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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2021)
Page 4 July 21, 2021 KairosPDX Leaders Swap Roles C ontinued froM P age 3 lor’s from Brandeis Universi- ty, where she played collegiate basketball, and subsequently completed a Fellowship in Poli- cy Research at Harvard Medical School. Gardner, a master educator with over 27 years of experience, has worked with primary age chil- dren as well as adult learners as an adjunct professor and professional development expert. She has been co-leading KairosPDX as the edu- cation director since its inception and will continue to oversee all educational innovation as well as ensure the organization’s culture and mission work hand-in-hand, officials said. “Zalika and Marsha are ex- ceptional leaders and will take the school, and all that it does for kids, families, and communi- ty to the next level of success,” said Joe McFerrin II, president and chief executive office of the Portland Opportunities Industri- alization Center, another school serving the Black community and other students of color in north Portland. New Ally for Change in Police Culture C ontinued froM P age 3 Providing Insurance and Financial Services Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois 61710 Ernest J. Hill, Jr. Agent 311 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97211 503 286 1103 Fax 503 286 1146 ernie.hill.h5mb@statefarm.com 24 Hour Good Neighbor Service R of eliminating it. “I am very proud that The League of Women Voters of Portland has produced a deeply researched and timely position on police account- ability. Addressing the issues facing many U.S. cities, it provides strong recommendations for how Portland can achieve a safe, just and equita- ble public safety system,” said Deb- bie Kaye, president of the League. The organization said it enlisted an all-volunteer 22-member com- mittee to study police oversight and accountability shortly before George Floyd was killed in Min- neapolis last year. The committee reported that it reviewed 55 source documents and interviewed 22 key stakeholders, including police leadership, city council members, state legislators and community advocates. The resulting 64-page study re- port explained Portland’s history of policing, the current process of overseeing its police force, instanc- es of inappropriate use of force by PPB officers over the past 20 years, and progress made so far on im- proving Portland’s police oversight and accountability system. The new League report calls for a reduction in use of force through de-escalation and for alternatives to armed police, such as using unarmed, appropriately trained civilian employees to respond to certain calls. There is also a call for enhanced transparency in the scope and timeliness of releas- ing police records, as well as for strengthening civilian oversight and community involvement. The League is also support- ing giving authority to oversight groups to conduct independent investigations of police miscon- duct and to recommend discipline. For more details, visit the Portland League of Women Voters website at www.lwvpdx.org. State Farm R Grieving for Teen Killed Downtown C ontinued froM f ront 971-276-8674 Cut, trim, edge, power washing, hauling, leaf removal, cleanup, anything! FREE ESTIMATES FAIR PRICING “I love you more than anything, baby girl,” a sister, Shauna Harris wrote on Facebook. A cousin, Kyla Duncan, start- ed a GoFundMe page to help the family with the expenses of funer- al services and a memorial. “Makayla had the most conta- gious smile you’ve ever seen, she always wanted to have fun and be around her family and friends,” Duncan wrote on the page, adding that Harris “was the most genuine and kind hearted person you could meet. She had a good soul and definitely didn’t deserve this.” She was also remembered by Philip Humphrey, a Grant High coordinator for Self Enhancement, Inc., who described her as a “per- sonality in such a small package,” posting a photo on Instagram showing him beside Harris at her graduation last month. Mayor Ted Wheeler and Police Chief Chuck Lovell gathered the media Saturday to respond to Har- ris’ death and the latest in a string of shootings. Both said they would push hard for more officers and resources for the Portland Police Bureau, which has lost 125 sworn officers in the past year and faces new rounds of retiring officers in coming months. Last year, in the wake of sus- tained protests against police bru- tality and racial injustice and calls to defund the police in favor of better mental health and other so- cial services to prevent violence, Portland’s City Commission cut some funding and disbanded a gun violence reduction unit that also drew criticism for unfairly target- ing Black men and other people of color. Since then, Chief Lovell has assembled new teams aimed at curbing gun violence and solving a rash of shootings through both investigation and proactive inter- vention before shootings happen. Some residents, however, question if that’s enough as the city marked its 50th and 51st homicides Saturday. There have been about 570 shooting inci- dents in Portland so far this year — more than twice the number recorded in the same time pe- riod last year. Police have said that about half of those shootings were gang-related. “We’ve had many years of growth as a city and a shrinking police force (and) you can only go so long in that trend before you hit a tipping point,” Lovell said. “If you go back to yesterday, we’ve had 11 shootings incidents resulting in 13 people injured or killed — and that’s in a span of 38 hours. Not only is this shock- ing, all these calls really tax re- sources.” Lovell said it was too ear- ly to call Harris’ shooting death gang-related. He called on anyone who wit- nessed the incident or had cell phone video or photos of the area before, during and after the shoot- ing to contact police. No arrests have been made. “We all want to know what happened and who did this and why, and I pledge that more infor- mation will come out as soon as possible. Investigators think there might be more victims and wit- nesses who left the scene, which is understandable given how terri- fying and hectic that scene was,” he said. --Associated Press contributed to this story.
