March 13, 2019
The
Page 3
INSIDE
Week in Review
M ETRO
This page
Sponsored by:
page 2
page 9
PhotoS by d anny P eterSon /t he P ortland o bServer
Andre Washington, the brother of Jason Washington, the man shot and killed by two Portland State
University public safety officers last June during a disturbance outside the Cheerful Tortoise bar near
the campus, gives public testimony to the Portland State University Board of Trustees Thursday urging
them to disarm their public safety officers.
Emotionally Raw
PSU Board
faced with pleas
to disarm
d anny P eterSon
t he P ortland o bServer
Portland State University’s
Board of Trustees has a lot to
digest after an emotionally raw
meeting with the campus commu-
nity to discuss a new report and
investigation of the PSU security
office and its controversial policy
to arm campus police officers.
The 209 page report, done by
Vermont-based consultant firm
Margolis Healy, was criticized
by students and faculty during an
open comment session before the
board on Thursday.
The investigation was spurred
by the June 29 death of Jason
Washington, an African American
Navy veteran, postal worker, and
grandfather who lost his life when
a night of drinking with friends es-
calated to what the board of trust-
ees called a “tragedy.”
Though Washington was trying
to break up a fight at the Cheerful
Tortoise bar near campus, and had
a permit for his friend’s gun he was
carrying at the time, the two armed
campus officers who shot and killed
him were cleared of all wrongdoing.
Many members of Washington’s
family were present at the meeting
in support of disarming the campus.
“This Margolis Healy analysis
means nothing to me. There’s a
man who lost his life, and that’s
what’s important,” Andre Wash-
ington, Jason’s older brother, told
by
pages 6-10
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
C ALENDAR
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
page 11
pages 12-13
pages 14
the Portland Observer.
A PSU alumni, the Washington
family member also testified to the
board, and recounted a story from
2010 in which he was driving in
his car with a friend—who was
also African American—and was
stopped by three campus officers
on College Street.
“Yes, the same street Jason
Washington took his last breath
on, that street,” his brother point-
ed out.
Andre Washington said he was
a master’s student at the universi-
ty’s School of Education when the
officers—who did not announce
themselves--asked for his license,
registration and university identi-
fication. When he wanted for more
information on why he was being
detained, a PSU officer told him
to “shut up or I’m calling Portland
Police,” he said.
“These practices have been
going on for decades. And those
same practices, and fear, lead to
the murder—and I use the term
murder—of Jason Washington. I
believe had the officer been armed
in 2010, I may not be standing
here or sitting here today. I want
you to disarm this police force,”
Washington said.
The board announced it would
establish a new campus pub-
lic safety review and response
committee with representatives
from the board, faculty, students
and other community members
to assess the Margolis Healy re-
port prior to a June board meet-
ing when it’s expected they will
vote on whether or not to nix the
current armament policy. The
committee—which has yet to be
formed—will give their recom-
mendations to the board in May.
Another promise on process
wasn’t much comfort to the stu-
dents in opposition, who took an
opportunity during a break to hold
signs of others killed by armed
campus police officers across
the country and chanting “Jason
Washington, say their names! Dis-
arm PSU! Disarm PSU!”
The Margolis Healy consul-
tants found faults in the universi-
ty’s handling of its Camus Public
Safety Office and pointed to an
oversight committee that was un-
der-resourced.
“We believe that CPSO really
doesn’t have a strategy for what
it’s doing,” the firm’s co-found-
er, Steven Healy, said. He added
officers tend to do their day-to-
day patrols “without the benefit
of an inclusive process whereby
the department is listening to the
concerns of the campus commu-
nity and responding to them in a
coherent way.”
When the board’s chair, Gale
Castillo, asked what the firm’s
top five recommendations were,
they named four main areas of
improvement, with many sub-rec-
ommendations under that: over-
sight, community engagement,
physical security—like improved
lighting on campus and building
security—and training, which was
cited as a top priority. Overall, the
consultants found PSU fell short
on many of the expectations the
University and board set for itself
C ontinued on P age 5