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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2020)
August 5, 2020 Page 2 College Faculty Denounce Police Tactics Joins in solidarity with demonstrators Faculty at over a dozen Portland area colleges and universities - including Port- land State University, Reed College, Uni- versity of Portland, Pacific University, and Lewis & Clark College - have circulated a statement denouncing heavy-handed tac- tics used by Portland Police and by federal agents that have inflamed tensions in the streets surrounding federal buildings in downtown Portland and elsewhere in the city. It took just a few days for the number of faculty who have signed the statement to approach 400, backers reported last week. The statement reads as follows: “We are faculty and educational pro- fessionals in the greater Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. We stand in solidarity with the public demonstrations that have been occurring in our city for nearly two months. Those of us who have been present at these demonstrations can attest that vio- lence against mostly peaceful demonstra- Zoe, 6, and her mother Lacey, no last names given, prepare to march during a Black Lives Matter protest last week in Portland. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) tors has primarily been instigated by the Portland police, who have assaulted scores of journalists, legal observers and peaceful protesters with tear gas, pepper spray and flash bang grenades. This violence is only a small sampling of the kind of abuse and mistreatment that Black Portlanders have experienced at the hands of our local police for many years. Earlier this month, several armed fed- eral agencies invaded Portland. They have The in Week Review 68th Day of Portland Protests escalated the illegal assaults on citizens ex- ercising their First Amendment rights. For example: On July 12, federal officers shot Dona- van LaBella, 26, in the head with an impact munition. On July 15, federal officers in green military fatigues and generic “police” patches emerged from an unmarked min- ivan and seized and searched Mark Petti- bone, 29 and detained him in a holding cell at the federal courthouse and then released him without giving any reason for his de- tention. On July 20, federal officers in camou- flage beat, pepper sprayed and broke the hand of Christopher David, a 53-year old Navy veteran. On July 21, federal officers shot Mau- reen Healy, chair of the Department of His- tory at Lewis and Clark College in the head with a “less than lethal” munition. Participation in and support for these demonstrations and similar ones around the country is an expression of democratic responsibility and the hope that ordinary people have the capacity to change our so- ciety for the better. We denounce the indiscriminate use of violence directed towards participants in these demonstrations by both the Portland police and the federal agencies that are il- legally operating in our city. We encourage the efforts of our respective institutions to foreground and address issues of racial and social justice. We stand with our many colleagues who have been participating in nonviolent protests throughout our city and who have been counted among those injured by federal agents.” Thursday by ringing a peace bell 80 times to honor Congressman John Lewis on the day of his funeral in Atlanta. The civil rights hero died July 17. He was 80. Protests against police brutality and sys- temic racism took place in Portland for the 68th consecutive day Monday since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Two people were arrest- ed during a nighttime demonstration near the sheriff’s office on East Burnside and a 15-year-old boy suspected of pointing a gun at people was detained downtown. Black Filmmaker Stabbed Homicides Match 80s Violence ACLU Sues Portland Police Bureau Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell ad- dressed a crisis in community violence Friday following a 150-round shooting at an apartment building on the east side and 15 homicides during the month of July, the highest number of deadly shootings or stab- bings in a single month since the 1980s. Coronavirus Threat Grows Coronavirus is more widespread in the US than ever before, prompting White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Debo- rah Birx to say over the weekend the country has entered a “new phase” of the pandem- ic. The virus is now hitting urban, subur- ban and rural areas and has even spread to Americans living on distant islands. Church Bells Ring for John Lewis Augustana Lutheran Church, a multicul- tural congregation in northeast Portland, joined other churches across America A black videographer from California was stabbed last week near the scene of a Black Lives Mater protest outside Portland’s federal courthouse. Andrew Dun- comb, 25, films demon- strations and other political events under the moniker “Black Rebel.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon last week sued the Portland Po- lice Bureau to stop police livestreaming of protests. The ACLU says the practice vio- lates Oregon law prohibiting police from collecting information about the political, religious or social views, associations or activities of people who are not suspected of criminal activity. Herman Cain Dies of COVID-19 Herman Cain, former Re- publican presidential can- didate and former CEO of a major pizza chain, died Thursday of complications from the coronavirus. He was 74. Cain had been ill with the virus after attending Trump’s cam- paign rally in Tulsa, Okla. in June. Cain had been co-chair of Black Voices for Trump.
