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“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ernie F oster
Founder/Publisher
B oBBie D ore F oster
Executive Editor
J erry F oster
Advertising Manager
C hristen M C C urDy
News Editor
P atriCia i rvin
Graphic Designer
a rashi y oung
D onovan M. s Mith
Reporters
M oniCa J. F oster
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ulie K eeFe
s usan F rieD
Photographers
2015
MERIT
AWARDS
WINNER
The Skanner has received 20 NNPA awards since 1998
Racial Profiling
Before HB 2002 B was passed, Oregon law
already prohibited profiling on the basis of
race.
The new definition includes age, ethnicity,
color, national origin, language, gender, gen-
der identity, sexual orientation, political affili-
ation, religion, homelessness or disability.
McCullough said this expanded definition is
important because many different populations
are profiled. The ACLU of Oregon’s stance on
profiling is that it is a false assumption that
membership in a group means criminality, and
that this assumption is often based on implicit
bias and stereotypes.
HB 2002 B also funds the Law Enforcement
Contacts Policy and Data Review Committee,
which began its work on racial profiling in
2001. The Law Enforcement Profiling Work
Group will analyze profiling complaints and
make recommendations on profiling patterns
which may reduce profiling in the future.
body-camera bill that became law. One provi-
sion was that cameras needed to record con-
tinuously when police interact with a suspect
instead of allowing officers to pick and choose
Before HB 2704 was passed, a bystander need-
ed to announce to the officer that he or she was
recording.
McCullough said this was not only inconsis-
‘It should not be a crime to pull out a phone, hold
it up, and record an officer who is engaged in
misconduct’
Body-Worn Cameras
recording times.
Body cameras should be used only during
legitimate law enforcement purposes and can-
not use facial recognition or other biometric
matching technology to analyze recordings.
These were added to the bill to protect people
from excessive surveillance and invasion of
privacy.
The legislation also made rules concerning
the ownership and release of video footage.
Even if third-party vendors supply the camer-
as, they do not own the film.
Creating the rules for police body-worn cam-
eras required negotiation among competing
concerns, McCullough said.
“Police body cameras have significant po-
tential as a tool for accountability by capturing
video footage of misconduct,” she said. “Body
cameras are also a surveillance tool and pose
significant risks to privacy.”
The ACLU of Oregon participated in a work
group that added many provisions into the
“It should not be a crime to pull out a phone,
hold it up, and record an officer who is engaged
in misconduct,” McCullough said.
But the rules about recording police in Ore-
gon were unclear.
National courts have agreed that the right
to record the police is protected by the First
Amendment, but in Oregon, recording police
conversations violated an eavesdropping law.
Recording Police
tent with constitutional rights but dangerous
to interfere with an officer who is actively en-
gaged with a suspect.
HB 2704 affirms the right to record the con-
versations of police officers who are perform-
ing official duties openly and in plain view. It
doesn’t allow people to trespass to record or
to record whispered conversations of officers.
Cell Phone Privacy
It is a routine procedure to search a cell
phone during an arrest. With the aid of forensic
cell phone data extraction devices, an officer
can crack cell passwords, bypass user locks,
recover deleted files and access data right there
on site.
“As technology advances, our digital foot-
prints expand, containing more and more data
about the most intimate aspects of our lives,”
McCullough said.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
SEI
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ed.
The middle school students are
exploring what building their own
business to solve a community
problem would look like — so-
called “social entrepreneurship.”
Nadya Okomoto, a 17-year-old
senior at Catlin Gabel who start-
ed her own non-profit, Camions
of Care, distributing feminine hy-
giene products to houseless wom-
en several years ago will serve as
a facilitator for BOSSI, working
with peers not much younger than
her.
The possibility of creating one’s
own business, Okomoto said, is not
something most kids her age think
about.“I think that’s my favorite
part about working with SEI, is
that they are so aware about the
issues that are happening in their
community and they’re aware of
the injustices. But they’ve really
never considered their ability to
create change, and I think that’s
why this program is so empower-
the nonprofit bar Oregon Public
House Stephen Green.
