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?
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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
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