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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 2012)
Opinion Don’t Play Politics With Our Lives “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., The police union and the arbitrator can’t ignore the public P ortland had barely begun to digest the 42-page Department of Justice report on police misuse of force, before justice itself took another blow. The state’s Employment Relations Board, wearing blinders, upheld an arbitrator’s decision that the City of Portland can’t fire a police officer. Officer Ron Frashour shot and killed Aaron Campbell, an unarmed man grieving the death of his brother that same day. An investigation showed Frashour shot Campbell in the back as he fled after being shot by a beanbag gun. The fatal shot came less than one minute after he emerged from an apartment with his hands behind his head. Police Chief Mike Reese fired Frashour after the killing. “You were not reasonable in concluding that Campbell posed a threat at the level required to use deadly force,” he said in the termination letter. It wasn’t the first incident where Frashour had used excessive force. In 2006, he used a taser against Keith Waterhouse, when Waterhouse was filming police activities. That cost the city $55,000 in damages. No matter. The police contract gives the final say to an arbitra- tor and a state employment board that have shown them- E DITORIAL Bernie Foster selves to be heavily weighted in favor of fired officers – and against the public interest. Not one single firing has been upheld. Arbitrator Jane Wilkinson, swayed by testimony from police trainers, decided that the shooting was “within policy.” Those are the very same train- ers who came under fire in the DOJ report for teaching officers that Officer Christopher Humphreys’ tasing of a 12-year- old girl was a good example of correct taser use. The DOJ called that, “callous.” Wilkinson, like the three-per- son board, ignored the city’s argument that reinstating Frashour would violate long- standing public policy against unreasonable use of force. City attorneys say that is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the state constitution and the city’s charter. Something is terribly wrong with a system that makes it impossible for the city to fire an employee. No arbitrator should be able to overrule the decision of the police chief and our elected officials. From our city leaders to the cops on the street, all are accountable to the citizens they are supposed to serve. This might be the city that works; but police officers jobs are not an entitlement. Police officers are hired to serve the public. And if they can’t do that, they should find another job. We’ve been told that Port- land’s police chief can’t fire an officer, who has lost all trust of the community he swore to pro- tect and serve. In fact, the City has been ordered to reinstate Frashour with back pay and benefits, and put him back on the streets. To do what? No other agency is giving the responsibility of taking a human life in a split second. We’re not talking about some traffic stop or fender bender. We can’t play politics with the lives of Port- land citizens. We call on the Department of Justice to ensure that its final settlement with the City — due Oct. 12 –includes language that will make a repeat of the Frashour fiasco impossible. Thankfully, Mayor Adams says he wants the City Council to take this case to the highest authority: the Oregon Court of Appeals. Adams says he promised in April to push this case to the limit. “What we’re investing in here is to have more local con- trol of our very own police bureau,” he said yesterday. “It is totally worth it, and Portlanders want us to do this.’’ Mr. Mayor, you are absolutely right. This is a test of who runs the police bureau. Is it the police chief and the city com- missioners? Or is it the police union and its friends on the Board of Employment Rela- tions. Mayor Adams, we are behind you. And we encourage the City Council and the citizens of Portland to support you to the hilt. Without public trust and confidence, without overall accountability to the police chief, the mayor and our elect- ed officials, the Portland Police Bureau might as well be an occupying army. What do you think? Post your comment on articles in The Skanner News at www.theskanner.com 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Companies Continue to Insult Black Consumers W hen I was in the process of reading and writing about Nielsen and the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s report on African- American buying power for this week’s Black newspapers, I was reminded of how many top com- panies continue to take advantage of Black consumers while provid- ing little, if anything, in return. They are not the only ones at fault – so are we. People treat you the way you allow them to treat you. The same can be said of cor- porations, though they are not, as Mitt Romney contends, people. The Nielsen report notes that Black spending power, which totals $695 billion a year, is expected to soar to $1.1 trillion by 2015. And very few of those dol- lars are reinvested by advertising in the Black media. It’s a matter of respect. As Black publishers point out, if a company advertises in the Washington Post or the New York Times, it could be speaking to anyone. However, when it advertises in the Black media, we know they are speaking directly to our audience and are taking us seriously as valued con- sumers. For the most part, that’s not hap- pening. When Nielsen lists the top com- panies advertising with Black media, some familiar names are nowhere to be found. Eight of the top U.S. 10 banks are not on the list of top 10 financial/insurance Page 4 The Portland Skanner September 26, 2012 T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry companies advertising in the Black media. JP Morgan Chase has overtaken Bank of America as the top bank in the U.S., with assets of $2.2 tril- lion. Don’t shed any tears for second-place Bank of America, which has assets of $2.13 trillion, Let the “banksters” know how you feel about their actions or CitiGroup with $1.8 trillion. Neither of them is among the top 10 entities advertising with the Black media. But African-Americans hold checking or savings accounts at all three banks. Let’s put them on notice by sending them a copy of this column and my story, which is carried in this week’s NNPA papers and is posted on BlackPres- sUSA.com. Tell them that by the time the next Nielsen report comes out a year from now if they are not on that list, they will be added to one of our lists, not the one people brag about. If banks can disregard us, we can disregard them by closing our accounts and moving them to a bank that shows its appreciation. If you have accounts at either JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, CitiBank (CitiGroup), Bank of New York Mellon, PNC Financial Services, State Street Corp., Capi- tal One or SunTrust Banks, put them on notice today that they will lose a valuable customer if they continue along this path. In terms of a national campaign, I suggest first focusing on the three largest banks. Here’s contact information for their top official: Mr. James Dimon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer JP Morgan Chase 270 Park Avenue, 39th Floor New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-270-1111 Fax: 212-270-1121 Email Address: jamie.dimon@jpmchase.com Mr. Brian T. Moynihan Chief Executive Officer Bank of America Corporation 100 N. Tryon St. Charlotte, N.C. 28255 Phone: 704-386-5681 Email; Brian.T.Moynihan@banko- famerica.com Mr. Vikram Pandit CEO CitiBank 399 Park Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022 Phone 212/793-1201 or 212/559- 1000 Email: vikram.pandit@citi.com Let the “banksters” know how you feel about their actions. To add insult to injury, $182.5 billion of our tax dollars went to bail out American International Group – or Notorious AIG., as comedian Bill Maher calls them – but they have not reciprocated with the Black media. AIG, the largest insurance company in the world, is MIA. You can’t turn on the television without seeing one of those hor- rendous man/ape commercials about GEICO. Yet, GEICO is monkeying around with us by also being absent from the list of top advertisers. African-Americans over index on mobile phones. Verizon is a top advertiser with the Black media but not AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile. If they haven’t joined the list by next year, we should pull the plug on them. Read the rest online at www.theskanner.com
