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NEWS Youthful Voices in the Black Lives Matter Movement

Young people—both locally and nationally—are at the heart of many of the ongoing protests against police brutality.

By Miina McCown

This past weekend, hundreds of people descended on Prineville for a peaceful protest along the town’s main drag, coming together to show solidarity with other Black Lives Matter protests nationwide—but also to stage a big showing in a town where at least one local Black resident, Josie Stanfield, has said she’s experienced pushback and threats from other residents opposed to the movement. In Bend, Juneteenth brought the Take Back the Butte event, and a Juneteenth picnic in Drake Park. While adults have organized and shown up for many protests, young people are also organizing and showing up in great numbers.

I talked to some local youth activists about what this movement means to them.

Source Weekly: What’s the strangest/most shocking thing you’ve encountered at a BLM protest?

Jace B., 16: I think the strangest thing I’ve seen was at the first protest at Peace Corner and an absolute legend of a human being decided to make loops around the protest in his hoverboard holding a BLM sign. We cheered him every time he came around. That’s probably the funniest and strangest thing that’s happened.

Maya Gardner, 17: I have organized and attended quite a few protests, but it wasn’t until the BLM movement that I saw the true power in protesting. The first protest in Bend was a few days after that horrible video showed the world the truth yet again. I went with my friend, expecting to only stay a few hours. I was first shocked to see how many people had turned up as it had been announced only a day before, but what was more shocking to me was hearing the stories and the voices of the people of color in our community. I had decided to be ignorant for a long time, I had decided to ignore the racism in my community and within me, and seeing these moments... moments where the organizers and protestors would talk about the pain and the fear they feel every day made me realize how privileged I am. It made me realize that the Black Lives Matter movement isn’t a momentary fad for me to participate in; it is a lifelong commitment to helping better our country.

Keitlyn Nguyen, 16: I think the weirdest moment is when I saw a group of kids just casually smoke and ask if anyone wanted to smoke with them during the last protest I went to. They were holding signs, but I couldn’t exactly tell what their motives were.

Andrea Maria Vazquez Fernandez,

Visual Artist/Activist: Seeing people of color in Prineville stand with All Lives Matter and Trump supporting protesters, as well as the lack of policing onto white and hateful groups of people towards peaceful protesters and POC/ black folks is what surprised me the most. It is not ignorance but an intentionally perpetuated arrogance.

Anna Maria Vasquez Fernandez Protests in Bend have seen a strong turnout.

SW: What’s the most opposing occurrence/group you’ve come across at local protests?

Gardner: When protesting in Prineville, I was able to see a counter protest for the first time. I had always protested in Bend and while we have an extremely supportive community; Prineville does not. Though they mostly remained peaceful, it was bizarre to see people walking through town with tear gas canisters and AK-47s at a peaceful protest. They kept trying to rile our group up by chanting and waving their guns around. There were many moments where I felt as if our group was in danger and the white members of the group got in front of the BIPOC to protect them in case there was violence. I now expect counter protesters, but usually they stand in silence. The ones in Prineville said horrible, horrible things, racist things, inhuman things, and hearing later that the organizers receive death threats just hurts me.

Nguyen: Well, the most opposing would be the trucks that want to run over protesters or the trucks that would spew their engine or something similar while people were protesting. I think people were just angry and annoyed because there’s a little rage in everyone; even I felt the need to go up to that truck and tell them to f-off. We were marching down to some street and these people decided to show up and wave their confederate flag around to piss us off. They did it earlier in the day

Anna Maria Vasquez Fernandez

and drove around, but a bunch of people got around their car and one of the protesters took their flag, pulled out a knife, ripped it up, then threw it back into the window of their car. And then there’s also toxic positivity… the people who post on social media about police being on our side. And then we also have the people who think that a statue is more important than human lives. I got into an argument calling out a dude because he thought that it was stupid that people were ruining monuments and he’s like, “If you don’t like this country get out of it” and says all this gross stuff. Basically, I called him out and said, “why are you whining over a monument getting ruined when we can replace it?”

Jace B.: There’s been a handful of different counter protestors. In Bend, it’s typically just been a couple of dudes in big trucks revving their engines and gassing protestors out. Prineville has been much more concerning, though; we’ve seen members of the Proud Boys, Three Percent Militia and Bikers for Trump, all of which are heavily armed for the most part.

