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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2016)
January 6, 2016 The Skanner Page 3 News Portraits cont’d from pg 1 be not always seen. TSN: This didn’t start in Portland, did it? KA: It started at Afro- punk [an annual arts festival] in New York, but I didn’t go there with that intent. I started do- ing videos with people, almost like a mini-docu- mentary with video por- ...in doing these things, we are connected to each other traits of people. Gener- ally they range from 30 seconds to eight seconds. And in it, I feel like so much can be described about the person, about a situation, a story. It’s interesting, be- cause I’m still developing it. It’s not — and maybe this is how experimen- tal film works — you’re with that crow in your hand?” And she was like, “Well, I feel like every time I see a dead animal, I need to make prepara- tions for it, I need to bury it, I need to cover it with a cloth.” And she was from, she might have said, the Ivory Coast. And so that just really struck me right there, that she felt PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY “ Carolina, and I had gone to an event at Bethel A.M.E. and I had seen her during the service and she looked really inter- esting. And, then after- wards, she was walking ahead of me, and I saw her pick something up. Then I saw that it was a crow. Then I was like, “What are you doing Frozen The snow that blanketed the Portland area Sunday turned to freezing rain by Sunday night, resulting in the closure of Portland Public Schools Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, most snow had melted and temperatures had reached the low 40s. This photo was taken Monday morning on N. Killingsworth. Frashour A still from Kalimah Abioto’s mini-documentary series ‘The Ace Book.’ This image was taken outside of Bethel AME church in Northeast Portland following a vigil Abioto attended for the Charleston shooting. developing something, you’re not always sure where it’s going to go. TSN: There’s no blue- print. KA: Yeah exactly. But you keep moving. TSN: Tell me more about the girl with the dead crow [in the video — see photo]. KA: That’s what made me realize [I should do] short documentaries. Of course it was the day of the shooting in South Wapato she needed to take care of these dead animals. And somehow to me that connected with what was happening, like that we need to take care of each other. Not just on this plane, but in another plane — in doing these things, we are connected to each other. No matter the distance, no matter what dimension we are on, it matters. Her story just touched me. Read the rest of the interview at TheSkanner.com the court’s decision. “The City of Portland takes use-of- force seriously, and demands that it be employed judiciously. Portland Police Bureau training emphasizes de-escalation, and while the vast majority of our officers per- form exceptionally well, incidents like the tragic death of Aaron Camp- bell undermine that success,” Hales’ “ home, he was shot with a beanbag round, then ran and, witnesses said, reached for his waist. Some witnesses said it looked like Campell was touching the part of his abdomen that had received the bean- bag rounds. Frashour reported he thought Campbell, who turned out to be un- armed, was reaching for his gun. Frashour then shot Campbell in the back with an AR-15 assault rifle. The Portland Police Association filed a grievance re- garding Frashour’s firing, which ul- timately went to arbitration. The state arbitrator ruled Fra- shour’s termination had not been justified, but then-Mayor Sam Ad- ams announced the city would not honor that ruling. The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the arbitrator was correct in determining Frashour had not vi- olated any city policy regarding use of force. The City of Portland takes use-of-force seriously statement said. City staff later told a local televi- sion station they are reviewing the ruling and are considering taking the matter to the Supreme Court. Frashour shot and killed Aaron Campbell in January 2010, and was terminated later that year. Campbell was an African Amer- ican man whose brother had died earlier that day. A 911 caller reported Campbell was suicidally depressed, and requested a welfare check. When Campbell came out of his Read the rest at TheSkanner.com cont’d from pg 1 the Home for Everyone Executive Commit- tee, said Wapato was not a viable option. The reasons include a bond condition that Wapato can’t be sold to a non-govern- mental agency while the bonds are being paid off. The county stated operational costs to get the facility ready for use could cost $ 5 million, and more money would be “ cont’d from pg 1 them for what they could be.” Instead of having the homeless navigate multiple support agencies, Woodward thinks Wapato should provide services such as meals, job training, clothing, and addiction support meetings. There has been growing support for Wapato as a homeless shelter. On Dec. 8, the Portland Business Alliance President and CEO Sandra McDonough sent a letter to Deborah Kafoury, urging the county to start a pilot project to use a portion of Wapato as a shelter. On Jan. 1, the Oregonian Editorial Board endorsed the use of Wapato as a temporary shelter. The board stated that the city of Portland’s homeless state of emergency ne- cessitated creative solutions from decision makers. Woodward said opening Wapato would require systemic changes to how money is being spent on the homeless in Portland. He said local governments spend up to The idea behind Wapato is that people aren’t going to leave until they are set up for success needed to run Wapato as a shelter. Wapato would also need to be zoned for a shelter and changes made to the city’s transportation plan. Accessibility is an issue as well. The closest bus line to Wap- ato stops three-fourths of a mile away and doesn’t run on weekends. “Certainly there are issues, but I don’t believe there are any that cannot be over- come,” Woodward said. “They only see things for what they are. They don’t see $40,000 per year for each homeless person, but those efforts go towards short-term stop-gap efforts like the Sears Armory shelter which will operate for 6 months and then close. He hopes the petition, endorsements and discussion will encourage Multnomah County to hold a public forum on using Wapato. Woodward sees a deep irony that the fa- cility is vacant while tent camps are pop- ping up throughout the city, and the Ore- gon Department of Transportation runs sweeps to upend the homeless. He sees it as a matter of life and death. The Multnomah County Coroner record- ed 56 deaths of the homeless in 2014, more than one death every week. “How much is a life worth?” Woodward asked. “Since Wapato was available to be used as a poor shelter, over 500 homeless people have died in Multnomah County. That’s almost the same number of beds available at Wapato.” Mayor Hales’ Statement on the Re-Hiring of Frashour I am disappointed the court blocked the City’s efforts to terminate an officer who used force inappropriately. The City of Portland takes use-of-force seriously, and demands that it be employed judiciously. Portland Police Bureau training emphasizes de-escalation, and while the vast majority of our officers perform exceptionally well, incidents like the tragic death of Aaron Campbell un- dermine that success. Every day officers avoid us- ing force by de-escalating tense and dangerous situa- tions; the number of times police use force has declined by 37 percent since 2010, and represents just 3 percent of arrests today. And officers use force in less than 1 per- cent of all citizen contacts. Employees who cannot per- form up to those standards should be terminated, and have been: Since 2013, 11 bureau members have been terminated, or left employ- ment in lieu of termination, for violation of bureau poli- cies, including use-of-force. With this regrettable deci- sion, the officer will return to the Bureau and be assigned to appropriate duty. Meanwhile, we will continue efforts to build a Police Bu- reau that serves the commu- nity through relationships and an understanding that the police are the public, and the public are the police.
