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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes. News: Happening People: Emily Graham-Berks and Paige Semich
'STOP THE WALL' TOUR COMING TO EUGENE The wall that the conservative Israeli government is building in the West Bank, despite loud outcries from the Israeli people, looms 26 feet high in places and already snakes close to 100 miles through Palestinian villages and farmlands.
The project is in its third year of construction and includes a complex series of electronic fences and concrete walls. Beginning in the northern part of the West Bank, the first phase of the project is complete. Already 200,000 people living in the area have been directly affected by the Wall, with 3,670 acres of land razed for the Wall's construction. Within this first phase, 16 villages and 30,000 acres west of the Wall have been de facto annexed to Israel and some 50 villages are separated from their lands. The Israeli government has confiscated 36 groundwater wells in this area well know for its agricultural value and has uprooted some 102,000 trees. The first phase also saw massive demolitions. More than 200 shops in the northwest village of Nazlet Issa were destroyed in a single afternoon. The world has attempted to voice its collective outrage over the Wall several times over the past two years. On Sept. 16, 2003, the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution condemning the wall but it was vetoed by the U.S. Angered by the U.S. veto, the world spoke again. On Oct. 21, 2003, the U.N. General Assembly voted 144-4 condemning the wall, with only the U.S., Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands voting against it. With a ruling on the legality of the Wall by the World Court at the Hague only days away, a "Stop the Wall Tour" kicks off in Portland on July 2 and will cross the U.S. to educate American taxpayers both about the Wall itself and about how U.S. tax dollars are being used to build it. This Saturday, July 3, the tour stops in Eugene. A display will be set up at the Free Speech Plaza, 8th and Oak, from 10 am to 4 pm, and will show several scale models of this concrete structure to provide people a chance to see for themselves what it looks like. At 6 pm Saturday at Cozmic Pizza, hydrogeologist and human rights and peace activist John Reese will present images and describe the range of impacts of the Wall on the environment, on Israelis and Palestinians and on the peace process. Reese spent seven months in 2002 in the West Bank and Gaza and saw the first stages of the Wall's construction. While there, he worked with several Palestinian environmental NGOs to map the path of the wall and document the path of destruction to the environment and affected communities. "The first time I gazed up at that three-story high concrete mass in Qalqilya, I knew I had to tell others in the United States how our tax dollars were being used to destroy lives, livelihoods and hope," he says. "I saw my tax dollars destroying the chance for peace. I struggled to understand how this could make Israelis more secure and learned from Israelis I spoke to that many agree it does exactly the opposite." — Aria Seligmann
KELLY OBJECTS TO EW RIVERFRONT STORY Eugene Councilor David Kelly, in response to a news story last week that said he was willing to sacrifice the riverfront for the hospital says, "I never said anything remotely like that." Kelly says what he said was that "due to the limited number of possible hospital sites acceptable to McKenzie/Triad, we may need to ultimately decide whether we are willing to accept a road north of the tracks for up to half a mile or be willing to give up the idea of maintaining a hospital in Eugene."
Kelly also says he hopes that "an alternative routing with less road length north of the railroad tracks can be designed." One option, he says, would be to build a road just south of the tracks and cross the tracks closer to the proposed hospital site. But Kelly told EW that he would support a new road through the undeveloped riverfront area if he thought it was the only way to get a new hospital to locate at the EWEB site. What would the impact of a road north of the tracks be? "It all depends on how it's built and where it's built," Kelly says, noting that the new road could "hug the tracks" or bifurcate the riverfront property as it does in earlier Riverfront Research Park drawings. "It will certainly create more noise, and that's a negative impact. But it's a huge leap to say that a road with comparatively light traffic will 'sacrifice' the riverfront." Opponents to the road are also concerned that the road will damage the riverfront by enabling the construction of the massive hospital and parking lots and the six large office buildings, two parking garages and five parking lots the UO has planned to build in the natural area. Kelly also objected to the EW story saying the "city appears to be rushing forward with the massive project" and that the plans did not go to a public hearing before a council vote. Kelly says the public will have an opportunity for input later. — TJT
