March 29, 2017
Page 5
Community Activism and the Blues
C ontinued From F ront
Our old mortgage would have
been paid off three years ago. As
it is, at age 62, I have 12 years
of house payments still ahead of
me,” Shoemaker said.
LaRhonda Steele, another fa-
vorite Portland blues and soul
artist, said universal health care to
her means freedom.
“Without the concerns of enor-
mous medical debt, we are allowed
to be fully who we are. Also the
weight of concern for our brothers
and sisters who can’t afford prop-
er health care would be lifted and
thus lifting all our hearts.”
The Inner City Blues Festival
grew out of the Rainbow Coali-
tion in 1988, a year Americans
entertained the thought of our first
black president with the campaign
of Jesse Jackson. Bob Gross, Ken
Cropper and Norman Sylvester,
along with a group of other ded-
icated local activists, helped plan
the first festival to promote Jack-
sons’ candidacy. The festival grew
to support a variety of community
causes over the next 10 years.
When the campaign for univer-
sal health care took off in Oregon
in 2011, the festival was revived
as a benefit for the cause and is
now in its sixth year, drawing hun-
dreds of fans.
The 6th Annual Inner City
Blues Festival, “Healing the
Healthcare Blues,” returns April
22 to the North Portland Eagles
Lodge, 7611 N. Exeter., at Lom-
bard Street. Doors will open at 5
p.m. and the music runs until mid-
night.
The lineup of stars performing
to support the cause will include
the Norman Sylvester Band, Obo
No
Satisfaction
C ontinued From p age 3
deadly and excessive force.
“How can you put a bullet
through the head of a young teen-
ager on his knees, as well as two
additional bullets in his body,” a
statement from the AMA group
said. “We know the PPB is trained
to shoot for the center mass, so
the shot to the head is inconsistent
with training.
“This is why we need stron-
ger, independent oversight of the
Portland Police Officers in the use
of deadly and excess force,” the
AMA statement said.
According to grand jury tran-
scripts made public, Officer Hearst
testified that he shot Hayes with
his AR-15 rifle when the teenager
reached for his waistband. Hearst
told the jury he thought Hayes was
reaching for a gun. Hearst said he
never saw the gun but was sure he
had one based on previous reports.
Just before the deadly con-
frontation, Hayes allegedly used
a replica gun to rob a man of his
state food benefits card outside
a Northeast 82nd Avenue motel
and was a suspect in a reported
car prowl. Police said an exam-
ination of a replica firearm found
just a few feet from Hayes’ body,
showed Hayes’ DNA on the gun.
The officer-involved shooting
has increased tensions between
police and members of the African
American community. It contin-
ues a pattern in Multnomah Coun-
ty where the district attorney and
grand juries have never indicted
a white police officer for killing
or using excessive force against a
black person or Latino in the his-
tory of the city, the AMA said.
Police will conduct an internal
review of the shooting death.
Good in the Hood
presented by
Addy Legacy Project “Okro-
pong,” Mary Flower, Tevis Hodge
Jr., Mic Crenshaw, the Shoehorn,
Stangetones & Volcano Vixens,
Bloco Alegria, Steve Chesebor-
ough, Lloyd “Have Mercy” Jones,
Tony Ozier “Doo Doo Funk,” the
Mad as Hell Doctors, Nurses &
Interns, and celebrity MCs Paul
Knauls, Renee Mitchell and Ken
Boddie.
Tickets are now on sale. Ad-
mission is $20 in advance and
$25 at the door. Tickets are avail-
able at Music Millennium, 3158
E Burnside; Geneva’s Shear
Perfection, 5601 N.E. Martin
Luther King Jr. Blvd.; Peninsula
Station, 8316 N. Lombard; and
the Musician’s Union Hall, 325
N.E. 20th Ave. Tickets are $25
at the door.
Terry Ann Rogers is an Inner
City Blues Festival volunteer.
The Law Offices of
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon
Portland:
Hillsboro:
Facsimile:
Email:
(503) 244-2080
(503) 244-2081
(503) 244-2084
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com