Gateway to College
Prehistoric
Dropouts earn
diplomas.
at PCC
See inside, page 5
Predators
Dinosaurs
descend on zoo
See inside, page 13
IfJnrtÎanù
Established in 1970
Volume X X X X , Number 20
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • May 19. 2010
Police Chief Reset
New top
cop has
public
service roots
unsure to optimistic.
For advocates o f police reform,
Reese seems to be an unknown
quantity..
"I don't know him very well," said
Jason Renaud, a co-founder o f the
Mental Health Association o f Port
land, who made a short-lived run for
C ity Hall on a platform o f reforming
the Police Bureau.
"We don't know much about
him," said Ron Williams, the interim
executive director o f the civil rights
group Oregon Action.
In announcing Reese’s appoint
ment, Adams sought to reassure
the public stating that he recog
nized that police are often the first-
responders to situations that have
been unaddressed by the fraying
social safety net.
"My incoming police chief un
derstands this reality better than
perhaps anybody," said Adams in a
statement.
Reese a graduate o f Roosevelt
High School and Portland State
University, began his career in 1983
as a counselor, program manager,
and later direct for the Boys and
Girls Club in Lents.
by J ake
T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
Mike Reese, the former com
mander o f East Precinct, said he got
a call from the mayor at about 10 in
the morning on Tuesday last week.
M ayor Sam Adam s was having
a very public dispute with Police
C h ief Rosie Sizer, and w anted to
get his thoughts on how to take
the em battled Police Bureau in a
new direction.
Later that evening, Reese said he
got a call from the mayor who of
fered him Sizer’sjob.
Reese has his work cut out for
him. Tensions have been high be
tween the community and the police
in the wake o f several high-profile
shootings that left Portlanders dead
by an officer’s shot. So far, reac
tions to his appointment range from
photo by J ake
T homas /T he P ortland O bserver
Police Chief Mike Reese answers questions during a news conference.
continued ’W on page 8
Black Panthers Retrospective
Exhibit brings
powerful images
by J ake
photo by J ake T homas /T he
P ortland O bserver
Eve Crane, a photo journalist who vividly captured the Black
Panther Party in the late 1960s, features her work during an
exhibit at A 'Kasha gallery in Beaverton. Next to her stands
David Hilliard, a former chief of staff for the Black Panthers,
who met Crane during the tumultuous time.
T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
An art gallery in Beaverton is an
unexpected to place to catch a rare
glimpse into a radical civil rights
movement that once shocked the
country.
But A ’kasha gallery in dow n
town Beaverton brings some o f
the powerful images o f that tu
rbulent time to the pubic with an
exhibit this week that highlights
the work o f Eve Crane, a photo
journalist who captured pictures
o f the Bay Area Black Panther
Party during the 1960s and 70s.
In 1968, Crane, now retired and a
resident o f Aloha, met a writer and
activist named Eldridge Cleaver
while covering the tum ultuous
Democratic National Convention for
the now defunct Ramparts maga
zine.
What ensued was a deep friend
ship that granted Crane access to
burgeoning Black Panther Party
movement in the Bay Area, which
Cleaver was a key member of.
“I was interested in what he had
to say,” said Crane, speaking at
A ’kasha, o f how she secured such
intimate access to the radical politi
cal movement. “I was there to take
pictures, not steal a man,”
A soft-spoken and unassum
ing woman. Crane chronicled the
movement that shocked the Bay
Area and the nation with its mili
tant demands for civil rights and
prominent toting o f firearms. She
photographed marches, speeches,
the tense protests, and the after-
math ofperiodic conflicts with the
police in vivid detail.
But she also captured the more
human side o f a controversial po
litical movement that was widely
demonized in the press.
continued
on page 16