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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2016)
Page 6 July 13, 2016 O PINION Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. A Step Backwards for Police Diversity Command shuffle leaves out African- Americans d r . l e r oy h aynes J r . and d r . t. a llen b ethel by The recent developments with the investigation and retirement of Police Chief Larry O’Dea, the demotion of the assistant chiefs, and particularly Kevin Modica, plus the appointment of a new chief of Police Mike Marshman can either turn us backwards or propel us forward in transform- ing the Portland Police Bureau into a 21st Century community policing era. More than 12 years of constant struggle by the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform has propelled us to the intervention of the U. S. De- partment of Justice and the “set- tlement agreement” accepted by Judge Michael Simon. The implementation of the agreement has been far from per- fect. Obstacles, hindrances, de- tours, resistance, as well as suc- cess in a few key vital areas have made a bumpy ride the first two years of implementation. The future success or failure of the settlement agreement in transforming the Portland Police Bureau and creating 21st Century community policing is critically dependent on the kind of lead- ership we have from the chief of police to the assistant chiefs, to the command staff, as well as su- pervisors. We need leadership in the po- lice bureau, in city government and in the community who will embrace the vision of communi- ty policing that will be effective and relevant as well as imple- menting the settlement agree- ment. The demotion of Assistant Chief Modica and the lack of African- American presence on the command staff or the assis- tant chiefs is a “step backward” to creating a leadership team that will meet these goals. We are living in a critical time in Portland and our nation. A time in which cities across America, as well as the city of Portland are “crying out” for police account- ability. Uprisings have erupted through major cities; gang vio- lence has intensified particular in black communities. The failure to have an experienced, relevant African -American voice at an as- sistant chief or command level is a detriment to the welfare of the city. “Where do we go from here?” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked at the crossroads of the modern Civil-Rights Movement. Is it backward or forward? A costly price has been already paid in blood, sweat and tears. Let us move forward to create a new and fresh model for the city of Portland and the nation. Dr. LeRoy Haynes Jr. and Dr. T. Allen Bethel are chair and co- chair of the AMA Coalition for Justice and Police Reform. To Stop ‘Bomb Trains,’ I Honeymooned in Jail Facing down a locomotive in Vancouver d aPhne W ysham It was a few days after my wedding. I was supposed to be honey- mooning at a nearby win- ery with my newly minted husband, celebrating our unlikely marriage at age 55. Instead, I was sitting on the railroad tracks in the pouring rain. Along with 20 other brave souls, some weeping, some singing, I was facing down a locomotive in a town — Vancouver, Wash. — that many fear will be forced to accept the largest oil-by-rail terminal in the country. Why would anyone do some- thing like that? Because a few short days be- fore, we’d watched in horror as a mile-long train filled with Bakken crude derailed in Mosier, Ore., and burst into towering flames. We call these oil trains “bomb trains” because we know, with one tiny loose bolt, they can erupt into an inferno, scorching every- thing for miles. It happened in Lac-Megantic, Canada in 2013. Forty-seven people were killed in a matter of minutes, the town lev- eled when a train’s brakes failed. In the aftermath of the Mosier derailment, local fire chief Jim Appleton, who was originally unwilling to condemn oil trains, was beginning to sound more by and more like one of us: “I think it’s insane” to ship oil by rail, he told a reporter. “Shareholder val- ue doesn’t outweigh the lives and happiness of our community.” And yet shareholder value is outweighing the lives and happi- ness of communities all over the world. I live in the “blast zone” less than a mile from tracks that ply this dangerous cargo here in the Pacific Northwest. And mil- lions of people, most of them on the other side of the world, are al- ready feeling the heat. More bomb trains, after all, mean more climate change. Ris- ing temperatures mean dangerous weather patterns, like the floods that recently killed hundreds in Pakistan and China. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil, whose scientists knew as early as the 1960s that catastrophic climate change would ensue if they didn’t change course, has invested in cli- mate denial in order to maximize their shareholder value, counting on us to not connect the dots. I grew up in India. I can see the faces of friends and loved ones on Facebook enduring record heat and flooding there. So if the trains wouldn’t stop coming, I fig- ured, I’d put my body on the line in Vancouver. If I went to jail, I hoped my husband would forgive me for skipping out on our first big date as newlyweds. The riot police were beginning to gather, and the railroad’s private police were issuing their warnings while hundreds chanted nearby. Not wanting to lose valuables in jail, I gave my wallet, cell phone, and wedding ring to a friend. Then they hauled us off, one by one, in plastic handcuffs like tiny angel’s wings behind each protes- tor’s back. They put the 13 women — as young as 21 and as old as 85 — in one cell and the eight men in the other. Seven hours later, as we were released from our windowless cage into the beautiful summer evening, I felt an unspeakable gratitude to my cellmates and those who awaited us outside. Should we go to trial, many of us will be arguing we did this out of necessity, in order to prevent a far greater looming evil — of being incinerated in our sleep, of doing nothing to stop this deadly fossil fuel cargo while hundreds of thousands of people die each year from floods, disease, malnutri- tion, and heat stress due to climate change. Call me crazy, but we might just win this one. And in so doing, we’ll send a very strong message to the oil companies that threaten us all that they must end this mad- ness. Daphne Wysham is the direc- tor of the Center for Sustainable Economy’s climate and energy program in Portland. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
