Story and photos by Pete Shaw One of the last events I was able to cover prior to the onset of the novel coronavirus was of my Friend Walidah Imarisha speaking at the University of Portland’s inaugural MLK Day On event, on January 20, 2020. After a year and change of masks, social distancing, lockdowns,…
Story by Pete Shaw What material changes will result from the protests, rallies, and other actions demanding transformation to the way policing is conducted in the United States? Calls range from fairly tepid reform to outright abolition of policing. These protests are connected with larger movements seeking to dismantle white supremacy and policing, which is…
Story by Pete Shaw Nine years ago, near the corner of NE 6th and Halsey, Keaton Otis was murdered in a hail of 23 bullets fired by a clutch of police officers of the Portland police’s Hot Spot Enforcement Team. In video capturing the event, it appears to be an execution. Otis had been profiled…
Story and photos by R.G. Manuel Decrying the limitations of Sanctuary City status, the Portland City Council today declared Portland a “Stability City.” As a result, Portland will immediately move forward with plans making all its citizens have access to not just the bare necessities of survival, but also a standard of life and living…
Story by Pete Shaw Of all the forms of struggle against oppression, there is none more fundamental than memory. It is the substrate from which all resistance germinates. Nurtured and nourished, those sprouts bloom, fruit, and scatter more seed upon ground both hallowed and fallow, their shoots pushing up with great tenacity against at times…
Story by Pete Shaw Watershed moments are always interesting. On the one hand, there is great cause for celebration. Raise a glass, take a bow, give a pat on the back–even your own–and revel in your moment. But no such moment is ever an end point. Morning becomes afternoon. Afternoon rolls into evening. Night falls.…
Story and photos Pete Shaw Three years ago I was in Haarlem, Netherlands, watching a televised debate on climate change. For a few moments I felt I had bent my balance: something was bothering me, but I could not figure out what it was. And then I realized that the debate was not about the…
by Adam Rothstein On the night of Saturday, April 21, a group of Occupy Portland activists briefly “re-occupied” Chapman Square, spurred by a Facebook post sent that very evening. The media, the city, and the Police have, as usual, engaged in their own misguided interpretation of events, attempting to spin it as a trash-talking, beer-drinking…
By K. Kendall Father and middle school teacher Jonathan Zook is not guilty of resisting arrest; not guilty of disorderly conduct; not guilty of assault, according to a jury of six. However the jury concluded on April 19, 2012, after two days and a morning of testimony, that Zook is guilty of “interfering with a…
by John Wood [Editor’s Note: George Zimmerman was arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder on April 11.] I was saddened by the deaths of two young people in Florida earlier this year, both killed by strangers while walking home. One was the death of my granddaughter, struck and killed by a hit and run…