SW: How do you think the virus plays into this? Have you seen people social distancing and wearing masks, or have you seen a lot of people ignoring health precautions?

Nguyen: Most people have been wearing masks, but there’s also a majority who don’t. Personally, since COVID rates are going down I think people think it’s unnecessary to wear masks

now, but COVID rates are starting to shoot up again.

Gardner: That was a huge fear of mine when I started going. But at all of the protests I have been to, people have been wearing masks, passing out masks and hand sanitizer and wiping surfaces. Distancing has been harder, but for people concerned about their health there is always room to stand behind.

Vasquez Fernandez: I have seen protesters working in solidarity towards BLM and in amplification of Black Lives to have shown up with masks and willing to do the work as asked by their communities of color. However, in Prineville, not one of the counter protesters had a mask, nor the police, which I find not only a public health and safety issue but more so a counterproductive perpetuation of policing’s power in the hierarchy of public service.

J.B.: Almost everybody at the protests wears masks and it’s a pretty common sight to see people giving out those blue paper ones. Ultimately, I feel like the protesters don’t have an issue with quarantine but feel like the injustice that we’ve seen has pushed us to the point where we have no choice but to speak out. Many of the people I’ve talked to have said that they are willing to risk their lives with coronavirus to fight for liberation and against oppression.

SW: Could you tell me a little bit about how you personally have involved yourself?

Gardner: I started off by going to protests and trying to use my Instagram as a platform to spread useful information and education. Through protest attendance, I became a member of COBLA and was put in touch with a local group of teens that plan events. Currently I am leading the efforts to inspire and demand that the Bend La-Pine School District does more to be actively anti-racist. I first made a petition and then worked to get a formal version signed at a protest; my group is now going into the next phase of communicating with the school board.

Vasquez Fernandez: I have come into this work from a place of love as a Caribeña and Latina, working to establish equity through placing an emphasis on how Black lives matter right now and using my own art forms to liberate both myself and our collective humanity from systems of colonization and oppression as people of color. I work to move beyond the inherit bias we have perpetuated for marginalized Indigenous, Black and brown communities by showing courage in promoting diversity and having difficult conversations through coming into these spaces with compassion, humility, and love.

Words have proven to be powerful during Black Lives Matter protests in Central Oregon and across the country.

Nguyen: I’ve personally involved myself by signing petitions, going to protests and donating; mostly signing petitions.

J.B.: Before the protests started, I was already involved with the Central Oregon Chapter of the Socialist Party USA, so I had a lot of connections in the local activism scene. Due to the protests though, I’ve met a lot of new people and have gotten involved in Bend 4 BLM and am in frequent discussions with COBLA and The Central Oregon Diversity Project.

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Dreaming On

A Central Oregon DACA recipient weighs in on the recent Supreme Court ruling

By Nicole Vulcan and Miina McCown

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which offers deportation protection to people brought to the country as children. Following the court ruling— which only denied the bid on procedural grounds—the Source checked in with a local woman and DACA recipient, Liliana Bernabe, who we featured in our 2018 Women’s Issue, about her reaction to the Supreme Court ruling.

Source Weekly: It’s been a few years since we did the Women’s Issue cover with you on it. Yesterday was a big day in the Supreme Court. They basically struck down this first attempt to get rid of DACA, and I’m just wondering how you’re feeling about that.

Liliana Bernabe: It was a sigh of relief. We lived so afraid, just so scared of what’s going to happen tomorrow, and I’m not going to say that I’m not scared anymore because I am; it’s that constant fear of someone being able to decide over your life and you having no control over it. It’s upsetting; I hate it, honestly. But just knowing that the Supreme Court—we have their support is amazing. And it makes you feel good; it makes you feel that they care about other people, especially minorities in this country. a chance to read some of your story a few years back, can you tell us a little bit about your background? was born in Guadalajara. My parents brought me to the U.S. when I was… I had just turned five, and we crossed the border, lived in California ‘til I was about seven or eight. Then we moved to Oregon, and all I remember is just having a very rough childhood. Having to hide my identity. I remember my parents always saying, “You can’t say you’re from Mexico, don’t ever talk about your status.”

