Minority & Small Business Week
Page A2
September 27. 2006
Police Custody Death Investigated
Family can’t find
justification for
force used
(A P) — M ayor T om Potter called
(b ran d P o lic e C h ie fR o sie Sizer prom ­
ised a speedy investigation into the
\ death o f Janies C h asse Jr., a m entally
ill man w ho d ied in police custody last
w eek.
At a new s co n fe re n ce M onday,
S izer said investigators w ould soon
release a tim eline and statem ents from
officers and w itnesses. Sizer said she
expects the M ultnom ah C ounty d is­
trict attorney to send the investigation
y e a r-o ld m a n a p ­
to a grand jury.
p e a r e d to b e on
Potter, w ho is out o f
d ru g so r have a m en­
tow n visiting fam ily, is­
tal disorder, and one
sued a statem ent ca ll­
o ffic e r
th o u g h t
ing foi an investigatior
C h a sse m ay have
that is fast and tran s­
been urinating in the
parent.
street, police said.
A lso this w eek, Tom
C h asse ran w hen
Steenson, an attorney
the pol ice arri ved and
for the C hasse fam ily,
a chase ensued. W it­
said the fam ily's inde­
nesses said officers
p en d en t in vestigation
knocked C h asse to
has yet to find any ju s-
the pavem ent. They
ti fication for the am ou nt
sa id o ffic e rs then
o f force that police used C hief R osie Sizer
landed on to p o fh im ,
on C hasse.
placed
a T aser gun to
kicked him and
O fficers spotted C hasse on a Pearl
D istrict street on Sept. 17. T he 42- his torso.
Women’s Rights Leader Killed
(AP) — Two gunmen on a mo­
torbike killed the southern provin­
cial head of Afghanistan's Minis­
try of Women's Affairs outside her
lome Monday in apparent retribu­
tion for her efforts to help educate
women, officials said.
Safia Ama Jan was slain outside
the front gate of her Kandahar home
as she was walking to her office,
saidTawfiqul-Ulhakiir Parant, se­
nior adviser to the women's minis­
try in Kabul.
Ama Jan was known for being an
active proponent of women's rights
and education in this fonnerTaliban
stronghold, a region where insur­
gents have turned increasingly vio­
Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation
lent in the last several months.
Mullah Sadullah, a regional
Taliban commander, claimed re­
sponsibility for the attack in a
telephone call to The Associated
Press.
President Hamid Karzai said he
was deeply saddened by her
death.
A
Weyerhaeuser
Presents
O R E G O N
ZOO
M
E T R O
A fter arresting him , o fficers called
for param edics because C h asse was
having trouble breathing. Police said
the param edics cleared him to go to
ja il, so they took him to be booked on
a c c u sa tio n s o f resisting arrest and
assaulting a police officer. N urses at
the jail said C h asse needed m edical
care, and police w ere called to take
him to the hospital. C hasse died in a
patrol car.
S tate m ed ical e x a m in e r Dr. K aren
G u n so n said F rid a y th at C h a sse d ie d
o f b lu n t fo rc e tra u m a to th e ch e st
and c a lle d the m a n n e r o f d e a th a c ­
c id e n ta l.
S teenson said C hasse s death was
no accident. He said police had no
reason to knock C hasse to the pave­
m ent, kick him , hogtie him and then
use a T aser.
C hasse's father, Jam es C hasse Sr.,
said his son w as diagnosed as schizo­
phrenic and anyone w ho spoke to him
w ould have realized he w as severely
mentally ill.
In her new s conference M onday,
C h ie f S izer d escribed the county's
m ental health system as being in a
state o f breakdow n.
Potter also raised the issue. "T his is
not an issue ju st for Portland police,
but rather one that calls for a solution
that includes our correctional system ,
m edical and m ental health providers,"
he said in his statem ent.
Top Republican Hit
with Racism Allegations
From college
football days
S en. G e o rg e A llen , R -V a.,
w id e ly seen as a c a n d id a te for
p re sid e n t in 2 0 0 8 , has been
a c c u se d by his fo rm e r c o lle g e
fo o tb a ll te a m m a te s o f u sin g a
ra c ia l slu r to re fe r to b la c k s in
the e a rly 1970s and stu ffin g a
d e e r ’s h e a d in to the m a ilb o x
o f a b la c k fa m ily .
