500
Embracing Her
Activist Roots
Super Bowl XLIII
Cardinals, Steelers
square off Sunday for
NFL championship
• Commissioner Amanda Fritz
on her ambitions, strategies
See game preview, page A9
See story, p ige A3
‘City of Roses’
Established in 1970
.Week in
The Review
Economic Emergency
As Oregon unemployment fig­
ures rise and the dem and for
temporary economic help such
as cash assistance and food
stamps hit record levels, the
Oregon Department o f Human
Services is calling the situa­
tion an em ergency. See story,
page A2
Pay Discrimination
Bill Passes
C o n g re s s se n t th e W h ite
House its first legislation of
Barack O bam a's presidency
Tuesday, a bill that makes it
easier for women and others to
sue for pay discrim ination,
even if the discrim ination has
prevailed for years, even de­
cades.
GOP Asked to Compromise
On the eve o f a key vote, Presi­
dent Obama privately prom ­
ised R ep u b lican c ritic s he
s ta n d s re a d y to a c c e p t
changes in $825 billion eco­
nomic stimulus legislation, and
urged lawmakers to "put poli­
tics aside" in the interest of
creating badly needed jobs.
President Obama
Addresses Muslims
President Barack Obama chose
an Arabic satellite TV network
forhis first formal TV interview
as president, part of a concerted
effort to repair relations with the
M uslim w orld. S ee s to ry ,
pageA2.
Citigroup Drops
Jet Purchase
C itigroup won't be getting a
new corporate je t after all.
Under pressure from President
Obama, one of the nation's larg­
est banks rev ersed course,
announcing that it will not take
d e liv e ry o f the je t it had
planned to purchase before the
credit crisis unfolded.
Gates: Avoid Civilians
D e fe n se S e c re ta ry R o b ert
Gates said Tuesday "we are
lost" unless the United States
can find a way not to kill so
many civilians in the pursuit of
militants in A fghanistan, and
that flooding the chaotic coun­
try with U.S. troops would be
a disaster.
Woman Delivers
Octuplets
Just think: eight cribs, eight
highchairs, eight strollers (or
maybe four double-strollers),
and far too many dirty diapers
to count. A woman in South­
ern California gave birth M on­
day to the seco n d se t o f
octuplets ever delivered alive
in the United States.
Peanut Plant
had Problems
The G eorgia peanut process­
ing plant at the center of a
national salm onella outbreak
had a history of problem s it
failed to correct, federal health
officials said Tuesday.
S of
~ community service
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVIV, Number 4
.
Wednesday • lanuaiy 28, 2009
Deadly Rampage Stuns City
No logic found in club scene carnage; shooter dies
B y J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserv er
at a Portland hospital. The gun
was traced to a purchase he
made earlier this month at a
M ilw aukie pawn shop.
O f the shooting victims, six
were foreign students, part o f a
Rotary Youth Exchange pro­
gram.
They included 18-year-old
Ana Zambrano Soledispa, from
Ecuador; 18-year-old Gonzalo
Vasquez Orozco, from G uate­
mala; 18-year-old Trista Chang,
from Taiwan; a 16-year-old from
France and 18-year-old Susanna
De-Sousa from Italy.
A 16-year-old Portland girl
w as w ounded as was Brad
P ortland Police D etective
Ken W hattam has never had a
call like the one that erupted
last Saturday night.
A vicious and deadly act that
seemed to have no logic behind
it shattered a dow ntow n dis­
trict often praised as a “clean
and safe” urban environm ent.
A 24-year-old M ilwaukie man
opened fire on a line of people
outside The
Z one,
an
u n d e ra g e
n ig h tc lu b ,
k illin g tw o
te e n a g e rs ,
leav in g an ­
o th e r te e n
c ritic a lly
w ounded
Erik Ayala
and injuring
six others before he turned the
gun on himself.
The shooting has left city
leaders shocked and law en­
forcement officials scrambling.
