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‘City of Roses’
Volume XLV
Number 40
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 5, 2016
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Photo by C ervante P oPe /t he P ortland o bserver
Portland City Hall is draped in protest banners as activists from Black Lives Matter, Don’t Shoot PDX and other civil rights groups oppose a new collective bargaining agree-
ment with the union that represents members of the Portland Police Bureau.
C ervante P oPe
t he P ortland o bserver
Advocates for police reforms to empower civil rights
against racial profiling and other unjust police practices
have joined together to stop, at least temporarily, Mayor
Charlie Hales from getting approval of a new labor con-
tract for members of the Portland Police Bureau.
“You serve the community first, and then you serve
the police second,” activist Jamaal Washington told May-
or Hales and members of the Portland City Council last
week. “We are not subjects, we are citizens and our voices
are supposed to mean something.”
Williams is among a large group of protestors, includ-
ing members of Black Lives Matter and Don’t Shoot PDX
who camped outside of City Hall last week, that pledge to
continue to protest at the front doors of city government
over a police contract they say rewards police officers fi-
nancially without making the streets safer for minority and
disadvantaged residents.
The current Portland Police Association contract
doesn’t expire until June 17, six months after Hales’ term
as mayor is over, leaving many to wonder why the rush.
Some of the activists said the next labor agreement with
police officers should be negotiated with incoming Mayor
Ted Wheeler, who doesn’t take office until January.
by
Pushed
from the
Agenda
Mayor’s labor
deal with police
runs aground
“Where is the fire?” Portland NAACP President Jo Ann
Hardesty said, calling the contract Hales submitted as one
that reflects a narrow focus on giving raises and not taking
in the will or voice of the community.
The proposed labor agreement boasts a nine percent
raise overall for police officers over the next three years,
a bonus fee for recruiting new officers, a higher starting
pay for new officers, and gives retired officers who come
back to duty for six years the highest pay grade available.
“We’re against this because essentially they’re going
to be paying more for maniac cops to come in and kill
us,” said Danielle James, a local mother who also said
her daughter was assaulted by a Portland Police officer
after being racially profiled. “These cops don’t know our
children; they don’t know that this 14-year-old black kid
walking with a hoodie and sweatpants is actually an Ivy
League student that didn’t just rob a store.”
James argued it’s not in the best interest of the com-
munity to have more officers on the streets if the police
that are on duty are not adequately prepared in the way
they deal with members of the black community and other
minority populations.
She called for a contract that expands psychological
C ontinued on P age 5