These things, these norms that I had to follow without really understanding what was going on. In high school, when I was 16, President Obama signed the Dreamers Act, or the DACA, and it just completely changed my life because I was able to get a drivers license, which none of my family members were and I was also able to get a worker’s permit and get my first job through my social security card and the workers permit, and I enrolled in school… It was still hard because of not being able to apply for federal financial aid and student loans, and it still is.

I’m not going to tell you that it’s not a struggle; I’m about to transfer to OSU-Cascades, getting my associates over the summer at COCC, so I’m a little scared, to think, oh my gosh, what if I don’t have the money? Is that going to stop me, not being able to apply for student loans? No financial aid, what am I going to do? I’m very scared but I want to do this. I want to do this; this is my future, this is what I’ve worked for, and I’m really

"I would like to become an attorney one day. Maybe go into political science and be able to have a voice for minorities, for people like me who tend to have the stereotype of being a gardener, being a landscaper, and I want to tear down those barriers and say, 'Hey, look at this.'”

SW: For those readers who didn’t get

LB: Sure, yes. I am from Mexico. I

looking forward to it!

SW: What does the future hold for you? What are your plans and dreams?

LB: I would like to become an attorney one day. Maybe go into political science and be able to have a voice for minorities, for people like me who tend to have the stereotype of being a gardener, being a landscaper, and I want to tear down those barriers and say, “Hey, look at this.” We can do so much more but we are so oppressed that we come to even convince ourselves that we can’t do this. So, I want to say one is able to do whatever they want, all you have to do is believe in yourself. That’s all you need and for now, I’m really working hard on believing in myself. It’s difficult with the president that we have in the White House at the moment. You come to think that you’re not enough and I kind of sometime have to stop myself and say, “Hey. No one can stop you from doing what is best for you and whatever you want.” The Supreme Court had our backs yesterday and that was amazing.

SW: Some people have pointed out that the ruling in the Supreme Court was done on an administrative rule, that it was done based on kind of a technicality. I know that not everybody feels entirely comforted by the ruling… what’s your impression of what’s next and what are you looking out for?

LB: I’m definitely looking out for Trump striking back. I think that’s what’s next for us. Not celebrate, but being aware, like, oh my gosh, what’s coming next? What’s he going to do now? And it’s just that uncertainty of not knowing what he’s capable of and what he’s not.

Intern Miina McCown: How has your culture affected the interests you’ve had growing up and how has it affected your circle of things enjoy doing, and what you bring to that?

LB: I think that it has always been difficult to kind of grow up in two different cultures because there are norms in the American culture and in the Hispanic culture, so having to juggle between the two and just say, “OK, this is wrong in my culture but this is acceptable in American culture,” and having to blend that into my life and learn what’s OK to do, what’s not, what’s expected of me, what’s not, but I kind of learn not to care anymore and just do what I want, just because if I keep worrying about like; is this right, is

this wrong, it just becomes stressful for me, so I always try to do the right thing. So I feel like I’m building my own culture and my own way of life and being, but it sure is a struggle just to come into a different culture but having your parents kind of pushing you to keep their tradition and to keep their culture, but then also having to adapt to a totally different one. It’s a struggle but it’s beautiful because you get two different sides; you get two different points of view and you can enjoy it. Especially if you blend those in, it becomes great, it becomes something so significant.

MM: Yeah, I totally understand that. I’m also bicultural. My mom is from Japan and my dad is white, so I totally get where you’re coming from and the meshing of two cultures is really interesting, as you grow up especially. LB: It is, you learn a lot more. SW: Have you heard of that term “third culture?” It’s basically your experiences—you both have basically created a third culture from those two that you were raised in. LB: And that’s what it kind of feels like, doesn’t it? Like we have our own culture?

MM:

Definitely, yeah!

LISTEN: There’s lots more to this interview! Check out the full interview with Bernabe in podcast form, as part of the Source’s

Bend Don’t Break podcast series, at bendsource.com.

NEWS You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Public defenders demand more transparency from local law enforcement

By Laurel Brauns

As Black Lives Matter protests continue around the world and here in Central Oregon, local public defenders have their own ax to grind when it comes to criminal justice reform and police brutality. They fight on the front lines in courtroom battles every day to protect the very people systems tend to harm the most: those who can’t afford a lawyer to defend themselves.

