Death and Apathy
A triple homicide isn't what it used to be
Three young black males are gunned down by three black shooters on a Saturday afternoon near a community center — and not a word from reformers, who have been dismantling the criminal justice system to make it more just for blacks.
Eskender Tamra, 17, Babu Daudi, 19, and Patrick D. Johnson Jr., 20 were in a car near North Foss Avenue and North Foss Court when three gunmen walked up, opened fire and then moved on.
The shooting occurred around 12:30 p.m. close by the Charles Jordan Community Center, named for Portland’s first black city commissioner. It’s located in state Sen. Lew Frederick’s and state Rep. Travis Nelson’s legislative districts. Both politicians are black.
Frederick has been in office since 2009 and worked on many of the police reform bills following the summer of George Floyd, the fentanyl addict who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
During that pivotal summer, Frederick pushed for legislation to address the protests and change police accountability. He wrote in a Portland Tribune commentary, “We no longer ASK to feel safe. We DEMAND that we feel safe in our country, in our state, in our city and in our neighborhoods.”
That was almost three years ago. Nothing recently from him on the three young blacks killed in his senate district.
Nelson is now serving his first term in the legislature and wasn’t part of the George Floyd ground swell, but he quickly made a name for himself earlier this year when he was pulled over twice in three days by Oregon State Police — first for going 11 mph over the limit and second for holding a cell phone while taking a call on a speaker phone.
He acknowledged exceeding the speed limit and using his cell phone and was let off with a warning in both instances, but he issued a statement suggesting he had been the victim of racial bias.
Nelson issued no statements about Portland’s deadliest shooting so far this year occurring in his district. But he did take to Twitter and post a cartoon about child safety in schools and promised “to reaffirm my commitment to making Oregon a state that is more welcoming and supportive to those who are transgender.”
Perhaps Sen. Frederick and Rep. Nelson instinctively knew that the triple homicide victims were not their kind. Had just one of the trio been killed in an officer-involved shooting, though, the political denunciations would have been swift.
Here is the North Portland that Sen. Frederick and Rep. Nelson would rather not know about. It’s the North Portland that police and families who live there must deal with. The lead character in this video is a brother to one of the victims in the triple homicide:
Guys who love the Uzi lifestyle probably don’t follow the particulars of legislation, but they know when the laws have shifted in their favor. Word gets around. The police are being reformed — not thugs, not thieves, not drug dealers.
Politicians — even black ones — don’t know how to fix thug culture so they zero in on the cops.
Portland’s notable black activists appeared equally helpless and didn’t seem to care about a triple homicide in broad daylight, near a family community center, in which multiple shots were fired, and three black guys died.
Gregory McKelvey, co-founder of Portland’s Resistance, who now calls himself a political strategist, was busy recently soliciting “any business owners in the Portland area that would be interested in joining a growing list of sponsors for one of the most transformational local events in years.”
Candace Avalos, chair of the Citizen Review Committee that oversees police complaints, had just returned from the Inaugural Women of Color Democracy Summit in New York where she and former Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty represented Portland.
In the week after the shooting, Avalos talked publicly about her breakup with her boyfriend of seven years, buying and moving into her first home and, of course, weighing in on the police.
She thinks it’s “very troubling” that Portland police want to view body camera footage before they write reports. (Many large city police departments allow this, and it hasn’t been an issue. In Portland, anti-police activists have made it an issue.)
Lakayana Drury, who runs Word is Bond, a nonprofit that has worked with the city of Portland and Multnomah County on youth and violence issues, was in Washington D.C. with 13 young black men for Spring Break when the triple homicide occurred.
Drury’s optimistic commentary on Twitter was a striking juxtaposition to the events in North Portland. The mission of Word is Bond is to improve relationships between young black men and law enforcement. The organization’s Board of Directors includes a former Portland police captain. Drury wants to change how black men are viewed.
The DC trip packed a lot of firsts into the young men’s lives — flying to the East Coast, donning suits and ties to visit Capitol Hill and talk to Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley about education; meeting the mayor of DC; visiting Dunbar High School, the nation’s first high school for black students; breaking bread at several black-owned restaurants.
“Black Excellence is in progress,” Drury posted on Twitter with numerous photos. “This is what investment into the next generation of leaders looks like. We have future businessmen, elected leaders, and inventors among our ranks. Let’s get to work!”
They also met Philadelphia’s progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner and Philadelphia city and county Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, who is black, to talk about gun violence and criminal justice reform.
In one brief exchange that is hard to decipher, one of the young men from Word is Bond asks a question about “the chain reaction” that exists among generations.
“How can we change (things so) people with terrible families aren’t facing major consequences at a young age?” he asked.
Sheriff Bilal replied, “Some people do want to be crazy. There is nothing you can do about that. … Some children look up to guys who drive around in flashy cars and gold chains.”
For families who don’t have much, she said it’s a challenge to keep children from being “influenced with the flashy cars, the chains, the rap music."
Krasner, who has led the progressive-prosecutor movement since 2017, offered a bromide about America being the most “incarcerated” country. (Rarely is it added that it’s also the freest country, with many temptations.)
I don’t know if the young man from Word is Bond received a satisfactory answer to his question. But if the three shooters who killed the trio outside the community center turn out to be juveniles, they may not face major consequences.
Oregon legislators have been on a reform binge for several years. In 2019 they passed Senate Bill 1008, which allows juveniles 15 years or older to avoid adult court, even if they are accused of serious crimes like murder or kidnapping. If a judge keeps them in juvenile court, their names can remain confidential and their sentences reduced. They could be free by age 25.
Does that make young black men feel safer?
No one in Portland's prog-media has the guts to point out the truth that stares them in the face. Sounds like it's time for another Oregonian hit piece on Ms. Fitzsimmons.
Excellent piece of writing! I've lived in Lew Fredrick's District as long as he's been a State Senator. So easy to focus on the police and not on black men killing black men. Portland's one political party of consequence is unfortunately completely uninterested in Public Safety and it shows.