Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2019)
April 17, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3 Sentenced cont’d from pg 1 White supremacist pris- on gang and was wear- ing the gang’s logo on his baseball cap and had its tattoo on his leg when he encountered Bruce. Surveillance video showed Bruce standing outside the store when Courtier drove up and parked. A fight erupted, but it was not clear how it started, said prosecu- tor David Hannon. The video then cap- tured Bruce running down a street and a side- walk in an attempt to get away from Courtier, who chased Bruce in the Jeep and hit him. Bruce died several days later. Hannon called Court- ier violent and “unapol- ogetic” for his White su- premacist views. Bruce’s mother, Christi- na Miles, told Courtier in court that “you allowed the devil to misguide you and take the life of such a beautiful young spirit.” Larnell Bruce Sr., the victim’s father, said he hopes Courtier spends his time in prison think- ing about whether he wants his own son, who is 8, to grow up among White supremacists. “That ideology that you have is not good for any- body,” Bruce said. Courtier teared up in court, but did not speak during the sentencing because his lawyers said they advised him against doing so. He is already serving a four-year sen- tence for his role in a 2015 bar attack. Hunt pleaded guilty to manslaughter, agreed to accept a 10-year sentence and was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday after- noon. Legal Services cont’d from pg 1 Don’t Shoot PDX on April 4. “But if you don’t have access to legal support, you can’t defend yourself.” To that end, Don’t Shoot PDX will launch its Community Legal Referral Services program by the end of spring. Raiford says her organization, launched in 2014, is known for bring- ing together agencies and citizens in- terested in de-escalating violence in the community. Organizing a compre- hensive network of legal resources and passionate attorneys “seemed like a perfect fit,” she added. “We’ve been doing a lot of ‘Know Your Rights’ training since 2015,” Rai- ford said. “We’ve helped people file complaints and indictments.” In order to to stay on the right side of the law while connecting community members with legal advice, Don’t Shoot PDX consulted with attorney Melis- sa Chinn of Kauffman Kilberg LLC to structure the referral program. “(Raiford) thought about doing a legal clinic,” Chinn told The Skanner, “but the thing about a legal clinic is it op- Write On Writers Damon Young and Ijeoma Oluo answer questions from the audience after “Write On,” a conversation between Ms. Oluo and Mr. Young’s about his first book, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker,” April 12 at the Northwest African American Museum. Ijeoma Oluo, author of the NYT bestselling book, “So You Want To Talk About Race,” and Mr. Young talked about how being Black impacts their writing and what they choose to write about. Chinn’s firm specializes in criminal defense. Don’t Shoot PDX has also part- nered with the Portland Regional Office of Legal Aid Services of Oregon to pro- vide resources for civil issues. “In providing services, we wanted to figure out what was most sought-after in the community, because although Oregon state provides some indigent criminal defense, there are a lot of legal issues they can’t provide discounted le- gal services for,” Chinn said. In January, Don’t Shoot PDX released a survey to identify the community’s most pressing legal needs. In addition to numerous requests for aid in immi- gration, employment, housing, and dis- crimination issues and police violence, survey results revealed other, less ob- vious gaps in representation -- for ex- ample, many parents of special-needs students said they were struggling to navigate individualized education pro- gram plans, and to know and enforce their children’s rights within schools. Respondents also emphasized the need for a monthly housing legal clinic, which is where Legal Aid staff attorney Christina Dirks comes in. “We know that the housing crisis right now is not only a crisis of afford- ability, but it’s a racialized housing cri- sis,” Dirks said during the April 4 meet- ing at Don’t Shoot PDX offices. “And it’s about gentrification and it’s about fair housing violations, and so assistance is critical right now. But also, I think there’s very clear and obvious struc- tural reasons why folks don’t come to lawyers, because people aren’t trusting these organizations, for very good rea- son given historical issues and current issues.” Dirks said organizations like Don’t Shoot PDX were in a unique position of trust in the community, and could “assist in doing the hand-off between someone that needs the help, and a law- yer that wants to help and is hopefully culturally more sensitive and aware of this huge amount of funding that had been put into what they call strategic investments — in particular, strategic investments for students of color and students who have been traditionally continued to be marginalized in the sys- tem. I had the privilege to lead efforts specific to those strategic investments. We did a lot of work for English learn- ing, emergent bilingual students at schools through House Bill 3499 [which directed ODE to create a statewide plan for English language learners]. House Bill 2016 is a plan, an African American Student Success plan. That’s work that continues on. We were able to help with some pro- fessional learning for educators in school and also partnering with com- munity-based organizations to really think about how they were doing in classrooms, doing in schools was or was not culturally responsive in taking into account the students and families that they were serving. So that’s work I’m really proud of. TSN: You’ve been in this position for two months. What has the job been so far? DMS: The job has been so far, real- ly sort of about learning and not just learning about the work. It’s having conversations and dialogue with my team, by having conversations and dia- logue with directors in other bureaus, with our commissioner in charge, Commissioner [Amanda] Fritz. The other thing that happened or was happening as I stepped in was budget. I really got a sense of where priorities are, I think, in the city, and how what our office is doing as we’re starting the work here in our strategic plan here soon, what we do can help support what that looks like in other bureaus, and so just being able to sit and listen and ask questions and be a part of that process was also an important orienta- tion for me. I think the other thing that has been erates much like a law firm, and then you have to follow the regulations that exist for every law firm,” like securing legal insurance. “In doing a legal re- ferral service, she can still help people without having to jump through those hoops.” “ If you don’t have access to legal sup- port, you can’t de- fend yourself the issues.” Chinn explained that the Communi- ty Legal Referral Services could pair marginalized populations with more affordable legal representation. “For a lot of people, the retainer up- front can be the difficult part,” Chinn said. “There are attorneys (in the com- munity) who are willing to waive their retainer fee, or set up a payment plan” or offer reduced rates. ”Working in conjunction with Legal Aid, we’re just trying to expand what is available.” Those seeking legal resources will be able to fill out an intake form either on Don’t Shoot PDX’s website (dontshoot- pdx.org) or at the organization’s office, where the information will be used to pair them with an appropriate attor- ney from the organization’s directory. Applicants can expect follow-up from a member of the organization, Chinn said. “As political activists, we’re always fighting for what needs to be done,” Raiford said at the brainstorming ses- sion earlier this month. “We’re always fighting to remove barriers and also to improve access. I think this partner- ship will help us build a kind of the re- sistance that we need, and the outreach we should be doing.” cont’d from pg 1 cific. All of a sudden they started doing a lot of equity work at the state and in particular the Department of Educa- tion. And I had a colleague at the time that was like, “You need to be here. The work that you’ve been doing in equity throughout your career just is a natural sort of path for you.” Because of the bu- reaucracy of that, I wasn’t 100 percent sure of it. But once I got there and start- ed talking to the folks at the time that were in leadership and really looking for the vision for what this work would be, it made total sense, and it allowed me to sort of take what is both personal and professional to me and really just marry that together. I was at the state for almost six years before taking this position and I’m excited about it. TSN: What were some of the things that you were able to accomplish at the state? DMS: I came in right when there was PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF PORTLAND Smith PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED News Markisha Smith, director of the City of Portland Office of Equity and Human Rights important to me in the last couple of months is really getting to know my team, that we are solid and that we function, as a family. It seems sort of touchy feely, but I think it makes sense in the work that we’re doing, and so I want to know who they are and what they’re passionate about. Read the full interview at TheSkanner.com