On June 8, public defenders from the county joined a coordinated national protest by storming District Attorney John Hummel’s press conference to support Black Lives Matter. They challenged Hummel on a range of topics from racial discrimination in his office to covering for the cops. While Hummel’s speech on criminal justice got most of the attention from local news outlets that day, the public defenders stole the spotlight when they ceremoniously stormed out after yelling, “Your words are not enough.”

While their job may not come with the glamour—or even the pay grade— of public prosecutors, public defenders have some of the highest job satisfaction among attorneys, said Joel Wirtz, the co-executive director of the Deschutes Defenders, a public defense nonprofit that takes on two-thirds of the cases requiring state-funded defense council in the county. The group’s offices overlook the Deschutes County Circuit Court in a former turn-of-the-century hotel on Greenwood Avenue in Bend. Its parent company, Crabtree & Rahmsdorff, has been there since 1981.

“I do the Mental Health Court. It feels really good to help these people who need to be in the system; they need to be getting therapy and medication. It should be a medical issue, not a criminal issue,” Wirtz said. “It’s doing a lot of social worker-type stuff. It’s incredible to see people change.”

“I don’t think as a society the right response is to sweep the ‘untidies’ out of the public view,” added Karla Nash, the other co-executive director of the organization. “We ought to be more compassionate. I think there are a lot of reasons that militate in favor of responses in the system that aren’t just ‘lock them up and throw away the key.’ From the standpoint of both cost effectiveness and making our community safe, people generally don’t see the light and improve and turn around and become great people by virtue of spending many years in prison.”

Wirtz said the while the organized protest earlier this month was coming from individual attorneys and not his nonprofit, he believes knowing all he can about how police operate helps the organization represent their clients more effectively in court.

Police body cameras are top priority for local public defenders, he said. While the Redmond Police Department has used them since 2017, it was only after hundreds of people in the area joined Black Lives Matter protests over the last month that the Bend Police Department chose to put a new camera system in its budget. It should roll out in the coming months. Sgt. William Laurel Brauns Laurel Brauns

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel speaks during a press conference June 8.

Bailey of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said the agency plans to research vendors next year and may eventually phase them in.

“You get context from a video,” Wirtz said. “The police have a perspective; they want to prosecute. In the police report, a lot of things that could lead to my client’s innocence doesn’t show up, because I’m not seeing it right now.”

Beyond body cameras, Wirtz sees plenty of other opportunities to increase police transparency. Law enforcement officers often act as essential witnesses in criminal cases, but public defenders are generally left in the dark about what goes on behind the scenes in police departments.

“It should be a requirement of the prosecution to notify us if there has been any kind of disciplinary action,” he said. “Even if they just lied on their time sheet, that is dishonest, it’s something you could use. ‘Look they can’t even be honest about time.’”

While public defenders have difficulty accessing disciplinary records of law enforcement officers, so does the public at large. It’s an issue that’s gaining national attention right now, because in many cases of police brutality and murder, the perpetrators have a long history of reprimand within their departments. Some hop around to different agencies after being fired over and over.

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd by kneeling on his neck, had 18 complaints on his official record and two that ended in discipline from his department. In Oregon, police files are protected by state law regarding whether the actions by the officer results in discipline. The only time a reporter could request this information is if the incident is in the “public’s interest,” if the officer in question is running for public office, for example, according to Ian Leitheiser, assistant attorney for the City of Bend.

Wirtz had a long list of other critiques of the criminal justice system that need overhaul: “We have the highest incarceration rate of anywhere in the world; minorities are incarcerated at a much higher rate; minorities are stopped more frequently than whites in this country, and minority cases are prosecuted at a higher rate,” he said.

He ended with the success story of a client who stole some tools, but ended up returning them and straightening out his life.

“This is a guy, if he gets a job and someone to oversee him and do UAs (urine analysis), this can be a tax payer,” Wirtz said.

Closing the Book on Juniper Ridge

After months of stops and starts, the City of Bend removed all the people living at Juniper Ridge

By Laurel Brauns

Laurel Brauns N ot a single tent remained at Juniper Ridge Monday morning, the first day the land was officially off limits to campers and hikers. The city-owned land in northeast Bend was where dozens of people lived in tents and cars, at least a mile from the nearest store.

