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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2015)
November 18, 2015 Page 5 NAACP Forum on Education The Vancouver NAACP invites fiends and neighbors to join them for a community forum on the subject of schools and education on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. at the Vancouver Housing Authority, 2500 Main St. “America’s journey for justice: Our lives, our votes, our jobs, and our schools matter,” is the theme. Representatives of the Vancou- ver School District and Evergreen School District have been invited to present information at this free public event. Senator visits Cully Plaza C ontinued from p age 2 and home to a violent ring of sex trafficking has been gutted, and the construction workers on site are being trained through Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., an organi- zation dedicated to promoting success for women in the trades through education, leadership, and mentorship. It’s comforting in many ways to see women are in charge of the destiny of this block, turning the buildings painful and misogynist past into a future that belongs to them and the community mem- bers that will make use of the new Cully Plaza. Wyden engaged with several of the workers and teachers working on the program and said he was excited to see how the project and local community would evolve. “I am so grateful for the work being put forward here,” he said. “What was once a blight is now going to something everyone can use in a positive way.” Anna Gordon, an outreach co- ordinator for Living Cully, also attended the tour. She was encour- Activists Profiled C ontinued from p age 3 return our calls for more informa- tion, however, both have released full statements in response to growing concerns. In a letter to her Urban League of Portland membership, Har- mon Johnson said the depart- ment’s actions appear to violate Constitutional laws, including a right to privacy and freedom of the speech. “Who else is being wrongly targeted in this way?” she asked. Rosenblum released her own statement, saying she was “out- raged” that Erious Johnson had been targeted, “I immediately ordered a stop to it,” she said. “I am working to engage a Special Assistant Attorney General to conduct a complete Human Re- source Investigation and audit to get to the bottom of this deeply troubling situation.” She confirms several of the charges that Johnson and her group are leveling, but says it was the product of an employee who was profiling on what she called a “trial basis” when he searched for users of the Black Lives Mat- ter hashtag. Rosenblum put one employ- ee on paid administrative leave while she contracts with a Port- land law firm to conduct an inves- tigation on how the state justice division monitors such social me- dia information. “On a personal note, I have now seen firsthand how devas- tating profiling can be – written on the face of a member of my team,” said Rosenblum. “It must not continue.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon has filed for a records request seeking to know all the information that was col- lected in the online sweep and ev- ery person that was profiled. “The simple act of expressing oneself on social media should not be enough to trigger informa- tion gathering by the Oregon De- partment of Justice,” said David Rogers, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon. Mat de Santos, legal director of the Oregon ACLU, added his own concerns, “We have some preliminary answers, but we also Subscribe! 503-288-0033 Fill Out & Send To: Attn: Subscriptions, PO Box 3137, Portland OR 97208 $45.00 for 3 months • $80.00 for 6 mo. • $125.00 for 1 year (please include check with this subscription form) Name: Telephone: Address: or email subscriptions@portlandobserver.com aged by the progress being made. “There is so much to look for- ward to here,” she said pointing at the cleared out floors behind the open doors. Amy James-Neel, a construc- tion manager and job developer with the Oregon Tradeswom- an also expressed pride at the work the students and teachers were doing. “They’ve learned a lot very quickly,” she said. The tradeswoman program will con- tinue to work on the project as it pushes towards its desired goals throughout the following months. have many more questions,” said dos Santos. “Why was a black- led social movement used as a jumping-off point for ‘anti-police sentiment’? How did the inves- tigation of the DOJ’s own Civil Rights Division director go so far? Who else was swept up in this dragnet?”