[published in the April 16, 2004 street roots]

Fear and Loathing

[Part Two]

Joshua Cinelli
staff writer

Candles and a small vigil in the bus stop on the corner of Killingsworth and Albina remind passersby of one of the most recent, horrific outbursts of violence in North and Northeast Portland.

Marcus C. Mill was shot dead at 2 p.m. on April 9. He was 16. Mill’s picture hangs on the side of the bus stop, a reminder of a vibrant life shot down.  As of press time, his killer was still at large. Later that day, Robert Orlando Holliday, 24, was shot while in the driver seat of his car on North Vancouver Avenue. He later died at the hospital. Two more young African-American males shot down in a community still reeling from the killing of James Jahar Perez on March 28 by a Portland police officer.

Perez was killed by officer Jason Sery, less than 30 seconds after he was pulled over for failure to put on a turn signal. Perez pulled into a crowded parking lot at 5 p.m. on the southwest corner of  Fessenden and Burr. Witnesses say the police approached the car with their guns drawn. Only after Sery fired three shots into Perez’s chest did officer Sean Macomber taser Perez for three minutes. There are many questions that are evolving from the second unarmed black motorist being shot in Portland within the last 10 months. Officer Scott McCollister, who shot and killed Kendra James during a traffic stop, has served his five and a half months suspension and is back on the force. Portland Police

Chief Derrick Foxworth has asked the FBI to begin an independent civil rights investigation into the shooting. Cheryl Robinson, the public information officer of the Portland Police Bureau said, “The actions of the police chief have been to deescalate concerns in a timely manner. People are asking questions and rightly so.”

Questions like what community activist Richard Brown raised at the April 5 Police Chief’s Forum.

“I see people taking turns without signals every day in this city. Let’s take a look at how many people get stopped for that. We need to be doing something different or we are going to be back at the same table talking about the same crap.”

 “This is a very emotional (topic) and we need cool heads,” said Foxworth at the same forum. “We need to take a deep breath and we need to, again, let this process take place and get through this together.”

Again with the hand wringing, again with the anger, the forums, the committees, and again a community seeking justice.

Oscar Eason Jr., president of NAACP’s western state conference has called for a U.S. Justice Department civil rights investigation into the policies and practices of the Portland Police Bureau.

“There’s a lot of police brutality in the area, is there a vigilante group in the police department?” Eason asked.

An ounce of prevention

With the latest police shooting of Perez, racial tensions are on alert. On people’s minds are the Cincinnati riots in 2001 that erupted after an officer was cleared of any wrongdoing when he shot a fleeing teenager.

The recent tension builds on a spate of violence in February in which several people were killed or injured in assaults in northern Portland.

To defuse the anger and bring about a possible solution, The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods has organized a series of forums to let people in the surrounding neighborhoods sound off on the issue.

Mustaafa Muhammad is an outspoken Portland Community College student who participated in a recent forum. Muhammad thinks for a while when asked how the response is different when a black person is killed by the police versus a gang-related shooting.

“When it’s a police shooting, it’s more shocking, because they are supposed to protect you. Neither one is justifiable. When it’s the police, you can’t really do anything about it, for the simple fact that when you have a badge, you have a shield to protect you.”

Antoinette Garrett’s voice intensifies over the phone as she talks about the violence that has overtaken North and Northeast Portland, “I think it’s racism. People say it isn’t. They say it was in the past. And the youth are making it worse, the one’s who say ‘Fuck the police.’” Antoinette Garrett is a brave young woman who meets with ex-gang leaders to try and enlist them in the fight to stop the violence. “I tell them that they are leaders but they are not leading in the right way. I see it in their face, see that I’m right, see that maybe they should. We need to have them listen. Put yourself in different shoes: the gangs in the police shoes and the police in gang shoes.”

The forums were an integral part of that process. “Tell us what you need.” John Canda, director of the N.E. Coalition of Neighborhoods asked the participants. Many in the crowd spoke of the racial profiling that is routine in their neighborhood. There were no easy answers.

Questions waiting answers

Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk has called for the first public inquest since 1985 when Lloyd Stevenson, an African-American, was killed at the hands of the police. Schrunk said additional scrutiny is justified after police shot Kendra James, an unarmed black woman, last May. The district attorney added that the inquest is an awkward procedure that will require a strong focus to ensure it does not become a witch hunt. Mayor Vera Katz has supported the inquest saying that the incident “should be reviewed openly so that the public hears all relevant information.”

But a lawsuit by Sery against the inquest prompted the city to postpone it until after a grand jury has convened on the matter. If the grand jury fails to return an indictment, then the inquest will proceed, according to Schrunk.

Schrunk said the inquest will be limited to determining the identity of the victim, when and where the death took place, the cause of death and the manner of death. With the limited scope of the inquest and the community demanding transparency, the aversion to the inquest is noteworthy. The officers in question said they would testify in the public inquest after the grand jury proceeding.

Robert King of the police union has said he feels that Foxworth is pandering to the community activists and that “the rank and file officers feel betrayed.” King has duly noted that being a police officer is a dangerous job. He cites the Eddie Homsomboth case, in which an officer was fired upon while approaching the car, to prove the point that every traffic stop could be fatal. King believes the officers acted reasonably and will be cleared of any wrongdoing. Assistant Police Chief Bruce Prunk said the police are creating a “use of force board” by July 1, which is another recommendation from the critical report on officer-involved shootings released last year by the Police Assessment Resources Center.

Much has been reported on the backgrounds of both James Jahar Perez and officer Jason Sery. Perez had a substantial amount of cocaine in his bloodstream, he was on parole and he had been in violent interactions with police before. Officer Sery served two years in the Marine Corps Reserve in Montana, received a borderline “do hire” recommendation on the psych test for the Billings Police department and has been found to have violated Fourth Amendment rights, unreasonable search and seizure both in Montana and in Portland. In February, the city awarded a $5,000 settlement to resolve a federal civil lawsuit alleging excessive force and assault by Sery. Less than three weeks ago, Sery pulled his gun on a 24-year-old man who was standing with his hands in his pockets on North Lombard. A different side of Sery has also been portrayed.  He attended the St. John’s neighborhood meetings and numerous people have described him as a police officer who cared.

At the corner of Mississippi and Shaver, on a red brick building, was spray painted a disturbing equation that in the wake of the Perez shooting: “Save a life. Kill a cop.” The graffiti was painted over in three hours but the emotion behind this tagging and the emotion over the latest violence has not yet settled. A whitewash of a review over another police killing may not be what this neighborhood needs right now.

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