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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2017)
Page 12 September 6, 2017 New Prices Effective April 1, 2017 O PINION Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG. $50.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: 1 small Hallway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $50.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With Other Services) : $30.00 Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00 Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool) : $40.00 Minimum Heavily Soiled Area: $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $109 - $139 Chair or Recliner: $25.00 - $49.00 Throw Pillows (With Other Services) : $5.00 ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 Committing Acts of Brutality with Impunity A deeply disturbing pardon by e bony s laughter - J ohnson During a speech to a group of police officers in July, President Trump returned to one of his favorite themes of the cam- paign season: violence. “Please don’t be too nice” to the “thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon,” Trump advised the officers. Be “rough.” The president’s endorsement of police brutality was met with applause from the officers and shock from activists and pundits alike. Subscribe! 503-288-0033 Sensing the brewing backlash, the White House insisted that the president was simply making a joke. Even Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the country’s top law enforcement official — a man with his own complicat- ed history of encouraging the worst impulses of the police — attempted to distance him- self from the controversy. Yet the president just proved that when it comes to endorsing police brutality, es- pecially against communities of color, he’s dead serious. For more than 20 years, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona terrorized Latino com- munities, harassed immigrants, and made life a living hell for prisoners in his care in order to build a reputation as “America’s toughest sheriff”. These systematic violations of 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 human and constitutional rights eventually landed Arpaio in legal trouble of his own. Then Presi- dent Trump pardoned him. Arpaio had been awaiting sen- tencing for a July conviction of criminal contempt. Back in 2011, a federal judge ordered Arpaio to stop target- ing and detaining Latinos just to inquire about their immigra- tion status. Nevertheless, Arpaio persisted for another 18 months, insisting that his racial profil- ing was lawful. He emasculated inmates, forcing them to wear pink underwear, and attempted to starve them with food that was called inedible. He tortured them, too: Begin- ning in the 1990s, Arpaio opened Tent City Jail, which forced in- mates to live outside in the ex- treme Arizona heat. An untold number of inmates died. To the law, Arpaio is a convict- ed criminal who built his career on denying the constitutional and human rights of the most vulner- able among us. To Trump, he’s “a patriot” who kept “Arizona safe.” “Throughout his time as sher- iff,” a White House statement bleated, “Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the pub- lic from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.” In other words, the innocent immigrants who were harassed, and the pris- oners who were tortured, were the real criminals. Trump promised to be the “law and order candidate” during his campaign. He codified this prom- ise once he became president in the “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community” sec- tion of the White House website. “The Trump administration will be a law and order administra- tion,” it echoed. For the president, it seems, “standing up” for law enforce- ment includes allowing officers to subvert the rule of law to com- mit acts of brutality with impuni- ty. Empowering law enforcement to “keep our streets free of crime and violence” means supporting racial profiling. And “law and or- der” only applies to some, namely those that support the president. With Trump’s pardon of Ar- paio, a message has been sent: When it comes to police brutali- ty of the kind Arpaio perpetuated for decades, the Trump adminis- tration won’t simply be complicit in it. It will promote it. And that’s nothing to joke about. Ebony Slaughter-Johnson is a freelance writer whose work cov- ers history, race and the crimi- nalization of poverty. Distributed by OtherWords.org.