Story by Pete Shaw Great courage is being show by Black people–particularly young Black women–leading the various groups demanding greater justice and, more specifically, those demanding police accountability and the abolition of the current police system built on a foundation of racism and brutality. Media focus, however, is often on Black men and the…
Tag: Racism
Protesters Disrupt Wyden Town Hall Meeting; Hold Their Own When Wyden Runs
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Very early in Senator Ron Wyden’s town hall meeting on January 3 he proudly announced that he had held over 700 of these meetings since becoming a senator. As events turned out in this surprising evening, It may have been the first one where he actually had no choice…
Current Institutional Prison, Policing Failures Rooted in Larger Historical Narrative of Oppression
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Story by Pete Shaw Walidah Imarisha was winding down a late November presentation about alternatives to police and prison at Portland Community College when a person in the audience announced the failure of a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury to indict Officer Darren Wilson for murdering Michael Brown. Imarisha paused, then shook her head. “I’m…
Facets of a Movement
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Protests and others actions, ranging from peaceful gatherings to more militant non-violent marches, as well as the rare–but widely reported by the corporate media–examples of rioting and looting, began around the country on November 24 in the wake of the failure of a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury to indict…
Filmmakers Create Feature Length Documentary to Spotlight Egregious Local Police History
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Story by Pete Shaw In 2013 local filmmakers and activists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke produced Safe and Sound?, a short video to educate people about police violence, not as the product of a few rogue officers, but one that is inherent to the current system of policing. The film, which was…
Community Activist Emerges from Sanctuary, Feds Move in to Arrest
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw Francisco Aguirre, the community leader and immigrant justice activist who has been taking sanctuary in Augustana Lutheran Church since September 19, was arrested yesterday. Aguirre was taken into custody inside the Clackamas County Courthouse on a warrant for “illegal entry”, issued through collaboration between the US Attorney’s Office of…
Community Church Providing Sanctuary for Immigrant Rights Activist Francisco Aguirre Fighting Threatened ICE Deportation
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Story by Pete Shaw Francisco Aguirre became alarmed when 12 federal agents appeared at his Fairview, OR home at 7 AM on September 19. They refused to state the purpose for their visit, but, when pressed, the lead agent said it had something to do with Aguirre’s business. Aguirre found it suspicious that a dozen…
Rally Underscored Abysmal Treatment of Refugees, Need for New Immigrant Rights Policy
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Story and photos by Pete Shaw A crowd of 50 people gathered outside the Federal Building in downtown Portland on July 31 to demand an end to the deportations that have torn apart so many immigrant families. Those deportations have also engulfed children who are fleeing violence in Central America–much of it induced by US…
Communities Fight for History on Road to Justice
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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…
What a Disgrace
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by Daryl Turner, President, Portland Police Association Perhaps you have been following the horrible treatment of the Portland Police Bureau while the fair city that we serve has been negotiating a “settlement” with the Department of Justice about the levels of violence we police are accused of using against people with mental problems as well…
