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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 2014)
'ri,f ^orttani» (©bserver £5>ack to ^ c h o o Page 8 August 20, 2014 Special edition New Prices Effective May 1,2010 Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG $45.00 A sm all distance/travel charge m ay be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: I sm all H allw ay) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With Other Services): $25.00 Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool): $40.00Minimum Heavily Soiled Area: Additional $ 10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $ 109 - $ 139 Chair or Recliner: $25 - $49 Throw Pillows (With Other Services): $5.00 Struggling to Make Sense of Michael Brown’s Death Structural racism perpetuates negative stereotypes by D avid R agland I flew into St. Louis on Saturday, Aug. 9, to celebrate the birthdays of my m o th er and nephew and immediately learned about Mike Brown, a soon-to-be college student who was fatally shot by Ferguson, Mo. police. As my community and I struggle to make sense of this recent murder, I cannot help but think of the structures of racism and violence in America and how they perpetuate police brutality against black Americans. Police brutality is a national crisis, but the underlying structural violence - racism, economic injustice and militarism - is a national epi demic. Disproportionality in police use of force against black Ameri cans persists and cannot be tol erated. An April 2013 report prepared by the M alcolm X Grassroots Movement found that killings of black Americans by “ law en fo rcem en t, secu rity guards and stand-your-ground vigilantes’’ have increased from one every 36 hours, in the first half of 2012, to one every 28 hours by the end of that year. This appalling statistic is rooted in structural racism that system atically excludes persons of color from opportunities and perpetu ates negative stereotypes. A Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning Deodorizing & Pet Ddor Treatment = v Spot & Stain Removal Service Scotchguard Protection M inor Water Damage Services I SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment ..( 5 0 3 U 8 1 .- 3 ? 4 9 ... In their2006book, The Color for Gawker, Jason Parham ar of Wealth: The Story Behind gues that police brutality should the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide, finally be considered a national Meizhu Lui and Barbara Rob crisis. While I agree, we should les illustrate this continuing, go a step further and address our race-oriented, systematic ex national epidemic of structural clusion of Americans of color violence. With increasingly mili from opportunities that are sup ta riz e d p o lic e d e p a rtm e n ts posed to build an individual’s throughout the US, supported wealth - business loans, em ploy and influenced by a government ment opportunities, mortgages that uses violence to police the and G.I. benefits, for example. world, our city streets are battle BBC N ew s’ 2012 mini-docu grounds. With structural racism’s mentary, “The Delmar Dividing harmful, dehumanizing images, Line,’’ illuminates how the struc the enemy insurgents are black. tural violence of impoverishment How should we respond to in St. Louis, Mo., continues to this national epidem ic and the fall along racial lines with blacks m urder o f M ichael B row n? In in the North with low incomes dealing with the im m ediate is and whites in the south with sue, protesters and the fam ily significantly higher incomes - a o f M ichael Brown w ant his separation rem iniscent o f the killer im m ediately arrested and 19th century. tried in court. This may hap In a society where wealth pen, but w hile the m otto on brings respect, these economic m ost police cars is protect and injustices translate into social, serve, there is an overw helm cultural and institutional views ing sense in com m unities of of blacks as lazy and morally color that police often sim ply inferior. In addition, the black protect their own. community is often framed as In the short-term, as a start, violent and animalistic, as illus we should require police to wear trated by a recent CNN video of cameras on their uniforms. A a protest in Ferguson, where a 2013 C am bridge U niversity David Ragland, writing fo r police officer shouted, “Bring it, study found that body cameras PeaceVoice, is a visiting As all you fucking animals!’’ Per for police in Rialto, Calif, re sistant Professor o f education spectives like these serve to per duced the use of force by 50 at Bucknell University, hoard petuate structural racism and p ercen t. W e should pursu e member fo r the Peace and justify violence against the black greater community involvement Justice Association and United community as people who should in, and oversight of, policing. Nations representative fo r the be feared. Further, we need to create poli International Peace Research In his August 4, 2014 article cies that reward those who have Association. to the No law-abiding people should fear police ADDITIONAL SERVICES taken mediation and nonviolence training and who demonstrate empathy and commitment to the communities they serve. Most importantly, in the long term , we need restorative ju s tice program s and processes enabled in com m unities across the nation. R estorative justice processes can open dialogues betw een police and their com m unities and lessen the friction and false im ages that lead to B row n’s m urder—or Eric G ar ner, or O scar G rant or K endra Jam es or Jonathan Ferrell or Jam es Perez or any other un arm ed young black person un justly killed by police who have been prim ed and pum ped up to use lethal force against per ceived but nonexistent threat. As a national community, we have to dem and ju stic e for Michael Brown and all others killed by or suffering from struc tural violence and its perpetua tio n o f p o lic e b ru ta lity in America. We have to demand justice that restores our com m u nities through listening, power sharing and mutual respect and moves us toward a cure for this national epidemic. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Michael Brown, the young man shot in F erg u so n , M o. My thoughts and prayers go out to th e e n tire co m m u n ity o f Ferguson. And also to the Afri can-A m erican com m unity in Portland, and throughout Oregon, and throughout our nation. No law-abiding people should ever have reason to fear the police. Yet we must honestly admit that, too often, this is not true for a wide swath of our community: people of color. T hat’s why I’ve made it a priority to join with many o f my fellow mayors to focus on the lives of young black men in our community. Mayors like Michael Nutter in Philadelphia, and Mitch Landrieu in New Orleans, and I are focusing on this very topic th ro u g h th e B lack M ale Achievement Initiative. In Portland, we are focusing on ways to collaborate with the com m unity and to inter cede on behalf o f young A fri can-A m ericans in the areas of jobs, education and incarcera tion rates. This is vital work. T hat is as true in Portland as it is everyw here. Also in Portland, we have put a priority on new training for our Police Bureau, with an em pha sis on the appropriate use of force, on de-escalation and on equity. Bureau members have begun receiving training on sys temic inequities, implicit bias and cultural diversity. In July, as mayor and police Advertise w ith diversity in 1 he Portland Observer Call 503-288-0033 ads@portlandobserver.com commissioner, I joined in three intensive days of training for my staff and the top officials of the police department, on these very topics. The training, called White Men as Full Diversity Partners, was controversial to some but understood by many. But this w eek’s headlines provide just one example of why such train ing is vital. We, as a society, have consis tently failed multiple groups of Americans. We cannot continue to do so in the future. Charlie Hales, Mayor of Portland
