February 24, 2016 The Skanner Page 3
News
Neighborhood
approaches to advance
racial and social justice
causes. The Portland
Playhouse, Alberta Main
Street and New Seasons
Market also partnered
on the project.
Drawing on the inspira-
tion of the theater-venue,
facilitators Keela John-
son and Theresa Logan
used drama techniques
reach out the neighbor-
hood itself. During the
dialogue, he acknowl-
edged the role of the arts
as a gentrifying force
in neighborhoods. The
playhouse, which sits at
the corner of Northeast
6th Avenue and Prescott
Street, was once the
home to Mt. Sinai Baptist
Church, a Black church
The ReBuilding Center and the Native American Youth
and Family Center will present two performances of
the play “York,” featuring David Casteal, about the life
of an enslaved man who participated in the Lewis and
Clark Expedition, on March 12 and 13 at Jefferson High
School in Portland.
The Black neighbors ex-
pressed a loss in community
that felt more personal than
the loss of place or business
to guide the gathering
through racially charged
topics. They covered dis-
missive attitudes, color-
blindness and microag-
gressions.
Microaggressions are
commonplace interac-
tions that either inten-
tionally or unintention-
ally target a person or
group. These include
actions like touching a
Black person’s hair or
asking a foreign-looking
person where they came
from.
Jones told The Skanner
News the community dia-
logue was meant to bring
about self and group ac-
countability as well as
foster a sense of commu-
nity.
“We are passing each
other, all the time, on
the street, we are each
others’ neighbors,” Jones
said. “We interact as
business people togeth-
er, but we’re not having
an opportunity to really
sit down and break down
those barriers.”
The Stories of Our
Neighborhood idea came
out of a conversation
between Jones and Port-
land Playhouse Director,
Brian Weaver. The Play-
house mission is to cre-
ate a place where people
of all backgrounds could
come together.
Beyond producing di-
verse plays with diverse
casts, Weaver wanted to
Profiling
in the heart of the King
neighborhood.
The most profound
moments came when the
audience members cre-
ated a living timeline of
the important events for
their neighborhood. It
began with the most re-
cent events where White
parents talked about
sending their kids to for-
merly Black schools.
As the neighbors talk-
ed, the memories went
back in time. They rem-
inisced about hanging
out at Geneva’s Cotton
Club and having thriv-
ing businesses lining the
streets of Killingsworth,
Williams and Martin Lu-
ther King, Jr. Blvd. when
it was known as Union
Ave.
The Black neighbors
expressed a loss in com-
munity that felt more
personal than the loss of
place or business. Many
of the older neighbors
said everyone knew ev-
eryone else and people
would look out for each
other. One woman in the
group said that people
don’t even say “hello” to
each other anymore.
“I walk down Missis-
sippi now, I don’t know
who those people are,”
she said “I miss my neigh-
borhood.”
Read the rest of this story at
TheSkanner.com
Officers
cont’d from pg 1
family.”
The bill passed 55-3 with
strong bipartisan support. Two
representatives – Brent Barton
(D-Gladstone) and Peter Buckley
(D-Ashland) abstained from vot-
ing. The only three dissenting
votes came from Republicans:
Julie Parrish (West Linn), Gail
Whitsett (Klamath Falls) and Carl
Wilson (Grants Pass). The bill’s
chief sponsors are Rep. Carla
C. Piluso (D-Gresham) and Rep.
Paul Evans (D-Monmouth). Other
sponsors listed are Sen. Laurie
Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham),
Rep. Susan McLain (D-Hillsboro)
and Rep. Jeff Reardon (D-Happy
Valley).
Sponsors introduced the bill
Jan. 27, the day after Robert “La-
Voy” Finicum was shot and killed
by Oregon State Police along a
U.S. Highway outside Burns. Fin-
icum was part of a group of heav-
ily armed and loosely organized
individuals to seize control of the
Malheur National Wildlife Ref-
uge in a standoff that ultimately
lasted 41 days.
Finicum was the only member
of the militant group to lose his
life, and the standoff had been go-
ing on for 25 days when he died.
While the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation released a video of the
shooting, OSP has not released
the name of the officer involved.
“
dent. According to Portland Cop-
watch founder Dan Handleman,
the process outlined by the bill
– receiving a threat, then filing a
petition – could empower police
departments to create an embar-
Rep. Jeff Barker said he fast-tracked the
bill after Oregon State Police told him
the agency has received death threats
in reaction to Finicum’s death
Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) said
he fast-tracked the bill after Ore-
gon State Police told him the agen-
cy has received death threats in
reaction to Finicum’s death.
Barker told The Oregonian he
expected the provision “would
not be used very often,” as the bill
authorizes judges rather than
police departments to determine
whether threats used against an
officer are credible.
Police accountability advocates
are concerned the effects of the
bill may be far reaching.
In Portland, the names of offi-
cers involved in shootings are
released 24 hours after the inci-
go on the release of information.
That could create a window of
days or weeks – or even longer,
as judges are able to extend the
protective order in 90-day incre-
ments -- before the public knows
the names of cops involved in
shootings. It also requires that
the decision to grant or deny a
protective order be issued within
five days of a petition being filed,
and that all proceedings related
to a petition be held on camera.
The American Civil Liberties
Union of Oregon gave input on
the bill, but has taken a neutral
position.
cont’d from pg 1
and Data Review Committee to collect
complaints that can be analyzed later
to study racial profiling statewide on
the statistical level.
The data review committee is cur-
rently chaired by Attorney General El-
len Rosenblum and is made up law en-
forcement officers, lawyers, advocates
and community members. The Center
“
York
PHOTO BY NORTHERN-EXPOSURES.COM
“
cont’d from pg 1
it has intermittently released statistics
since 2005.
Each report is online on the Criminal
Justice Policy Research Institute page
at Portland State University’s website.
The committee has reported on stop
data as well as public perception sur-
veys about law enforcement in Oregon.
In its initial report in 2005, the LECC
That year 73 percent of African American mo-
torists surveyed said they had been stopped
for reasons other than what the cop told them
for Intercultural Organizing’s execu-
tive director, Kayse Jama, also sits on
the committee.
The panel was originally created in
2001 by the state legislature to study
profiling statistics and issue reports;
said 21 percent of African American
respondents reported being stopped
by police two or more times within
the previous year, compared to only 6
percent of other respondents from the
same geographical area.
That year 73
percent of Af-
rican Ameri-
can motorists
surveyed said
they had been
stopped for
reasons other
than what the
cop told them.
Kayse Jama, executive That
year’s
director, The Center for report indi-
Intercultural Organizing
cated African
American
drivers believed police were becoming
less fair over time.
Still working its way through the
state legislature right now is HB 4003,
which extends the Law Enforcement
Policy Profiling Work Group to July of
2017. It would require the group to pre-
pare a report to the legislature by the
end of the year.
They began meeting in September of
2015, specifically charged with creating
recommendations for the legislature
on identifying and stopping patterns
and practices of profiling by law en-
forcement.
“This bill would extend that time
up until July of 2016 this year and we
would be able to get a report at the end
of the year of the data we are collect-
ing,” Martinez said. “So it’s really great
we have community voices at the table
with the attorney general, with the dis-
trict attorney and law enforcement.
We hope this will help build some trust
at an important time in history.”
For more information on the Cen-
ter for Intercultural Organizing visit
www.interculturalorganizing.org.