March 22, 2017 The Skanner Page 3
News
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ties to learn and grow.
Gardner thinks of her-
self as a curator of the
station’s television pro-
gramming — researching
new shows from PBS and
the British Broadcasting
Corporation and decid-
ing what the station will
move with in the coming
months.
That affords her the
chance to get a sneak
peek at upcoming pro-
gramming and develop a
sense of what audiences
will respond to.
“Television is chang-
ing. We all know that.
People have DVRs that
didn’t exist even 10 years
ago. People can watch
new shows on their iP-
hones,” Gardner said.
“Downton Abbey,” the
period drama that aired
on the BBC and became a
surprise hit with U.S. au-
diences after PBS picked
it up a year later, devel-
“
think 70- or 80-year olds
just want to sit in a rock-
ing chair. I’ve found, es-
pecially in Oregon, a lot
don’t want to do that,”
Gardner said.
Oregon’s seniors are
more active than senior’s
elsewhere, and OPB’s
television audience is
younger: 55, compared
to the national average of
65, according to Gardner.
She attributes that to
Oregon’s culture and the
fact that Portland’s larg-
est employers are en-
gaged in technology and
scientific research.
Bass said Oregon’s au-
diences are unique, but
Gardner’s also unique-
ly talented at engaging
them. “We’ve got really
wonderful
audiences
who tend to be abnormal-
ly interested in the world
around them,” Bass told
The Skanner. “I think a
lesser person wouldn’t
At previous jobs, I’d learn ev-
erything there was to learn
and then I’d be bored
oped a following in part
due to word of mouth and
social media buzz. But in
order for that to happen,
Gardner said, someone
had to make the call to
make the show available
to audiences in the first
place.
The downside of the
job: dealing with the fall-
out from unpopular de-
cisions. “The Lawrence
Welk Show” ran from
1955 to 1971 on ABC, but
its reruns were a staple
on many public televi-
sion stations throughout
the country, including
OPB — until 2010, when
Mary pulled the musical
variety show from the
station’s schedule.
The move wasn’t pop-
ular with all audiences,
and the station got nega-
tive feedback for weeks,
Gardner said. But she
also said she routinely
encounters people, in-
cluding senior citizens —
who make up the show’s
putative audience — who
thank her for making
that call.
“I think a lot of people
Shooting
be able to take advantage
of that in the way she
has.”
Gardner spoke with
The Skanner just days be-
fore President Trump re-
leased a proposed budget
calling to eliminate fund-
ing for the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting,
raising questions about
the survival of public
broadcasting in general
and OPB in particular.
According to Bass, OPB
receives 8 to 9 percent of
its funding from CPB cof-
fers, with the rest coming
from member contribu-
tions and private under-
writing. That puts it in a
better place than other
local stations, which may
draw as much as 30 per-
cent of funding from the
federal government —
and many of those are in
rural areas. But CPB does
provide startup funds
for some local programs,
like OPB’s “Earth Fix,”
which is now self-sus-
taining, he said.
Read the rest of this story at
TheSkanner.com
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Gardner
Eviction of Omari Tahir-Garrett
Longtime Central District activist Omari Tahir-Garrett, joined by Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, gives a statement
outside the Umoja PEACE Center on March 16 after the Center was cleared out and he was evicted from the property. The property
in the Central District where the Umoja Peace Center is located has come to represent the continued gentrification of what was
once a predominantly black neighborhood, and Tahir-Garrett’s eviction has been the focal point of numerous protests in recent
weeks. “Nothing demonstrates the unacceptable impacts of gentrification and defacto redlining taking place in Seattle like the eviction
of the Umoja PEACE Center, Black Dot, and the other centers for culture and organizing in Seattle’s historically black Central District,”
Sawant said.
MCDC
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sent 19 to 20 percent of those in
jail, and 41 percent of those with
mental illness, according to one
sample.
Due to DRO’s status as the pro-
tection and advocacy service for
Oregon, its attorney Sarah Rad-
cliffe gained access to the jail’s
incident reports and medical re-
cords, as well as conducted inter-
views with staff members of the
sheriff ’s office and 45 inmates.
While the organization has
monitored several statewide
county jails, Radcliffe said MCDC
raised some serious red flags
during her routine visit.
