plea from two manufacturers. Bushes Pay Over $225,000 In Federal Taxes President Bush reported $822,126 in adjusted gross income for last year, on which he paid $227,490 in federal income taxes - or about 28 percent, according to the president’s federal returns released Tuesday by the White House. photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver Prestigious Multnomah County judges and community leaders met at the Oregon Association o f Minority Entrepreneurs to support reforms in the criminal justice system to reduce the African-American prison population with mental health issues. Aim is to reduce African-American prison population A dozen judges, county officials and com munity representatives discussed concerns about diverting African Americans with mental health concerns from the criminal justice system at a recent meeting in north Portland. Close to 100 peop1* attended the April 2 session at the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, organized by Jackie Strong for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, a mental health care provider for many local minorities. The session focused on optimizing com munity resources and easy access to men tal health and addictions services to Afri can Americans at risk of involvement or already involved in the justice system. “Multnomah County, like most other urban communities, has large numbers of mentally ill African Americans in the jails and other parts of the criminal justice sys tem,” Cascadia chief executive officer and president Leslie Ford said. “This is both inhumane to people who could better be served in an outpatient setting and a waste of taxpayer dollars. W e’re working with Multnomah County to address this prob lem.” Attending judges included Dale Koch, Jan Wyers, Nan Waller, Maureen McKnight, Unity Coalition Forms Alliances BY J a YMF.E R . ClJTI on page A2 Police officers agree to eventual public process photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver Bringing in youth to support political activism and the new Unity Coalition draws the support o f Portland Mayoral Candidate James Posey, Franklin Black Student Union founder and school senior Charles McGee and Bradford Holman o f the Coalition o f Black Men. those involved with the rally included representatives from the business and clergy com m unity, several A frican- American organizations and representa tives from Black Student Unions of area 1 have to do this to save my life, my nephew s life, my sisters and brothers life. - Charles McGee on the formation of the Unity Coalition to demand police accountability Perez, the unarm ed A frican-A m erican motorist killed March 28 during a traffic stop in north Portland. “ We w anted a collectively unified group,” said Bradford Holman of the C oa lition of Black Men and co-coordinator of the coalition. The specific goals and partnerships of the new group are not quite outlined, but continued Perez Shooting Inquest Delayed New voices for police accountability T he P orti . and O bserver A new group has formed in reaction to Portland’s latest police shooting, dem and ing police accountability and reform. The Portland Unity C oalition, which held the w ell-attended, peaceful rally in dow ntow n’s Terry Schrunk Plaza two weeks ago, is bringing together various multicultural organizations and Portland’s youth to address the death of Jam es Jahar C liff F reem an, Jerry L aB arre, K eith Meisenheimer, Ed Jones, Mary Sauther- Wyatt, Michael Marcus, Judy Frantz, and Chris Larsen . The Judicial Outreach Commit tee co-sponsored the event with Cascadia’s ROAP. Judge Koch told the group that the judges “are here to learn, participate, and help make the system work more effectively." Dr. Peter D avidson, o f M ultnom ah high schools. The coalition planned to meet with the Civil Rights Division of the D epart ment of Justice Tuesday, to represent the com m unity and ask pivotal ques tions. “There are a lot of angry people out there who want answers. We want to know what th ey ’re going todo about it,” said Holman. Charles McGee, a Franklin High School senior, is co-coordinating the new coali tion with Holman. He has a very specific goal in mind for the organization. “ I realize that violence is hurting our city and we need to figure out a way to heal, to build a m ulticultural, m ultiethnic coalition for people that will insist that police officers who shoot, kill and brutal ize our citizens d o n 't have a place in our police force,” said M cGee, who founded the Black Student Union at Franklin. He added, “My greatest goal is to insure that O fficer Sery is fired." McGee said that within the Unity C oa lition, the group would push for system atic changes in police departm ent as well as a better aw areness o f the problem s by continued on page A2 Portland Police Officers Jason Sery and Sean Newcomber, the two officers involved in the shooting death of Jason Jahar Perez, an unarmed African Ameri can motorist on March 28 in the St. Johns com m unity, have promised to ap pear before a public inquest on conditions the judicial pro c e e d in g fo l lows a grand Multnomah County jury investiga District Attorney tion. Michael Schrunk M ultnom ah C ounty D istrict A ttorney M ichael Schrunk announced the compromise Monday. He said that Sery has agreed to drop his lawsuit to bltxk the public inquest in exchange that a grand jury consider any evidence as it relates to possible criminal charges first. “ I had hoped to conduct the in- continued on page A2
