Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2021)
APRIL 21, 2021 Portland and Seattle Volume XLIV No. 15 25 CENTS News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7 Opinion ...................................2 Vaccinne in Pregnancy ...8 Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW GUILTY Currently, organizations must apply for funds through one of 18 regional agencies. Even state officials decry the system. Critics call current state system ‘discriminatory,’ ‘antiquated’ By Saundra Sorenson Of The Skanner News A bill moving through the Ore- gon Legislature confronts what many housing advocates view as discriminatory red tape around public funding for housing. Currently, state statute bars orga- nizations from applying directly for federal and state housing funding. In- stead, 18 community action agencies (CAAs) throughout the state distribute See HOUSING on page 3 COURT TV VIA AP, POOL Housing Advocates Push to Free Public Funds In this image from video, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is taken into custody as his attorney Eric Nelson, left, watches, after his bail was revoked after he was found guilty on all three counts in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. (Court TV via AP, Pool) Grim List of Deaths at Police Hands Grows Even After Verdict By Lindsay Whitehurst and Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press J High School Renamed After Years Of Being Named After KKK Leader page 9 ust as the guilty verdict was about to be read in the trial of former Minneapolis police of- ficer Derek Chauvin, po- lice in Ohio shot and killed a Black teenager in broad daylight during a confron- tation. The shooting of Ma’Kh- ia Bryant, 16, who was swinging a knife during a fight with another person in Columbus, is in some ways more representative of how Black and other people of color are killed during police encounters than the death of George Floyd, pinned to the ground by Chauvin and captured on video for all the world to see. Unlike Chauvin’s case, many killings by police involve a decision to shoot in a heated moment and are notoriously difficult to prosecute even when they spark grief and outrage. Juries have tended to give officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim to have acted in a life-or- See GUILTY on page 3 Portland Renter Mediation in Effort to Avert Evictions Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty sounded a note of caution saying thousands of people would be headed to court when the moratorium expired The Associated Press LeVar Burton to be ‘Jeopardy!’ Guest Host page 7 death situation. While Tuesday’s convic- tion was hailed as a sign of progress in the fight for equal justice, it still leaves unanswered difficult ques- tions about law enforce- ment’s use of force and sys- temic racism in policing. The verdict in the Chauvin case might not be quickly repeated, even as the list of those killed at the hands of police grows. “This was something unique. The world saw what happened,” said Salt Lake County District At- torney Sam Gill, who has examined over 100 use-of- force cases there. To have video, witnesses, forensic evidence and multiple po- lice officers testify against one of their own is unique and “demonstrates how high the bar has to be in order to actually have that kind of accountability,” he said. Convictions like Chau- vin’s are extraordinarily rare. Out of the thousands of deadly police shootings in the U.S. since 2005, few- er than 140 officers have been charged and just sev- en convicted of murder, ac- cording to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a crimi- nologist at Bowling Green State University. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The City Council in Portland, Oregon, has ap- proved funding for a pilot program to divert a small number of tenants and landlords from going to court over eviction filings. Oregon Public Broadcasting re- ports the council’s money, approved Wednesday, will pay for a mediator and, in some cases, provide rent as- sistance. The Council unanimously ap- proved a $150,000 contract to Port- land-based nonprofit Resolutions See EVICTIONS on page 3 During its pilot phase, the landlord-tenant mediation program would provide somewhere between 70 and 100 mediations