D r. K en S h e lto n , now a ra ­
d io lo g is t in H e n d e rso n v ille ,
N .C ., m ad e the a lle g a tio n s in
an in te rv ie w . A n o th e r c la s s ­
m ate, L a rry J. S a b a to , o n e o f
V ir g in ia 's m ost q u o te d p o liti­
cal sc ie n c e p ro fe sso rs and a
c la ssm a te o f A lle n ’s, a lso said
A llen u se d the n -w ord.
Q u estio n s about racial insen­
sitivity have dogged the R epub­
lican throughout his re-election
S e n . George Allen
bid against D em ocrat Jim W ebb.
H is use o f the w ord “ m acaca”
in referring to a W ebb c a m ­
paign volunteer o f Indian d e ­
scent in A ugust prom pted an
o u tc ry . T he w o rd d e n o te s a
genus o f m onkeys and, in som e
cultures, is con sid ered an ethnic
slur.
A llen said the latest story and
a s s e r tio n s w e re c o m p le te ly
false.
"I don't rem em ber ev er using
that w ord and it is absolutely
false that that w as e v e r part o f
my vocabulary," he told A P re­
porters and editors.
S helton, a tig h t end and w ide
re c e iv e r fo r the C a v a lie rs in
the e a rly 1970s, sa id A llen
u sed the n -w o rd o n ly aro u n d
w h ite te a m m a te s.
D uring a deer hunt with A llen
in the e a rly 1970s, S h e lto n
s a id , A lle n a s k e d w h e th e r
black fa m ilie s lived in the area
b e fo re stu ffin g a fe m a le d e e r ’s
h ead in to the m ail box o f a
b lack h o u se h o ld .
“G eorge insisted on taking the
severed head, and 1 w as a little
shocked by that,” Shelton said.
"T his w as ju st after the m ovie
"T he G o d fath er” cam e out with
the severed h o rse’s head in the
bed,” Shelton told the AP.
Clinton Cites Fox ‘Hit Job’
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During TV
interview
(AP) — In a com bative inter­
view on “ Fox News Sunday,"
form er P resident C linton d e ­
fended his handling o f the threat
posed by Osam a bin Laden, say­
ing he tried to have bin Laden
killed and was attacked for his
efforts by the same people who
now criticize him for not doing
enough.
P resident Clinton d e fe n d s his a tte m p ts to kill O sam a bin Laden
"T hat’s the difference in me to Fox N ew s S u n d a y h o st Chris Wallace. (AP photo)
and some, including all o f the
right-w ingers who are attacking trying. They had eight months to W allace of a “conservative hit
job" and asked: “ I want to know
me now," Clinton said in the in­ try. they did not try.”
C linton accused host C hris how many people in the Bush
terview. "They ridiculed me for
adm inistration you asked, ‘Why
------------------------------------------ \
d id n 't you do anything about the
C ole?' I want to know how many
people you asked, ‘Why did you
fire Dick Clarke?” ’
He was referring to the USS
Cole, attacked by terrorists in
Yemen in 2000, and former White
House anti-terrorism chief Rich­
ard A. Clarke.
W allace said Sunday he was
surprised by C linton's “conspira­
torial view " o f “a very non-con-
frontational question, ‘Did you
do enough to connect the dots
and go after Al Q aida?’”
“All I did was ask him a ques­
tion, and I think it was a legitimate
news question. I was surprised
that he would conjure up that this
was a hit job,” W allace said in a
telephone interview.
Clinton said he "w orked hard”
to try to kill bin Laden.
“We contracted with people to
kill him. I gotclosertokilling him
than anybody's gotten since,"
he said.
He told W allace, “And you got
that little smirk on your face and
you think you're so clever, but I
had responsibility for trying to
protect this country. I tried and I
failed to get bin Laden. I regret it,
but I did try and I did everything
I thought I responsibly could."
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