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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2017)
Black Leaders: Open Tubman School board’s delay called a ‘betrayal’ ‘City of Roses’ Volume XLVI • Number 46 See Local News, page 3 Nothing As It Seems OMSI illusion exhibit to challenge your senses See Metro, page 9 www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • November 15, 2017 Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortland o bserver Dontae Blake, an ex-gang member who turned his life around, said it felt like a stigma getting lifted when Portland Police stopped keeping records of suspected and known gang members. Blake helps at-risk youth get out of gang life by engaging in violence prevention work as a community outreach specialist. d anny P eterson t he P ortland o bserver New police practices, technologi- cal advances, and years of advocacy by civil rights advocates pushing for a change have culminated in the Port- land Police Bureau’s decision to phase out using a gang designation database as a law enforcement tool, which was officially halted last month. Though Portland police said gang lists were never made public, the more than 20-year-old practice of tracking suspected and known gang members was determined to be unfairly and dis- proportionately impacting minorities, by No More Gang Lists How advocates, new practices and technology bought change a position held for years by national and local civil rights groups like the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union. The gang designations also did not necessarily distinguish between a non-criminal gang member and ones with a criminal history. Of the 359 “criminal gang affiliates” that Port- land police flagged, as of last year, 81 percent were part of a racial or ethnic minority, officials said. Black Male Achievement, a group associated with the Portland Office C ontinued on P age 4