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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2005)
Passionate and Fearless 500 A local readers theater group presents 'For Colored Girls' at Interstate Firehouse See Focus section, inside J3nx‘tlanh CO ‘City of Roses’ Volume XXXV, Number 8 Established in 1970 w w w .portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Wednesday • March 9. 2005 Gang Violence Intensifies Gas Prices Up on Crude Oil Costs G as prices increased in the past tw o w eeks as the cost o f crude oil jum ped, and a com bination o f factors could push prices at the pum p even higher, an industry analyst said Sunday. T he m ost popular grade, self-serve regu lar, w as priced at $ 1.97 a gallon, w hile custom ers paid $2.07 for m idgrade. P rem ium averaged $2.16 a gallon fo r the period. Italy Mourns Officer Killed in Iraq Some 20,000mourners paid their last respects M onday at a state funeral for Italian intelligence o fficerN icolaC alipari, killed by A m erican troops in Iraq w hile escorting ex-hostage G iuliana S grena to freedom . S grena said it w as possible the car she and C alipari w ere riding in was tar geted deliberately because the U nited States opposes Italy’s policy o f negotiating with kid nappers. W hite H ouse spokes man Scott M cC lellan rejected that suggestion. Dominican Republic Prison Fire Kills 133 Rival gangs fighting for control o f a provincial D om inican R e public prison set pillow s and sheets ablaze M onday, starting a fire that killed at least 133 people after rescuers w ere thw arted by ajam m ed entrance, officials said. O nly 26 inm ates w ere rescued from the public ja il in Higuey. G uards could not rescue prison ers from the blazing cell block b e c a u s e th e e n tr a n c e w as jam m ed. National Police spokes man Gen. Sim on D iaz said. Prevention key to local group K atherine K ovacich T he P ortland O bserver It’s a little alarm ing when a bullet pops through the w indow o f the store yo u ’re w alking tow ard. It’s m ore alarm ing when youth die sim ply sitting on their front porches or w alking dow n the street. But w hat’s m ost alarm ing is how easy it is to fall into the violent gang life that causes these incidents. Sinee the m id- ’ 80s, Port 1 and has seen an increase in gang activity with a migration of the lifestyle from parts o f California. House o f U m oja o f Portland was developed in response to gang in 1989, based on a model from Phila delphia. T he program w orks to pre vent gang life and rehabilitate those involved in gangs. In the beginning, House o f Umoja dealt prim arily with hardcore gang m e m b e rs , “ b u t th ro u g h tim e , through the ebbs and flow s, the needs in the com m unity have som e w hat changed,” said Dr. V ernon Baker, a com m unity partner with the agency. T hrough residential, tutoring, em ploym ent and m entoring pro gram s, H ouse o f U m oja reaches youth in their hom es, in their co m m unities and their schools. “W e’re looking for the kids w ho are falling through the crack s,” by Baker said. "O ur after school pro gram provides tutorial skills, cul tural aw areness and is to help youth successfully passage from adoles cence to a positive and productive adulthood. W e w ork with kids on se lf-e stee m , ac co u n tab ility , re sponsibility, w ho they are, where they aspire to go and how they can get there.” T he organization recognizes that at risk youth com e from at risk en vironments. Inordertocom bat prob lem s at hom e, it w orks w ith those raising kids to help them m ake bet ter parenting decisions. “A lot o f those kids d o n ’t ju st w ake up one m orning and say I w ant to be a gang m em ber," Baker said. “It’s a process that com es o ver tim e. Now, you have a young man associating with deviant be havior. W hen you tear those layers aw ay one by one, th at’s ju st an other young person. T h a t’s ju st another individual hum an being th a t’s trying to go som ew here.” D espite the violent and aggres sive nature o f a gangster, being involved in the lifestyle is som e thing som e aspire to. “Each day that I live it becom es m ore and more evident, hurt people are going to lash out at som eone continued on page A6 photo by K atherine K ovacich /T he P ortland O bserver Roosevelt Vice-Principal Jennifer Fero (far right) and House o f Umoja outreach worker Pierre Enyinwa (second from right) work with Roosevelt students in a counseling and mentoring program to help keep them out o f gangs. footings Exhaust Police Resources Democracy Taking Hold in Mideast !ommunity involvement ^encouraged P re sid en t B ush h a ile d fresh signs o f dem ocracy in the Middle East on T uesday, saying au thoritarian rule is “the last gasp o f a discredited past" and de m anding that S yria w ithdraw from Lebanon. “Freedom will prevail in L ebanon,” Bush de clared, rejecting the m essage from a dem onstration in Beirut by nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian p ro testers w ho chan ted anti- A m erican slogans. t ^C atherine K ovacich Pafe P ortland O bserver T he G ang Enforcem ent Team o f the P ort land Police form ed in 1986 when gang m em bers first started being identified in the area. ■«' <In'the last couple o f years, th ey ’ve focused * all o f th eir reso u rces on solving gang ings and arresting gang associates. [$»•..