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January 23, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 as she announced her bid. “They’re the values we as Americans cher- ish, and they’re all on the line now,” Harris says in the video. “The future of our country depends on you and millions of oth- ers lifting our voices to fight for our American values.” On ABC, she cited her years as a prosecutor “ The fu- ture of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our Ameri- can values in asserting: “My entire career has been focused on keeping people safe. It is probably one of the things that motivates me more than anything else.” Harris launched her presidential bid as the nation observes what would have been the 90th birthday of the slain civil rights leader Martin Lu- ther King Jr. The timing was a clear signal that the California senator — who has joked that she had a “stroller’s-eye view” of the civil rights movement because her parents wheeled her and her sister Maya to pro- tests — sees herself as an- other leader in that fight. The opening hours of Harris’ campaign includ- ed a number of cultural touchstones aside from her decision to announce her bid on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Staffers said her timing, and the design and col- or of her campaign logo, were a nod to Shirley Breakfast Chisholm, the New York congresswoman who sought the Democrat- ic Party’s presidential nomination 47 years ago this week. Upon return- ing to Washington, Har- ris spoke to reporters at Howard University, the historically Black col- lege that she attended as an undergraduate and on Monday described as “one of the most import- ant aspects of my life.” Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, faced at least one question about her heritage on Monday. When a reporter, who noted she is both Afri- can American and Indi- an-American, asked how she would describe her- self, Harris replied: “How do I describe myself? I describe myself as a proud American. That’s how I describe myself.” She skipped the for- mality of forming an exploratory committee, instead going all in on a presidential bid. She plans a formal cam- paign launch in Oakland on Jan. 27. The campaign will be based in Balti- more, with a second of- fice in Oakland. Harris joins what is ex- pected to be a wide-open race for the Democratic presidential nomina- tion. There’s no apparent front-runner at this ear- ly stage, and Harris will face off against several Senate colleagues. Sens. Elizabeth War- ren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have both formed exploratory com- mittees. Sens. Cory Book- er of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Amy Klobuchar of Minneso- ta are also looking at the race. If Booker enters the race, he and Harris could face fierce competition for support from Black voters. Read the rest of this story at TheSkanner.com PHOTO COURTESY OF P:EAR GALLERY Harris Exhibit Presents Life in Sierra Leone P:ear gallery will present an exclusive glimpse into the life in Sierra Leone through the eyes of its youth in February and March. The opening will take place 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb. 7 and the exhibit will remain on display through March 29. This exhibit is a partnership between WAYout, a group working with youth in Sierra Leone, and p:ear, working with the homeless youth of our local community. This show will feature wide-ranging selection of photography emphasizing the commonalities of life viewed through the eyes of youth across the world. WAYout “Worldwide Arts for Youth” works in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world, to changes the lives of the vulnerable young people through arts training and shelter. They engage and include youth by promoting artistic freedom, education and empowerment through photography, film and recording music. p:ear is a nonprofit program that works with Portland’s homeless youth through education, artistic, recreational and job training programs. For more information, visit www.wayoutarts.org or www.pearmentor.org. Outlaw cont’d from pg 1 things than how we address our issues currently. TSN: Do you support the cre- ation of a non-police response to people in mental health crisis? CO: I most certainly do. I said it as soon as I got here: Every call to which we’re dispatched to go to does not necessarily require a po- lice officer. The problem is that we don’t always know what we have until we get there. So there might be a time when someone is in crisis, but there might be an escalated level of threat that does require our care. Now with that said, I do believe that there are many of those who are in crisis that don’t need po- lice services. They need to either speak with a clinician or they need other social services provid- ed. We just started a pilot program in early November by placing a police sergeant in the communi- cations dispatch center at BOEC (Bureau of Emergency Communi- cations). That sergeant is placed there to help triage some of the calls that we receive, to not only make sure that police officers are only being sent to calls were a police officer needs to go — but if a call goes into BOEC and it is determined that this does not need to be responded to by a po- lice officer, that sergeant has the authority to say “No, this needs to be reserved to another agency or “ Every call to which we’re dispatched to go to does not nec- essarily require a police officer. social service provider.” So the answer to that is: It de- pends. We are researching a lot of options. Where I came from, be- fore I moved up here, we had cli- nicians that worked for the coun- ty that were actually dispatched to the calls, and then if they deter- mined that they needed a police officer there, then we came after that. So there are other ways to en- sure that we are not always the first responders to those who need services outside of police response. TSN: Many people are con- cerned about the increase in White supremacist street actions in Portland. Does the Portland Po- lice Bureau have a plan on that? Or is it something that you’re dis- cussing behind the scenes? CO: This is something that con- cerns everyone. But again, I want to say, I want to remind people what our roles are. Our roles are not only to be strong partners with our local law-enforcement agencies and state agencies but also federal agencies. We rely very heavily on information that we receive, for example, from federal agencies, if there are heightened threats that we need to pay attention to. With all of that said, there are still laws that we enforce. I think it’s important for us to educate the community on the differences between hate crimes and hate speech, and I think it’s important for people to know what our roles are in protecting everyone’s right. Regardless of how egregious or hateful some person‘s speech might be, we have to focus on behavior. Read more of this interview at TheSkanner.com cont’d from pg 1 said. More than 3,000 were put in jail or incarcerated in other public facilities, but they kept chanting King’s mantra of love. Gossett said if King were alive today he would say, “I want to build bridg- es, not walls.” He also said many of the goals of King’s Poor People’s Campaign, including a jobs guarantee, and that King would likely support nationalized health care. In earlier speeches, elected officials stressed the importance of keeping King’s dream alive, particularly in the form of improved voting access. Gov- ernor Kate Brown noted that since Or- egon’s landmark Motor Voter law took effect in 2016, voter turnout among people of color has increased by 9 per- cent. The bill registers individuals to vote once they’ve made contact with the Oregon Department of Motor Ve- hicles to get a driver’s license or iden- tification card with an Oregon license. Brown wants to expand the law to ensure access via more government “ with his colleague in the Senate, Jeff Merkley, called for an end to the partial shutdown of the federal government. Merkley, who in recent months has hinted at a presidential run in 2020, said that if Martin Luther King were alive in 2019, he would tell Donald It is not likely that the back of segregation would have been broken in Birmingham if not for thousands of children, ages seven to 17 agencies, and to include postage paid ballots. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, like Brown, decried the rise in voting re- strictions in other states, and along Trump, “You have held 800,000 Amer- icans hostage to build a racist wall.” Al- luding to an MLK quote about changing the Jericho Road — rather than merely being Good Samaritans, King said, “we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beat- en and robbed as they make their jour- ney on life’s highway” – Merkley said it was time to change the Jericho Road, end the shutdown and stop incarcerat- ing children at the border. Other dignitaries attending included U.S. Sen. Suzanne Bonamici, Mayor Ted Wheeler, State Sen. James Manning, Eugene, Multnomah County Chair, Deborah Kafoury, New city council member, Jo Ann Hardesty, newly elect- ed Garabaldi City Council Member Tim Hall, and many others. View photos from The Skanner Foun- dation’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Break- fast on pages 6-7.