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
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‘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