• Lt. Eric H endricks said that most gangs I are divided into ethnicity. Northeast Port- Brother of Jackson Accuser Cross-Examined A 14-year-old boy w ho testified he saw his brother molested twice by M ichael Jackson began un dergoing cross-exam ination by the pop star’s defense attorney T uesday. O n M onday, the boy described the m olestation alle gations against the singer for the first time, saying he saw Jack- son touching his brother as the boy slept on the singer’s bed. . lan d predom inately houses African A m eri ni* can gangs, w hile H ispanic and Asian gangs íí.‘^ vary in areas around Portland. He said that reported A sian gang activity is at extrem ely lo w levels currently. W hite gangs, m ostly w hite suprem acists, had more activity in the late ’80s w ith skinheads, but visible activity is also died dow n to low er levels. A m ong , all, he said A frican A m erican violence has been the highest. Every time we have a shooting and put someone in jail, there's somebody's mother or brother or sister that has lost a family member - Lt. Eric Hendricks H endricks is bothered by the affect gang violence has on the com m unity at large. “ I t ’s e x tr a o r d in a r ily d e s tr u c tiv e ,” Hendricks said. “Every time we have a shoot in g an d p u t so m e o n e in ja il, th e r e ’s som ebody’s m other or brother or sister that has lost a fam ily m em ber. W hat about the survivors? I rem ind m yself that for everyone o f those gang shootings, hom icide or not. there is a victim w ho has cither lost som e body or had som ebody w ounded.” Statistics show that historically, gang activity has been higher during the sum m er tim e. but H endricks said it can be very situ ational, as has been seen already in the last few m o n th s w ith v ario u s g an g -rela te d crimes. “School is out, it’s w arm , the people are outdoors and in public m ore,” H endricks said. “G ang shootings and gang violence can also be tied to disagreem ents to one or tw o o r m ore parties. T hat can o ccu r anytim e o f the year.” H endricks said com m unity involvem ent is one o f the m ost im portant factors in pre venting gang activity. The force w orks w ith neighborhoods to get the m essage out. T hrough program s like G ang R esistance E ducation and T raining (G .R .E .A .T .), officers are able to w ork with continued on page A 6 MM Portland School Closures, Mergers Pick Up Steam Recommendations now go to school board by M ichael L eighton T he P ortland O bserver All six Portland schools o rig i nally slated for closure rem ain on the chopping block in final reco m m endations m ade T uesday to the school board from S uperintendent Vicki Phillips. D oors w ould close at W hitaker and T ubm an M iddle Schools in northeast P ortland, K enton and A pplegate E lem entary Schools in north Portland, Edw ards E lem en tary in southeast Portland and Smith Elem entary in southw est Portland. "I realize that the decision to close a school building is neither easy nor popular," P hillips said. W hile these decisions are difficult ones. I am confident that once the school board votes on the reco m m endations, our com m unity will work together to ensure a success ful transition for our children.” In addition, a realignm ent o f grades would im pact m ost schools in north and northeast Portland. Jefferso n H igh S ch o o l w o u ld be ex p an d ed to in c lu d e sev en th and eighth g rad e stu d e n ts b e g in ning in the 2 0 0 6 -0 7 sch o o l year. O ck le y G re en M id d le S ch o o l w ould turn in to a k in d e rg a rten though eig h th g rad e p erfo rm in g arts, sc ie n c e /te c h n o lo g y sch o o l. All elem e n ta ry sc h o o ls feed in g Jefferso n w o u ld ex p a n d to k in d erg arten th ro u g h six th g rad e. Beach E lem en tary w ill ex p a n d its S p an ish im m ersio n p rogram . School district officials said each o f the changes is designed to offer the best education possible to ch il dren in a tim e o f budge, uncertainty and enrollm ent decline in Portland Public Schools. The proposals w ere flatly re jected during a series o f recent public m eetings. N early unanim ous o bjections cam e from parents and com m unity leaders w ho packed a hearing in the cafeteria at Jefferson High School last w eek. continued on page A6 School Superintendent Vicki Phillips