For example, inmates are seg-
regated based on mental health
severity; the more severe, the less
out-of-cell time the inmate gets.
This means continual solitary
confinement. Numerous inter-
views with inmates revealed that
many spent three to 12 months
without fresh air.
“From a legal perspective, that’s
low-hanging fruit,” said Radcliffe.
“It’s clearly illegal to do that.”
Furthermore, staff deputies
have not received de-escalation
or crisis intervention training.
Instead, they fall back on correc-
tional tools, which do not equip
them to deal with mental illness.
In a formal response to DRO’s
report, Sheriff Mike Reese
expressed his willingness to
“strengthen support” for those in
custody that suffer from mental
illness.
Solitary confinement, restraints
and use of force
While MCDC holds one-third
of the county’s jailed population,
it accounts for 83 percent of in-
cidents involving force against a
detainee.
“
force, and almost twice as likely
to be “voluntarily” restrained,”
reads the report.
DRO found that suicide watch
is generally more agonizing than
punitive recourse, as inmates
are stripped of their personal be-
longings, mattress and blankets,
and are forced to dress in only
a heavy smock. They are denied
Once incarcerated, Black detainees
appear almost twice as likely to disci-
plined, twice as likely to be subjected to
physical force, and almost twice as like-
ly to be “voluntarily” restrained
That’s likely because “solitary
confinement drives adverse
events,” a consultant of Sheriff
Reese was quoted as saying in the
report.
In other words, the more one
is subjected to solitary confine-
ment, the more one’s behavioral
health slips — prompting agita-
tion, violence and confrontations
with staff, which is then met with
more solitary confinement, re-
straints and force, and so on.
For African American detain-
ees it’s much worse.
“Once incarcerated, Black de-
tainees appear almost twice as
likely to disciplined, twice as
likely to be subjected to physical
visits, phone calls and showers.
One inmate, referred to Mr.
Clifton in the report, suffers from
serious psychosis and was placed
on suicide watch. After his soap,
book and mattress were removed,
Clifton grew exceedingly upset.
When he tried to run, guards
used a taser on him and carried
him back to the cell, where he be-
gan to bang his head against the
floor. A deputy straddled Clifton
and forced him into a restraint
chair, where he remained for
over six hours.
Read the full story and view PHOTOS at
TheSkanner.com
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Hayes’ autopsy showed he was shot
three times, twice in the torso and once
in the head, and that he had cocaine,
benzodiazepine and hydrocodone in
his system at the time of his death.
The press release says officers en-
countered Hayes after responding to
three separate 9-1-1 calls about inci-
dents near the intersection of North-
east 82nd Avenue and Tillamook: a
gunpoint robbery, a car prowl and a
home invasion. All callers described
the suspect as a young African Ameri-
can man.
Police say officers encountered Hayes
at a residence in the area and, after or-
dering him to crawl out of an alcove
between the garage and home, and that
he made “repeated and deliberate mo-
“
replica. The case will be subject to an
internal review and will go before the
Police Review Board.
[The press release] does not say whether Hayes
drew a replica firearm that was found next to
Hayes on the scene
tions with his hands to the area of his
waistband and pockets,” at which point
Hayes fired. It does not say whether
Hayes drew a replica firearm that was
found next to Hayes on the scene, but
does say an Oregon state crime lab in-
vestigation showed Hayes’ DNA on the
Hearst was also involved in the fatal
shooting of Merle Hatch in the parking
lot of Adventist Hospital.
The same day Hayes was killed, offi-
cers fired at and wounded 56-year-old
Don Perkins in southeast Portland. Per-
kins, a White man in apparent mental
health crisis, survived the altercation;
last week a Grand Jury also found of-
ficers justified in their use of force
against him.
Don’t Shoot Portland and Hayes’ fam-
ily held a press conference Wednes-
day to address the decision not to in-
dict Hearst, and to seek Grand Jury
transcripts and all evidence related to
Hayes’ death. Hayes’ memorial service
will take place at 2 p.m. Friday at Em-
manuel Church of God In Christ Unit-
ed, 4800 NE 30th Ave. Hayes’ family
has a crowdfunding site to help pay for
memorial expenses at https://www.go-
fundme.com/relief-for-quanice-hayes.
