January 15, 2014
1
M
a r t in
L uther K
in g
J r .
2014 s p e c ia l eo i!io n
and
h0! ™ Hari ï S* ? " s fo rP°lice refor™ d^ g * 2010 rally for justice that was held
and Aaron Campbell were killed, during confrontations with Portland police.
Page II
»mencans, Keaton utis
with Police Reforms
Portland Activist follows path
of Martin Luther King Jr.
D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
by
T o o m any lives have been cut
short by violent confrontations with
Portland Police and a northeast
Portland activist has m ade it her
m ission to reform police depart
m ent policies to bring about a
change in the w ay police deal with
the public, especially m em bers o f
the A frican A m erican and other
m inority com m unities.
JoA nn H ardesty is a form er
state law m aker w hose m ission o f
ju stice is to prevent any further
officer-involved deaths while also
keeping those w ho’ve passed alive
in the hearts o f their loved ones
and the com m unity.
N ow 56, H ardesty says sh e’s
fully com m itted her next few years
to “m aking sure we have an infra
structure forpolice accountability
w hen I ’m done.”
Her efforts are very much the
same vein as civil rights hero Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. whom him
self was unjustlyjailed several times
during non-violent demonstrations in
the struggle for equality.
Fifty years ago during his “I
H ave a D ream ” speech at the
W ashington M onument, King said,
“There are those who are asking the
devotees o f civil rights, ‘when will
you be satisfied?’ W e can never be
satisfied as long as the Negro is the
victim o f the unspeakable horrors of
police brutality.”
H a rd e sty ’s cru sad e has her
facilitating com m unity discussions
throughout the m etro-area.
For over a year now, she has
held screenings o f the locally pro
duced docum entary, “Safe and
Sound” w hich details the police
in v o lv e d d e a th s o f s e v e ra l
P ortlanders, including K endra
Jam es, A aron C am pbell, Jam es
C hasse, and K eaton Otis.
She recently took up the cause
o f O tis’ recently deceased father
by holding a m onthly vigil at the
northeast Portland site o f his son’s
death. Fred Bryant began the
tradition in a call for justice for his
son w ho died in a violent confron
tation with Portland police several
years earlier.
W ith v isu a ls b e h in d h e r, she
s t e a d i ly w o r k s to b r o a d e n
a w a r e n e s s o f th e is s u e s o f
e x c e s s iv e fo rc e , a n d p ro v id e
n o n -v io le n t a lte rn a tiv e s fo r law
continued
on page 13