Page 12
August 5, 2020
Black Lives Matter
STAND DOWN
Stop the Violence
Sharon Maxwell and the CD3 Committee are
sending this to Congressman Earl Blumenauer
and other Oregon Elected Officials:
Resolution for a permanent end to de-escalation of
local and federal aggression against Black Lives Matter
protesters and for systemic redress of harms from
historic and ongoing institutionalized racism and state-
sanctioned violence against Black People and other
People of Color in the City of Portland, the State of
Oregon and the United States of America.
Whereas it is unacceptable that we as a nation have a long histo-
ry of systemic oppression, enslavement, suppression, disenfran-
chisement and dispossession of black people and other people of
color for the financial enrichment of white people in the United
States, and an equally long history of brutalization and murder
of black people and people of color at the hands of police and
soldiers in the enforcement of local, state and federal laws;
Whereas the state of Oregon has a history of blatant discrimina-
tion, exclusion, segregation, dispossession, and state-sanctioned
violence against Black people and other people of color codified in
our state constitution, laws, and policies;
Whereas the City of Portland has a history of oppressing, disen-
franchising, and dispossessing black people and other people of
color in our codes, policies and practices;
Whereas the Portland Police Bureau has a history of police mis-
conduct, violence and unequal enforcement of laws against Black
people and other people of color, of protecting and promoting white
supremacists within their ranks, and of working closely with known
white supremacists individuals and groups in their law enforcement,
reinforcing old paradigms present since the founding of our state and
making Portland a fertile ground for continued overt racism,
Whereas it is unacceptable that there has been a lack of a united
anti-racist response by our local political leaders as demonstrated
by the tacit approval of the soft reponse of our police and police
leadership to recent white supremacist rallies and the harsh, dis-
proportionate show of force and brutality to their protesters and
against the current Black Lives Matter protests;
Whereas members of the 3rd Congressional District Democrats
have proudly called our party the “Party of Jefferson and Jack-
son,” men whose accomplishments must be weighed in relation
to their own histories as racist slaveholders and mass-murder-
ers of indigenous peoples, histories that we as institutional heirs
rarely contemplate or fully comprehend;
Whereas there is little awareness among most white people in
the United States regarding the breadth, depth and cruelty of in-
stitutionalized racism and white supremacist history in the Unit-
ed States at the local, state and national level;
Whereas Martin Luther King said “we are caught in an ines-
capable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” and
we understand how violence against, murder and exploitation of Black
people and other people of color primarily enriches the most powerful
while dividing and distracting and weakening us, thereby making other
populations more vulnerable to attack;
Whereas, the murder of George Floyd focused brought the attention of
the nation on to the brutality regularly carried out by police against Black
people and other people of color in implimenting laws that keep them in
an oppressed state, and sparked national and international outrage not only
among people of color but peoples from all walks of life in this country
and around the world despite the limited understanding most people have
regarding the full history of institutionalized racism in the United States;
Whereas the societal impact and social weight of Geoge Floyd’s murder
is compounded in our collective consciousness by an incomprehensibly
long list of brutalization and murder with impunity of innocent black
people and other people of color over hundreds of years, and this im-
pact has resulted resulting in a genuine uprising of protest and demand
for changes both in Portland and across the United States, particularly
regarding the routine unconstitutional and extra-legal/illegal federal and
local police oppression and brutalization of black people and other peo-
ple of color;
Whereas the recent federal violence against Black Lives Matter pro-
testors in Portland, including the use of secret, unmarked police and
mercenaries exceeding their federal authority in beating and gassing
Americans with military grade weapons banned in modern warfare,
plays out a long history of murder, brutality and oppression visited
upon black people and other people of color which the majority of
white people have often remained ignorant about and avoided account-
ability for;
Whereas the Black Lives Matter movement is part of a long and sacred
history of outspoken and courageous protest to advance fair and equal
treatment under the law for all peoples from colonists seeking equal
representation in the making of laws that govern them, to the abolition
of slavery, the expansion of the vote to women, the establishment of
labor unions and fair labor practices, and the civil rights movement;
Whereas we stand now at a moment of national reckoning and hold
ourselves accountable to work tirelessly to bring an end to institution-
alized racism in Oregon;
And Whereas the cause of black people and other people of color in
this country is just, and warrants redress and remembrance of their
plight to help restore our dignity as a people and keep us and our chil-
dren from engaging in such barbarous behavior in the future;
Now therefore be it resolved…
That we, the 3rd Congressional District Democrats, hereby acknowl-
edge the dark histories of the founders of our party and country, our
leaders and people, over the long arc of American history regarding
treatment of black people and other people of color both inside the
United States and around the world;
We call for the immediate cessation of all hostilities against black peo-
ple and all people of color, and their allies, in their just cause of protests
that have drawn attention to our racist history and the need for
fundamental change in our society. In particular, we condemn
the use of violent intimidation tactics used by Federal troops
without accountability against their fellow Americans, we sup-
port our Governor’s demand for the removal of Federal troops
from the City of Portland, and we demand immediate cessation
of plans to deploy federal troops for the purposes of suppressing
civil rights in other cities throughout the United States.
We call for the cessation of hostile activities of the Portland
Police Bureau, and police departments across this country, to-
ward black people and all people of color and their allies in the
constitutionally protected exercise of their free speech to draw
attention to our history and current-day repercussions of racist
laws, policies, and practices;
We call for the dismissal, censor, arrest, impeachment, defeat
and/or removal from office of racist individuals in positions of
power, and their white supremecist enablers, on every rung of
political and economic power in our country, including the cur-
rent acting president and attorney general of the United States;
We call for ending qualified immunity, and divesting from institu-
tions steeped in racist law enforcement and their replacement with
institutions committed to the implementation of fair and equitable
laws in a fair and equitable manner, in particular the dismantling
of the Department of Homeland Security, dismantling of the pri-
vate prison industry and emptying of prisons of all non-violent
offenders locked up due to harsh sentencing policies dispropor-
tionately carried out against people of color, and divestment from
and demilitarization of the Portland Police Bureau;
We call upon our representatives at the local, state and national
level to create and fund Truth & Reconciliation Commissions
for the City of Portland, the State of Oregon, and the United
States to study the depth and breadth of our white supremecist
history in its historic and ongoing manifestations, and to create
educational institution and programs so that we do not forget
our racist history, and we encourage other states and localities
to do the same.
And we support calls for reparations and hereby call upon gov-
ernment at all levels to invest in black communities and com-
munities of color at a disproportionately higher rate to support
the growth of black-owned
businesses, home-owner-
ship, median net-worth,
equitable healthcare and
other markers so that indi-
viduals in those communi-
ties may equitably benefit
from the wealth many of
their forebears helped cre-
ate that has for so long
been almost exclusively
controlled and enjoyed by
white people.
Sponsored By:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html • https://katu.com/news/local/reimagine-oregon-project-works-to-dismantle-racism-in-the-state