OREGON ANALYST CALLS FOR TAX CUT REPEAL What will be the long-term impact of the White House's tax cuts and deficit spending? It's not a pretty picture, according to Michael Leachman, analyst for the Oregon Center for Public Policy in the non-profit's June report. "The Bush tax cuts will result in a massive redistribution of income," says Leachman. "Money slips out of your wallet and slides through the window of a passing limousine." He says some economists call the tax cuts "Dooh Nibor Economics" because they will ultimately produce a "backwards Robin Hood effect." "The ultimate effect of the cuts, especially once many of them are made permanent, is so beneficial to the richest Americans that it will be difficult and unlikely for Congress to produce a method of paying for the cuts that requires the wealthiest households to pay their fair share." Leachman says there's only one way to avoid the coming shake-down: repeal a significant portion of the tax cuts — the sooner the better. He says a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Tax Policy Center "provides strong evidence that most Americans will end up being net losers once the bill for the tax cuts comes due. Ultimately, the study finds, the cost of the tax cuts will overwhelm the immediate benefits for nearly all middle- and low-income Americans." More information can be found at www.ocpp.org
Policing
Police Roger Magaña was convicted Wednesday on 42 out of 45 charges that he sexually abused women while a Eugene police officer. The jury has answered the question of Magana's guilt or innocence. But the massive trial involving alleged crimes including rape, sex abuse, kidnapping, sodomy, coercion, harassment and official misconduct has raised a host of unanswered questions about the need to reform how the Eugene Police Department polices itself. Prosecutor Robert Lane told the jury in closing arguments last week, "There's nothing you can do that's going to restore any shine to the badge. There's nothing you can do to make women feel safer in Eugene or elsewhere. The cops have to do that for themselves." Exactly how they will do that remains unclear. But it is clear that the public trial has left EPD's secretive police discipline system much to answer for. What follows is a rundown of some of the bigger police accountability questions raised by the trial this past week. Officers Dismissed Complaints Last summer police Detective Scott McKee first contacted one woman who Magaña allegedly forced oral sex from on multiple occasions by threatening to arrest or shoot her. In a taped conversation of McKee's call, the woman said she had told officer Jerry Webber and police Lt. Pete Kerns and was "99 percent sure" she'd also told officer Roberto Rios of the abuse when it was happening, but the officers did nothing. "Why the hell didn't they listen to me? That's gravely offensive," the woman told McKee. "It's disturbing to me," McKee admitted. "It's absolutely horrendous," the woman said. She compared it to police failing to investigate the Green River serial murders because they involved prostitutes. Other officers also heard allegations against Magaña and also apparently failed to act. Police Officer Larry Crompton said he was doing a bar check at Diablos one night with Magaña. A man came up and angrily confronted Magaña and "there was some pretty pointed allegations made." The judge in the Magaña trial did not allow Crompton to specify the exact nature of the allegations because of a defense objection that they were hearsay. Crompton said he thought the confrontation was "pretty unusual," but he apparently did not report the man's allegations to superiors for investigation. In his opening statement in the trial, defense attorney Russell Barnett said it was hard to believe that a competent police department would have let Magaña's alleged crimes continue for so long against so many victims without detection. "He's either the slickest guy working with the dumbest people, or perhaps the accusations don't add up." Prosecutor Lane said police did not see what Magaña did and did not believe the complaints from drug users against their fellow officer. "This bunch of cops are not stupid." But Lane himself pointed out to the jury that most of Magaña's victims were not drug users and that even drug users are often held up by police as reliable informants in cases against criminals. Policing Themselves Eugene police have trouble policing themselves, according to testimony. The alleged victim in the taped phone conversation asked how McKee felt investigating a fellow officer. "Initially it was very uncomfortable and you can't help but feel some loyalty" to an officer with 10 years on the job, McKee said. Lane told the jury that McKee investigating a fellow officer at first "chose to, let's face it, adopt a strategy of trying to clear this guy" by using police records to place him somewhere else. "He failed." Police officer Jeff Glemser said officers often discredit complaints against police officers from drug users. He said he would tell superiors of a complaint involving coerced oral sex, "but on the other hand, you take that kind of thing with a grain of salt." Police Officer Mel Thompson testified that he has often heard charges from drug users that "so and so is dating a cop" but has brushed them off. Magaña isn't the only EPD cop to be accused of sex on the job. Members of the EPD Rapid Deployment Unit were accused about five years ago of drug use, money theft and consorting with prostitutes, according to testimony from Officer Thompson. Thompson said the allegations weren't true, but it's unclear what the police did to investigate. One thing the police didn't do was conduct a sting operation. Police regularly use stings to catch people using prostitutes. Det. McKee testified that Officer Webber proposed that the police check the allegations against the police unit by doing a sting with fake prostitutes, but EPD Lt. Jim Fields refused to authorize the sting. Two of the alleged Magaña victims also offered to help with a sting against Magaña, but police did not apparently follow through, according to testimony. Police had