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Page 12 April 25, 2018 O PINION Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Addressing Gun Violence in its Totality Police kill more people than mass shooters e bony s lauGhter -J ohnson This spring, an estimated 800,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C. to participate in the “March for Our Lives” organized by the teen- age survivors of the school massacre in Parkland, Fla. Thou- sands more attended 800 sister marches across the nation and around the world for gun reform. Gun control is often portrayed as a “white” issue, but the march was encouragingly intersection- al. Organizers shared the stage with members of black and brown communities whose daily encoun- ters with gun violence are rarely treated with the kind of media at- tention the Florida students have gotten. A number of the Parkland stu- dents have been upfront about the privileges afforded to them by their race and socioeconom- ic status — and have used these privileges to create space for those from other communities. Along- side them were activists of color from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. who testified to their personal experiences with by gun violence. There was no doubt at the March for Our Lives that black lives matter. National events still show, however, the extent to which black life is devalued. On April 4, Saheed Vassell was killed by law enforce- ment officers in Brook- lyn. He was unarmed and suffering from mental illness. What the officers claimed they thought was a gun was shown to be a piece of a welding torch Vassell used for work. On March 18, Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, was killed by law enforcement officers in his grandparents’ backyard in Sac- ramento, Calif. He too was un- armed. Clark was shot at 20 times and hit eight times in the back. Some 590 Americans were killed in mass shootings last year, according to MassShootingTrack- er.org which counts events in which four or more people are shot. But that figure almost pales in comparison to the number of Americans subjected to gun vio- lence by law enforcement. According to the Washington Post, law enforcement officers shot and killed 987 Americans in 2017 alone. Despite constitut- ing 12 percent of the population, nearly a quarter of those shot were black Americans. Of those 223 black Americans, all but nine were black men. Because police don’t report this data themselves, counts can vary. MappingPoliceViolence.org, counting more than just shootings, determined that law enforcement officers killed 1,146 Americans in 2017. Similarly, one quarter of those were black. suburbs, and city centers can be curbed with legislation that mandates universal background checks, a ban on bump stocks, a ban on assault weapons, and an increase in the age at which Amer- icans are able to purchase guns. But to those common demands I’d add: There should be more faith — like the ones who killed Stephon Clark after muting theirs — cannot and should not be trust- ed with a weapon. If the movement behind the March for Our Lives wants to ad- dress gun violence in its totality, it should keep reaching out to all affected communities. And it must Some 590 Americans were killed in mass shootings last year, according to MassShootingTracker.org which counts events in which four or more people are shot. But that figure almost pales in comparison to the number of Americans subjected to gun violence by law enforcement. Gun violence is devastating in all its forms and must be ad- dressed at all levels of govern- ment. However, there’s some- thing truly perverse about the frequency of the violence inflict- ed by law enforcement upon the communities they’re called to serve and protect. Shootings in schools, wealthy sensitivity training for law en- forcement, community policing, and weapons training that rein- forces that there are other ways to subdue a suspect than to kill them. At the very least, all officers should be required to wear body cameras properly at all times. An officer that cannot be trusted to operate a body camera in good not only speak to instances of mass gun violence, but also to gun violence inflicted by law enforce- ment every day across the country. Ebony Slaughter-Johnson is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who covers histo- ry, race, and the criminalization of poverty. Distributed by Other- Words.org. A Counterproductive Assault on Food Stamps GOP pushes mean plan against poor J ill r ichardson Once again, Re- publicans are taking aim at poor people. What is it this time? Adding a stricter work re- quirement to receive what used to be known as food stamps. (Today it’s known as the Supplemental Nutri- tion Assistance Program, but that just doesn’t have the same ring to it.) If the Republican House bill goes through, anyone between the ages of 18 and 59 will have to work or participate in a work training program for 20 hours by a week in order to receive food stamp benefits. Frankly, this is both disgusting and counterproductive. Let me ex- plain why. First of all, among other things, food stamps are an incred- ible economic stimulus. For every $1 spent on food stamps, the economy gets a $1.79 boost. Every $1 bil- lion spent on food stamps results in creating an addi- tional 8,900 to 17,900 full time jobs. In other words, cutting food stamps cuts jobs. Making it harder to get food stamps will, in effect, cut food stamps — and therefore cut jobs. How so? Well, most people on food stamps who can work al- ready do. About two out of five food stamp recipients live in house- holds where someone works. They’re the working poor. They work, but don’t make enough money to make ends meet. What about the rest, who have no income? One in five are dis- abled, and one quarter are elderly. For many Americans, there’s a moral obligation to feed the hungry. Period, end of story, no more infor- mation needed. If somebody is hun- gry, feed them. The fact that feeding them creates jobs is just a bonus. Let’s say you’re a skeptic, though. Who are these lazy people who just won’t work? And why can’t they work? Turns out we’ve been here be- fore, when we began requiring welfare recipients to have jobs or participate in training programs back in the 1990s. And, lucky for us, sociologists Jane Collins and Victoria Mayer researched the people affected by it and wrote a book about them called Both Hands Tied. Note that the title is Both Hands Tied and not Lazy People Who Should Get Off Their Duffs and Work. They found that most of the people on welfare had worked for most of their lives. In almost every single case, they went on welfare because a family member needed care and they had to stay home to do it, or they themselves were ill. One woman had a severely dis- abled child that no day care would agree to accept. She had to stay home to care for her child, and therefore wasn’t able to work. Is that the person you want to deny food stamps? The mother caring for her disabled child? The job training programs pro- vided weren’t helpful either. They didn’t teach useful skills, and they didn’t lead to people finding long- term work. I don’t know who’s on food stamps and not working. But since food stamps pay only for food and not for any other needs, odds are everyone who can work already does. It’s not possible to get by otherwise. I’ve been on food stamps. Trust me, you aren’t living the good life when you have to get them. On the contrary, you must be so poor to even qualify that you’ll do just about anything to work for more income. Adding a work requirement to food stamps is a mean-spirited and short-sighted move that will harm our economy while exacerbating hunger. OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food Sys- tem Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.