September 2. 2009
Page A3
Group Pushes Back
on Racial Profiling
Wants police
officers held
accountable
photo by M ark
W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Ruth Beale (right), a resident o f the Irvington Village on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is introduced
to Cindy Noordijk who is managing the transition o f the assisted living facility to Providence ElderPlace, ensuring
continued service to the local African-American community.
Irvington Village Redo
rently operates six health and
social centers and manages 230
Providence ElderPlace offi supportive housing units in the
cials said the transition, which Portland area. It is O regon’s
became effective Aug. 1, has only licensed provider of the
been smooth for residents, nationally recognized Program
their families and staff. About of All-inclusive Care for the Eld
90 percent of Irvington Village erly, recently called “long-term
employees were able to keep care down right” by The New
York Times.
their jobs.
Of the 100 residents currently
Providence ElderPlace cur-
continued ^ ^ f r o m Front
living at Irvington Village, 32 are
already Providence ElderPlace
members. Other residents who
qualify also now have the op
tion of joining ElderPlace. How
ever, even if they choose not to
enroll, they can continue to live
and receive care at Irvington
Village.
Providence plans to renovate
the first floor of the facility to
add a health and social cen
ter. The center will allow
ElderPlace members to receive
their medical and other ser
vices on the Irvington Village
campus. Previously, they had
to travel to other ElderPlace
facilities for care.
For more information, call
5 0 3 -2 1 5 -6 5 5 6 or v isit
providence.org/elderplace.
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
A group that has long been
critical of Portland’s response
to racial profiling is lobbying
the Portland City Council for a
new strategy to hold police of
ficers accountable.
For over a decade, the city
has launched a series of initia
tives to address the issue of
racial profiling, the practice of
using race as a basis for deter
mining w hether a person is
likely to commit a crime.
Most efforts to end the prac
tice in Portland have focused
on cultivating better under
standing between police offic
ers and members of the com
munity while improving public
outreach and diversification of
the police force.
But those actions fall short
when the public demands po
lice officer accountability and
the police union denies that a
problem even exists.
Oregon Action, a statewide
com m unity organization, is
hoping to break the impasse by
pressuring City Hall into bring
ing up police accountability
when it negotiates a new con
tract with the police union later
this year.
Critics like Oregon Action
organizer Ron Williams con
tend that the only way to genu
inely address racial profiling is
to find out which officers pro
file based on race and hold them
accountable.
This approach has been vo
raciously resisted by the police
union and Police Chief Rosie
Sizer, who has fought to make
sure that data on individual of
ficers is collected in a way that
does not expose them to public
scrutiny.
The activists complain that
Mayor Sam Adams and other
members of the City Council
have been “dismissive, incon
sistent and demonstrate a clear
lack on interest in the issue.”
But City Commission Dan
Saltzman who heads the police
bureau disagrees, saying “of
ficers are held accountable.”
Saltzman told the Portland
Observer that there are suffi
cient mechanisms in place to
hold officers accountable. He
said that he doesn’t support
tracking data on individual of
ficers in a way that makes them
subject to public scrutiny be
cause an officer might deal pri
marily with minority communi
ties.
He also stated that he would
“explore” the issue of bringing
up individual officer protec
tions with the police union dur
ing contract negotiations later
this year.
................ ...................... ..........| ...............
Recall
Deadline
Looms
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
The campaign to recall Mayor Sam Adams has
just 33 days left to tum in the 32,000 valid signa
tures needed to trigger a recall election.
The Community to Recall Sam Adams indi
cated last Thursday they’ve raked in 10,000 sig
natures, but the goal is 50,000 signatures because
a number of them will almost certainly be deemed
invalid by the city’s auditor’s office.
H o w e v e r, re c a ll s p o k e s p e rs o n Ja su n
W urster rem ains optim istic about recalling
Adams, who lied about a sexual relationship
with an 18-year-old intern while running for
mayor in 2008.
Wurster said his group has some 450 volun
teers working on the campaign which means that
there could be an avalanche of signatures very
soon.
“The way w e’re going to get the bulk of our
signatures is people talking to their friends and
neighbors,” he said.
Wurster said the recall effort remains positive,
despite a string of increasingly hostile acts.
He said that recall volunteers have endured
lewd hand gestures being hurled at them, peti
tions being defaced, and other indignities.
“These things are happening and they’re very
disturbing, but it w on't deter us,” said Wurster.
On the other side of the issue, City Commis
sioner Randy Leonard, a staunch supporter of
Adams, had an angry and expletive-laden con
frontation last week with a recall supporter.
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If yOU Want answers,
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Saturday, Sept. 19
8:45 a .m .-5 p.m.
Oregon Convention Center
777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon
FREE ADMISSION
Sponsored by your government and
local business organizations.
For more information, eall 503-329-4260
or visit www.oregonbizfair.org.
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This summer is
Oregon’s busiest
highway construction
season ever. Oregon
is getting to work,
paving highways
and repairing and
replacing bridges.
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