another opportunity to stop Magaña's alleged sex crime spree three years ago when a woman filed a complaint that Magaña had sexually harassed her, according to testimony. Sgt. Willy Harris said the complaint "caused me some concern." Stopping the woman late at night appeared lawful, but Magaña inexplicably did not report on information gathered from the woman nor did he run a computer check on her for warrants, according to Harris. But Harris said he could not "make a definitive determination" that Magaña acted unlawfully and the department dismissed the complaint. Lane asked Police Chief Robert Lehner if he was aware that a 2001 audit of police complaints found that the department should have found Magaña guilty of wrongdoing at that time. Lehner said he was not aware of that. The woman stopped by Magaña while looking for her cat testified that Magaña asked if she was pregnant and asked if she had a boyfriend. The on-duty officer asked her to call him on his day off. "I felt very afraid when I was speaking with him," she said. Lax Supervision Magaña lacked effective supervision and had apparent free reign to allegedly victimize women while on duty, according to testimony. Magaña's most recent supervisor, Sgt. Harris, was apparently clueless about Magaña's alleged criminal activity. "I never had any concerns as to where he was," Harris said. Harris testified that he gave Magaña positive performance evaluations and praised him for his knowledge of police work and for working a lot of hours. Harris apparently did not regularly check up on officers on the street. He said he relied on their honesty. "It's absolutely crucial for us to be honest with each other." At one point, Magaña allegedly placed himself on "special assignment" with dispatchers so he would have time to coerce sex from a female drunk driver while on duty. Harris said he would have known and authorized such a "special assignment" but he appeared ignorant that Magaña gave himself the assignment that night. Fellow officers had questions about where Magaña was while on duty, but apparently did not report their concerns. "There were times I would see Mr. Magaña at the
briefing and not see him until the end of the shift," testified officer
Greg Reeves, who worked an adjacent patrol sector to Officer Jeff Glemser said he patrolled Bethel with Magaña but now realizes, "I never really knew where officer Magaña was." Officer Thompson said in 1999 he looked for Magaña at a location he had reported by radio but couldn't find him. He said he found Magaña a few blocks away entering a drug "flop house" where one of his alleged victims lived. A trainee officer, John Sharlow, noticed Magaña was on his personal cell phone a lot late at night when most people were asleep. Magaña allegedly used the phone to call his sex victims. Yet More Questions Did Magaña have many more victims? The jury was only asked to consider crimes against 11 victims. But McKee told an alleged victim last year that he had 18 victims he was investigating, according to a tape played at trial. Did Magaña also steal money? McKee testified that Magaña has not been charged with theft, but he did begin investigating questions about his finances. He said people contacted him with concerns of how Magaña was able to afford a half million dollar house, new cars and thousands of dollars in new fitness equipment on his and his wife's relatively small salaries. There was also suspicious evidence that Magaña had paid for several hundred dollar cell phone bills and $3,000 to $10,000 in fitness equipment in cash. "I haven't completed that inquiry" into Magaña's finances, McKee said. Magaña helped train several police officers while he was allegedly also sexually abusing women. It's unclear if those officers will now require retraining. David Montgomery prosecutes drug cases for the district attorney and testified that he had to dismiss many drug cases Magaña was involved in after the allegations against the officer came to light. "There was a cloud and it would be uncomfortable to go forward based on the allegations against Mr. Magaña," he said. It's unclear if the district attorney will also have to go back and retry or dismiss existing drug convictions that were based on Magaña's testimony. In the taped phone call to a victim last summer, the woman told Det. McKee that she "was surprised it's taken this long" to catch Magaña. McKee, noting allegations stretched back to 1997, replied, "I am too."
Emily Graham-Berks & Paige Semich
Since last September, Emily Graham-Berks and Paige Semich have worked full-time at HIV Alliance as Americorps volunteers. Graham-Berks, who grew up in Bandon, took a year off from her UO Family and Human Services studies to run the Alliance's needle-exchange program, currently threatened by budget cuts. "We exchange about 52,000 needles per month," she says. "Prevention is so much cheaper than even one case of AIDS." Semich, who grew up in Bend and earned UO degrees in fine arts and international studies, does HIV testing and counseling at the Alliance. "When I'm testing people, I give them education about STD risk factors," she says. "I'm passionate about prevention." When their current Americorps assignments end on July 31, Graham-Berks will return to school, but continue to work part-time as a paid case worker. Semich hopes to renew her Americorps position for a second year. "They're both very dedicated and compassionate people — they're here 40 hours a week," says Kelly Moore, counseling and testing director at HIV Alliance. "Our clients appreciate them as well as we do." — Paul Neevel
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