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‘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