The Small Business Adminis-
tration will also come in to share
with the aspiring business-owners
‘That’s my favorite part about working
with SEI, is that they are so aware about
the issues that are happening in their
community’
ing,” said Okomoto.
As for the adults, they’ll have an
array of area-professionals come
in to share their expertise.Leaders
include Joy Davis of Design+-
Culture Lab, Tique Box founder,
Paige Hendrix, startup mentor
Dwayne Johnson, and founder of
opportunities for government con-
tracts, something Hicks said is an
underutilized resource by Blacks
in business.
Hicks points out that often fund-
ing opportunities for startups are
small due to the high risk that
comes with new ventures.
testament to the staying power of
the Black United Fund and wom-
en’s history.”
Sheng said being in what is now
branded an “arts district,” individ-
nature, depicting these Black his-
toric figures has been a welcomed
shift from his normal work.
While he and Nichols draw to-
ward the finish line, he said it’s
“A lot of folks shy away from
that because it’s like, ‘The gov-
ernment, that’s scary,’” Hicks
said. “Catering [is an option] --
they hold workshops and events.
There’s lawn care for their public
events, there’s a lot of opportuni-
ties for the people to have the gov-
ernment as one of their custom-
ers and I don’t think that’s well
known.”
Overall, Hicks said the pro-
gramming being offered by SEI
this summer is about sharing re-
sources and knowledge, and pos-
sibly create some new ways of
thinking about Oregon entrepre-
neurship. “It’s up to them what-
ever business they come up with
— whatever idea they’re looking
at,” Hicks said.
Mural
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continued from page 1
women like those honored in the
mural has enabled organizations
like the 27-year-old nonprofit she
heads to continue carrying out its
mission as an economic power-
house stabilizing Black communi-
ties in Oregon.
Intersectional creative change
agency Vox Siren and social
justice art agency Art Uprising
helped spearhead the project.
Zoe Piliafas, who founded both
organizations, said after passing
the Black United Fund building
on Christmas Day last year she
was inspired to approach the orga-
nization to create an artistic proj-
ect that would honor its history.”
“I think when we think about
history, and the history that has
not been addressed, women of
color have been ignored in public
spaces, and I think that’s time that
that changes,” said Piliafas, who
is White. “I think it’s moreover a
Page 2 July 22, 2015 The Portland Skanner
‘Women of color have been ignored
in public spaces, and I think that’s time
that that changes’
uals and organizations approach
her organization “all the time”
with offers to redecorate it. But
Vox Siren’s commitment to keep-
ing people of color at the forefront
of the project won out.
Artists Eatcho and Jeremy Nich-
ols, both local artists of color—
have been responsible for getting
the painting wrapped in the next
coming weeks.
For Eatcho, a muralist whose
work is usually more surrealist in
worn on him emotionally but
physically too.
““When you’re out there work-
ing on a mural and it’s 25 feet high
to 100 feet across, it’s 100 degrees
outside and you’re on a giant scaf-
fold and you’re going back and
forth, people just want to talk to
you because they see a lot of color
and they think a lot of things,” he
said. “But really I’m having just
as much of a time of work and en-
durance as it seems. So I’m work-
ing, just like a house painter, or a
laborer, a construction worker. So
when I’m up there I’m not only
feeling [emotional], but I’m also
having feelings of, ‘Man I’ve got
to grab this paint. I’ve got to make
sure my water’s up there, I’ve got
to move my body, I’ve got to keep
focused so I don’t fall off this two
floor scaffold and die.’”
As the Alberta area, and the
neighborhoods continue to gen-
trify, Piliafas said monuments like
these become pertinent for both
residents both new and old.
“Portland and the state of Ore-
gon has a racist past, and we don’t
recognize that, [but] there are
many of us in the city now that are
deciding that we can collectively
do better,” she said.
Read the rest of this story
at www.theskanner.com