Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle July 7, 2021
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Letter to the Editor: About the South Park Blocks
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2019
MERIT
AWARD
WINNER
The Skanner Newspaper, es-
tablished in October 1975, is a
weekly publication, published
every Wednesday by IMM Publi-
cations Inc.
415 N. Killingsworth St.
P.O. Box 5455
Portland, OR 97228
Telephone (503) 285-5555
Fax: (503) 285-2900
info@theskanner.com
www.TheSkanner.com
The Skanner is a member of the
National Newspaper Pub lishers
Association and West Coast Black
Pub lishers Association.
All photos submitted become
the property of The Skanner. We
are not re spon sible for lost or
damaged photos either solicited
or unsolicited.
©2020 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in
whole or in part without permission prohibited.
Local News
Pacific NW News
World News
Opinions
Jobs, Bids
Entertainment
Community Calendar
LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS
LOCAL EVENTS
Updated daily online.
n F
ebo
m
me
•
nts
TheSkannerNews
o k • learn • co
in y o u r c o m m u n
d ay ! • L i ke u s o
ac
it
Hear about it first.
Sign up for
Breaking News
and Events at
to
y •
Opinion
Mike Lindberg,
Former Portland City
Commissioner
Stephen Kafoury,
Former Oregon State
Legislator
T
he Skanner carried an
article from American
Forests, the country’s
oldest conservation or-
ganization, naming Portland
as being the second worst
city in the country for tree in-
equality.
Neighborhoods where com-
munities of color live have
significantly fewer trees than
white neighborhoods. The
benefits of a large tree canopy
include cooler temperatures
and cleaner air.
At the same time that this
study is coming to Portland-
ers by means of The Skan-
ner, our City Parks Bureau is
bringing to the city council
a plan for redoing the South
Park Blocks in the center of
downtown. This plan calls
for spending $46 million for
what they call activating the
park, which includes a new
bike path for downtown cy-
clists. This is happening when
“
...it is clear
that Port-
land’s East-
side is parks
deficient
it is clear that Portland’s East-
side is parks deficient.
Portlanders from all neigh-
borhoods enjoy the wonder-
ful canopy of old elms when
they go to the Art Museum ,
Historical Society or the Ore-
gon Symphony. The splendid
environment of the South
Park Blocks provides a place
for strolling, enjoying the
Rose Garden and sitting on a
bench to visit with a friend.
The trees and greenery help
mitigate the impact of climate
change. This refuge is en-
dangered with a master plan
which significantly reduces
the number of trees. We don’t
need a place with more bikes,
electric bikes and scooters
flying by.
The Qualified Immunity of Whiteness
T
he systemic racism in
the American criminal
justice system is obvious
to all who care to see it.
And one of its worst abuses
is the policy of qualified im-
munity. It is not enforcement
that is meant to be protected
by qualified immunity; it is
whiteness.
While there are tendrils of
qualified immunity stretch-
ing back to the days just after
the Civil War, this policy ce-
mented a wall of protection
around police forces across
the county by the U.S. Su-
preme Court during the civil
rights era.
In 1956, segregated bus ter-
minals were held to be un-
constitutional. And in1961, 15
Black and white priests, or-
ganized by the Rev. Robert L.
Pierson, were arrested by lo-
cal police when they entered a
“whites only” section of a bus
terminal in Jackson, Miss. A
local judge sentenced each of
the priests to the maximum
four months in jail, plus a
$200 fine. The charges later
were dismissed on appeal.
The priests then sued police
Capt. J.L. Ray and two other
officers under Section 1983
of the Ku Klux Klan Act for
violating their constitutional
rights through unlawful ar-
rest. The suit against the po-
lice officers made its way to
the U.S. Supreme Court and
was decided in 1967 in the case
known as Pierson v. Ray.
Oscar H.
Blayton
Guest
Columnist
Chief Justice Earl Warren
stunned civil rights advocates
when he wrote the opinion of
the Supreme Court ruling
against the priests and hand-
ing down a decision that held
that while police do not have
absolute and unqualified im-
munity, they should not be
“
“Good faith”
has become
the “get-out-
of-jail-free
card” for so
many vicious
police officers
held liable when acting in
good faith.
Although Chief Justice War-
ren had come to be viewed as
a champion of civil rights for
all Americans, his opinion in
Pierson v. Ray poisoned the
well of law enforcement for
people of color from that day
through the present.
In this case, the racist police
officers had argued that they
only arrested the priests to
prevent violence, while the
priests argued that the offi-
cers’ intent was solely to en-
force segregation in violation
of the priests’ constitutional
rights.
Given the history of fire
hoses, dogs and batons being
used to abuse African Ameri-
cans of their civil rights, it is
incredible that the high court
could have found any cre-
dence in the version of facts
presented by the racist police
officers, but it did.
“Good faith” has become the
“get-out-of-jail-free card” for
so many vicious police offi-
cers who solemnly claim that
they feared for their safety, or
thought it was the best course
of action to take at the time –
as they stand over the body of
a slain person of color.
The lack of justice in the
policy of qualified immunity
is glaringly obvious when a
police officer of color is called
to account for injuring or kill-
ing a white person.
Prior to the conviction of
Minneapolis police officer
Derek Chauvin for the hor-
rendous murder of George
Floyd in broad daylight and
caught on cell phone video,
the only Minnesota police of-
ficer to be found guilty of an
on-duty killing was Mohamed
Noor. Noor, who is Black, fa-
tally shot Justine Damond,
a 40-year-old white woman
who had called 911 to report
a possible assault of a woman
in an alley behind her house.
Noor testified at trial that
when he and his partner ar-
rived at the scene, he heard a
loud bang against their squad
car and his partner yelled,
“Oh, Jesus!” Noor then testi-
fied that he then saw a blonde
woman in a pink T-shirt raise
her right arm outside the
squad car’s open window and
he then made a split-second
decision to use his gun to pro-
tect his partner’s life.
No qualified immunity here.
The prosecutor made a point
of the victim’s blondness
when arguing his case to the
jury, and Mohamed Noor was
sentenced to 121/2 years in
prison.
In 2017, Marksville, La., Dep-
uty Marshal Derrick Stafford
was convicted in the death of a
6-year-old white boy. The boy,
who was a passenger in his
father’s car, was fatally shot
after the father, Christopher
Few, led officers on a two-mile
chase.
Stafford said he shot at the
car because he feared Few
was going to back up and hit
Deputy Norris Greenhouse
Jr. with his vehicle. Stafford
said Greenhouse had stum-
bled and fallen to the ground
as he tried to back away from
Few’s car.
No immunity here. Stafford
was sentenced to 40 years in
prison.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
nt •
lo c a l n e w s •
eve