In v e stig a to rs have d e te r­
mined that Erik Sal vadore Ayala,
the suspected shooter, parked
his Kia on the corner o f South­
west Fourth Avenue and Main
S treet, and ap p ro a c h e d the
night club on Southw est Sec­
ond Avenue where he fired an
Italian-m ade 9mm at the crowd
of young people and then on
him self. The incident lasted
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
seconds.
A pedestrian walks past The Zone, a downtown under-21 nightclub, two days after a crowd of
Ayala then turned the gun young people waiting to get inside were gunned down Saturday night in what police are calling
on himself. He died on Tuesday an unprovoked attack.
Yoast, the general m anager of
Kells Irish Restaurant and Pub,
next door. Ashley Lauren Wilks,
16, was pronounced dead at the
scene, and a 17-year-old Peru­
vian girl died o f her wounds
shortly afterward.
“I’ve never seen anything
where there’s absolutely no rea­
son for it,” said W hattam, an 18-
year veteran of Portland law
enforcement.
Portland Police C hief Rosie
Sizer called the carnage the
worst shooting the city has seen
because of the body count and
“apparent random ness” o f the
incident.
Authorities are trying to recon­
struct the event and establish some
sort of motive for the crime. So far
it doesn’t seem racially motivated
or gang-related.
On Sunday, police officers
searched A y a la ’s residence
where they found a case for the
handgun, ammunition, an as­
sortm ent of video games, and a
note he left for his roommate.
“It was like any other apart­
ment for someone in their mid-
20s," said W hattam.
The note didn’t express what
Ayala was going to do, but be­
queathed his possessions to his
roommate hoping they could
“bring in a few bucks.” He ended it
with, “I’m sorry to put all this on
you buddy, good luck.”
The police have interviewed
A yala’s neighbors and room-
continued
on page AS
Freedom Socialists
give voice to
the community
Vanguardsfor Equality
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
Socialism is often bandied
about so pejoratively that the
word can sting like a curse word
dropped in a Sunday school class.
But since the ideology was im­
ported into the U.S. in the late
1800s it has had a hushed, but
distinct presence in the struggle
for equal rights.
In an o ffice on N orth
Killingsworth Street and on the
streets of the city a plucky group
of people doggedly carry this tra­
dition.
The Freedom Socialist Party
has yet to change Portland into a
workers' state, but it has been
there to lend a hand to underdogs
facing daunting challenges.
"I think that Socialists have
always been advocating for, you
know, for the leadership of people
on the bottom, and if you improve
the lives of people on the bottom
you improve everyone’s' lives,"
said Jordana Sardo, the Portland
branch organizer for the party
who also sits on the national com­
mittee.
The Freedom Socialist Party is
an offshoot of the Socialist Work­
ers' Party, and has branches in
several U.S. cities. Sardo won't
say how many people are mem­
bers, and it has yet to win an
elected office.
She explained that her party
engages in "united front" orga­
nizing, meaning that it works to
build broad coalitions aimed at
addressing certain social issues.
One of these issues has been
the plight of undocumented im­
migrants, said Travis Giobbi, a
local member of the party.
photo by J ake T homas ZT iie P ortland O bserver
Jordana Sardo (right), Portland branch organizer o f the Freedom Socialist Party, chats with office organizer Chana Neyland, the
party's office manager, at the party's Bread & Roses Center, 8 19 N. Killingsworth St.
A few years ago, the party
was contacted about a day la­
borer site in Cornelius where
im m igrants where being ha­
rangued by O regonians for Im­
migration Reform.
Giobbi remembers going out
to the site with other members of
the party. They took a bullhorn.
picket signs, and bellowed chants
to express their solidarity with the
undocumented workers.
Sylvia Evans, cross cultural
organizer for the Northeast Coa­
lition o f Neighborhoods and
long-time north Portland resident,
remembers the organization be­
ing in her comer when Portland
Community College was going to
expand a few years ago, which
would have crowded out hous­
ing.
" It was people doing some real
grass roots organizing," said
Evans of her work with the party,
who knocked on doors, wrote
letters, and held meetings to so­
I
licit community support.
The group has also been
present w henever there have
been incidents of police using
excessive force against civilians.
Sardo explained that her orga­
nization has made a point of being
continued
on page AS