December 26, 2018 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK
PHOTO COURTESY OF MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST
A Look Back at 2018
Quanice Hayes’ Family Sues City
Meyer Announces Move
The family of 17-year-old Quanice Hayes, who was shot and killed by Portland police in February
2017, filed a lawsuit in June against City of Portland and Andrew Hearst, the officer who fired the
shots that killed the teenager.
Meyer Memorial Trust, the state’s second largest philanthropic organization, which manages
an $800 endowment created by grocery-chain founder Fred Meyer, announced in March that it
purchased a 25,000-square-foot lot at the intersection of North Tillamook and Vancouver, currently
occupied by Sergeant’s Towing. Foundation CEO Doug Stamm, who retires at the end of March, said
the organization will move into the new spot in March 2020.
Seven Portland Police Bureau officers and one
sheriff’s deputy were involved in a shooting
Saturday that left Portland resident John A.
Elifritz dead after he entered a southeast
Portland homeless shelter. Video showed
Elifritz wielding a knife and there was evidence
he was in active mental health crisis. In May
a grand jury declined to indict the officers
involved in the incident.
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK
Police Shoot
John Elifritz
in Homeless
Shelter
Seattle Black Panthers 50th
Anniversary
Kent Ford, left, who served as Portland Black Panther Chapter Captain, and the rest of the audience
raise their fists and yell, “Power to the people,” after hearing a panel discussion by members of the
Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party on the last day of a conference celebrating the Seattle
Black Panthers’ 50th Anniversary. It was held April 26 through April 28 at both Langston Hughes
Performing Arts Institute and Washington Hall. The conference featured speeches and discussions
with former Panthers like Aaron Dixon, Ericka Huggins, Emory Douglas and Elaine Brown. There
was a presentation by Jose (Cha Cha) Jimenez, a former member of the Young Lords in Chicago,
panels on hip hop activism, and the Angola Three and political prisoners. The event also featured
a concert with Fred Hampton Jr., a performance of Party People by the ensemble Universes and
music and dance by many local artists.
An April report from the Portland
housing bureau showed that rents in
newly constructed buildings fell in 2017
for the first time in years, according
to the city’s recently-released State
of Housing report — but renters of
color are still unable to afford rent in
any neighborhood in the city, due to a
combination of rapidly rising rents and
stagnant wages far below the median
for the metropolitan area. The report
also said African Americans are more
likely than other Portlanders to be
housing burdened, meaning they pay
more than 50 percent of their income
in rent.
PHOTO BY BETH NAKAMURA/THE OREGONIAN VIA AP
PHOTO BY A. DAVEY (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Rents
Too High
For Black
Portlanders
Protesters Close ICE
The Skanner staff
wishes you
a Happy New Year filled
with Peace and
Prosperity!
In June, ongoing protests over President Trump’s immigration policies resulted in the temporary
closure of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland. The protest began
with demonstrators calling for an end to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy in
which all unlawful border crossings are referred for prosecution. The protesters also sought
an immediate end to the practice of separating children from their families. The administration
officially suspended its family separation policy June 20, but stories of unaccompanied children
living in detention centers continued to surface throughout the year. More broadly, clashes
over the President’s immigration policy dominated headlines through the end of the year, when
Congress’ refusal to provide funding for the border wall Trump promised during the election led to
a partial shutdown of the federal government.