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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2020)
Black Pioneers Hire Expert No More Library Fines Professional is first to lead group in 27 years New policy clears debts; restores access See Local News, page 3 See Local News, page 3 Established in 1970 PO QR code ‘City of Roses’ Volume XLVIV • Number 16 www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • July 8, 2020 Committed to Cultural Diversity Windows were smashed at a Bank of America branch on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for the second time last week after a protest march on police brutality and racial justice descended into violence and vandalism. Damages Assailed as Setback Voices raised against protest violence, vandalism M ichael l eighton P ortland o bserver e ditor Advocates for Portland’s African American commu- nity joined black leaders in law enforcement this week to speak out against the violence, vandalism and arson fires that have marred many of the daily protests over unjust police shootings and racial bias in the criminal justice system. “We have to be smart,” said Joe “Bean” Keller, a black father who lost his son to a police shooting in 1996 and has led a sustained campaign for justice for his son ever since. Keller said the violence and vandalism that has erupted after several recent protests damages the cause of prosecuting bad cops and adopting better policing practices because it turns people who would be sup- porters against a growing justice movement to address bias in policing. Even though he still seeks justice in his own son’s by c ontinued on P age 4 Joe “Bean” Keller is leading a delegation of Portland families like his own who have lost loved ones to police violence to attend the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington this coming Aug. 28. He is pictured with artist Emma Berger, creator of a mural calling attention to the death of black men at the hands of police in front the Apple store on Southwest Yamhill, downtown. On the Front Lines for Change Bereaved father organizes March on Washington M ichael l eighton P ortland o bserver e ditor Support is growing for a bereaved father from Port- land’s Black community who is leading a group of in- dividuals from families like his to Washington, D.C. for the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington to promote racial justice and demand action to stop unjust police shootings. Joe “Bean” Keller, who lost his son in a Portland po- lice shooting back in 1996, is leading the delegation of at least a dozen other Portlanders to the Aug. 28 march organized by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Keller told the Portland Observer that thanks to $10,000 in donations that had been generated by a Go by Fund Me account through Monday, he and two mem- bers of his family and members from at least 12 other families in Portland will attend the anniversary event. All of the planned participants have lost a family mem- ber at the hands of police. The aim now is to attract even more donations to make it possible for another 10 Portland family mem- bers impacted by police violence to travel to Washing- ton, D.C. to raise their voices for racial justice. The upcoming march commemorates the 1963 March on Washington in which Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, but it comes with additional significance this year because of the Memorial Day police custody death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man whose “knee-choke hold” death in Minneapolis sparked continued protests in c ontinued on P age 4