For years, the City of Bend left the campers alone, and service providers made a habit of delivering medical care and other supplies on a weekly basis from a cul-de-sac at the end of Cooley Road, near the corporate headquarters of the Les Schwab Tire Center. But the City wanted to build Phase Two of the North Interceptor Sewer Line Project, which will run directly through the former encampment and may encourage future residential and commercial development.

Jaime Gomez-Beltran, the City’s property manager, spent most of last week assisting people off the property.

“Officer Kecia Weaver and I have been helping them. We respected their space and their personal property, and I was in daily contact asking people whether they wanted the things they left behind, or finding a place for them to store it,” he said.

But Gomez-Beltran couldn’t provide any direction to the campers about where they could go because then the City would be liable, he said. The City The dirt road leading out of Juniper Ridge was still open this weekend, allowing people to transport the last of their personal belongings off the property. has been explicit that its main concern is clearing the construction area. approve an access point for social seran effort to stay in contact with less than 10% of the documented

While some people moved into othvices right now. Shelly Smith, the city’s unhoused veterans in the area, even unhoused population in the county. er scattered camps around Bend, others liaison with the unhoused communiwhen they move. During the City’s first effort at evichiked north, farther into the woods of ty, echoed Gomez-Beltran’s concerns The City has discussed plans for tion in April, the Homeless LeaderJuniper Ridge where they now have limitabout liability. She told the Source she clearing Juniper Ridge since last sumship Coalition sent a letter to the ed ability to come and go, and where local is working with other agencies to find a mer when an RV caught fire there and City stating that homelessness could nonprofits have difficulty reaching them. legal, authorized solution. some nearby property owners startlead to a public health crisis, especialed complaining. The City’s attorneys ly if there was a COVID-19 outbreak

At its height, around 80 people lived at Juniper crafted a Juniper Ridge plan in February and the Bend Police Departwithin a camp. The letter stated that there was nowhere for people without

Ridge, representing less than 10% of the unhoused population in the county. ment began issuing eviction notices in mid-April—despite guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and homes to go; social service providers were already maxed out. It requested that the city establish quarantine Prevention, which strongly advised units, sanction encampments and against breaking up encampments expand access to hygiene, food and

The City owns 1,500 acres in An established camp? during a pandemic. Last week, Bend meal services. the area. The State of Oregon has For J.W. Terry, the executive direcPD issued 24-hour notices and threatOn May 6, City staff presented the approved 500 acres for development, tor of Central Oregon Veterans Outened to issue citations for anyone left Bend City Council with an array of land with the other 1,000 acres stretching reach, his vision is to work with trespassing after June 22. feasibility options for long-term camps. north into Deschutes County. Surother area service providers to set up According to Gomez-Beltran, But instead of moving forward, the rounding the land is property owned an established encampment where his everyone left peacefully. Vehicles Council decided to wait and see if state by the Central Oregon Irrigation Disorganization can provide medical and moved in and out through the weeklegislators would take up the issue the trict, the State of Oregon, Deschutes mental health care on a daily basis, end, but no one has slept in the vicinnext time they convened. County and a number of private enti“without everyone running around ity since Thursday, he said. No one HB 4001 was an emergency housing ties. COID owns one access point to like chickens with their heads cut off,” received citations. bill that died in the Oregon Legislathe north off U.S. Highway 97, but he said. ture’s short session in February when recently blocked it off with a gate. “It costs a lot more money without a Will the government help? Republicans walked out in protest of

“What is owned by the City of Bend centralized place: gas and wear and tear For some housing advocates, Junia climate action bill. HB 4001 would on the north side of the property is landon vehicles; the time driving to all these per Ridge—and the road access issue— have funded a navigation center in locked,” said Gomez-Beltran. “We are different areas,” he said. is emblematic of the ongoing saga of Bend and removed regulatory barriers talking to other public agencies about COVO will have a seat at the table helping the unhoused in the middle of a to make it easier to site shelters and how we can provide access.” with other public agencies to discuss worldwide pandemic. camps. The bill will make a reappear

While the City is supportive of helpaccess to Juniper Ridge in the comAt its height, around 80 people ance during the state’s special session ing the people who moved, it can’t ing months. He says COVO makes lived at Juniper Ridge, representing set to begin June 24.