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A UGUST 6, 2014
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V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 44
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Retail Pot
Penalties
Biased?
25
UMOJAFEST
First report on new
law shows odd snafus
in enforcement
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
See POT on page 3
INDEX
News ..............1,3,8-10
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ........11
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
W
hen Washington voters legalized
marijuana, Seattle passed an ordi-
nance that forbids using pot in
public. Now a report on the first six months
of the new law, shows one Seattle police
officer wrote 66 of 83 tickets issued for
using marijuana in public.
The report also found that homeless peo-
ple who congregate in downtown Seattle’s
West precinct received 41 percent of the
tickets. And Blacks received 37 percent,
although they make up only 8 percent of
Seattle’s population.
Gerald Hankerson, president of Seattle
King County NAACP and also president of
the NAACP regional conference, said the
results of the ordinance were predictable.
“While we are disheartened to hear that
homeless people and people of color are dis-
proportionately ticketed for the public use
of marijuana, we are unfortunately not sur-
prised. Ever since the war on drugs began,
people of color have been the primary tar-
get—leading to appalling and indisputable
disparities in our criminal justice system.
What this report makes clear is that even
though the laws have changed, the mentality
has not.”
The Seattle Times and KOMO television
identified Randy Jokela as the veteran offi-
cer who single handedly wrote 80 percent of
Seattle’s pot tickets. Jokela has been
removed from his role as a bicycle cop
patrolling Seattle’s downtown pending an
investigation.
Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole posted
a short statement to the Seattle Police
Department Blotter, web page. Without
naming Jokela, she said the officer has been
assigned to administrative duty pending an
investigation by the Office of Professional
Accountability.
“The report is designed to provide another
level of oversight for marijuana enforce-
ment in our city and flag anomalies or
Buffalo soldier Geordan Newbill talks to children at Umojafest on Saturday, Aug. 2. Umojafest is a three-day
celebration held in conjunction with Seafair and includes a parade, the Heal the Hood Basketball tournament,
three stages of live music, a marketplace and community resource fair.
Providence Offers Grief Programs
Unresolved pain over the death of a loved one has lasting effects
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
W
hile summertime and
holidays are the best
of times for many
people, those who have lost a
loved one can be hit by grief and
isolated with their pain even
while others are having fun
around them.
Providence Health & Services
grief specialist Anne Kister
spoke with The Skanner News
about their ongoing free-of-
charge grief support programs –
available in Oregon as well as
Washington State — and how
the emotional pain from the
death of someone close to you
can be helped, if not cured.
The Skanner News: Talk
about your work. What’s the
most important thing people
should know about the work-
shops you’re holding?
Anne Kister: First of all that
they are open to anybody in the
community, and they’re offered
free of charge.
Sometimes I think, particular-
ly with some communities,
there can be a feeling of isola-
tion with certain kinds of deaths
that occur. So when people
come into a presentation like
this, one of the things I hear a lot
is: Thank you, at least now I
know I’m not going crazy. I
hear people say wow, I’m not
alone.
TSN: How does this program
work?
AK: These types of presenta-
tions
are
geared
more
specifically to people who are
actively grieving. We also have
one that is geared towards get-
ting through the holidays. About
five years ago we began offer-
ing a presentation for people
who are actively grieving, no
matter what time of year it is.
I can have 10 people in the
room, all of whom may have
had a husband who died, and
each person has very individual
experience of grief. Because of
what determines their grief, who
the person was to them, how old
they were, how they died. What
See PROVIDENCE
on page 3
Washington School Fight Takes a Twist
Children’s advocates caution against extreme funding decisions
Of The Skanner News
T
he fight over the Washington State
Legislature’s school funding plan —
and the 2018 deadline for ample
funding for basic education required by the
state Supreme Court – is turning into a
brawl.
The Court’s 2012 ruling in McCleary v.
Washington, a lawsuit that saw one family
successfully suing the state in a bid to stop
successive waves of school cuts, requires
lawmakers to craft a plan for stable funding
for the Washington State Department of
Education.
State education officials estimate another
$3.5 billion per year is needed for that to
happen; the issue has been given some
urgency by the federal government’s deci-
sion not to renew Washington’s exemption
from the No Child Left Behind law.
Now the Court is threatening to punish the
Legislature for missing its April 30 deadline
for coming up with a “complete plan” out-
lining where the education money will
come from – and even children’s rights
advocates are pushing back against the pos-
sibility that essential state services will be
See SCHOOLS on page 3