Celebrating
‘City
of
Roses’
BLACK
HISTORY
MONTH
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • February 14, 2018
Volume XLVII • Number 7
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Inspired to Keep Others Out of Gangs
She knows
Portland’s history
because she lived it
by d anny P eterson
t he P ortland o bserver
Nicky Taylor’s personal story of grow-
ing up with gangs in Portland and then es-
caping from gangs, a story inextricably tied
to the city’s history of murder and mayhem
on the streets is now a half hour long doc-
umentary, “The Nicole Taylor Story, ” re-
leased last month on Amazon Prime.
Taylor said her mother, who died from
cancer three years ago, inspired her to con-
tinue telling the next generation about the
perils of gangs, a mission she helmed since
1999 when she published a book for young
adults about her experiences and co-au-
thored by educator Francs Mejia Caldwell.
Now a billboard advertises her mov-
ie and book on Northeast 82nd and Ash
Street, which Taylor said is a big deal.
“On the billboard I’m sitting there and
C ontinued on P age 8
Photo by C hrista M C i ntyre /t he P ortland o bserver
Nicole Taylor, Portland author of the young adult book ‘Ask Nicky,’ has transformed her personal story about the
consequences of gangs to the production of a new documentary ‘The Nicole Taylor Story.’
Court Pick Apologizes for Racist Remarks
Oregon nominee
says college writings
were misguided
b everly C orbell
t he P ortland o bserver
Federal prosecutor and Oregon native
Ryan Bounds has come under fire for
making racist, sexist and homophobic
attacks on multiculturalism back in col-
lege, and although he apologized Friday,
his nomination from President Trump for
a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals still reflects
who is today, according to the activist
group, Alliance for Justice.
The alliance sent a “snapshot” re-
port to media earlier this month stating
that while a student at Stanford Uni-
versity in California back in the 1990s,
Bounds complained in opinion pieces
by
Ryan Bounds
that “race-focused groups” should not be
allowed on campus and used racist and
offensive language to describe people
with backgrounds and beliefs that were
different from his own.
The group also claims that Bounds
wrote “condescendingly and dismissive-
ly” about sexual assault on college cam-
pus and that alleged perpetrators should
be punished or expelled only if their guilt
is “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the same
words the president used when defend-
ing a recently-dismissed West Wing staff
member.
The writings reveal strong biases that
call into question Bounds’ ability to fair-
ly apply the law and dispense even-hand-
ed justice to all, the Alliance for Justice
wrote in their Feb. 2 report which is
available online at afj.org.
Bounds, 44, responded to the claims
on Friday in an email to the Multnomah
County Bar Association’s Committee on
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, a panel
he chairs, apologizing for “misguided
sentiments” in his youthful writings.
In a copy of the email obtained and
shared by the Oregonian, Bounds said
the remarks no longer reflect his views
and called them “ill-considered, tone-
deaf, and mortifyingly insensitive pro-
nouncements of one’s youth.”
If confirmed, Bounds, an Assistant
U.S. Attorney for Oregon, is predicted
by some to become the president’s stan-
dard-bearer where immigration rights are
concerned. Others are concerned that the
administration is packing federal courts
with right-wing justices who can hob-
ble progressive objectives for decades to
come. But for some — Oregon Sens. Jeff
Merkley and Ron Wyden included — the
way Bounds was nominated is even more
troubling because they were left out of
C ontinued on P age 4