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