Night Cabbie | Murmurs Black, Brown & Blue The Rose City's brand of justice is anything but colorblind, according to an explosive new report by the Multnomah County Public Safety Coordinating Council. The report--compiled by local law-enforcement officers, attorneys and elected officials--reveals not only that minorities are arrested in greater numbers, but that the subsequent sentences are harsher and more freely given to people of color than to whites with similar criminal records who have committed the same crimes. "Ensuring Equitable Treatment in the Criminal Justice System: Addressing Over-Representation of Racial and Ethnic Minorities" is being turned over to a task force headed by Rev. Ronald Williams of Northeast Portland's Bethel AME Church. The report "speaks to racial profiling," Williams says. "It speaks to driving-while-black, it speaks to the greater number of African-American men in prison than in college." The report found that similar crimes committed by people with similar criminal records were punished very differently. For example, among felonies that can lead to either prison or probation, whites went to prison less than half as often as minorities (see chart below.) The report also raises questions about the city's drug-free zones, which give police vast discretion to exclude individuals from a designated area--such as downtown--without a conviction. If someone violates an exclusion, he or she can be arrested for trespassing. But white trespassing defendants were much more likely to receive sentences of probation (36.7 percent) than African Americans (23.2 percent) or Hispanics (22.5 percent). It's unclear how much of the discrepancy is due to judges, prosecutors or the quality of defense attorneys. District Attorney Mike Schrunk, who helped write the report, says further investigation is needed to resolve the "almost scary" questions the report raises about his department. "I'd say that we're blind as to race, but I don't know that," he told WW. The task force will first meet at 7 pm Monday, Nov. 20, at the Whitaker Middle School library, 5700 NE 39th Ave. The report will be posted at www.lpscc.org. WHO GOES TO PRISON? White - 20.6% Hispanic - 59.6% African American - 42.9% SOURCE: MULTNOMAH COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY CO-ORDINATING COUNCIL Percentage of felons sent to prison for the largest category of so-called "optional probation" crimes, where prison time is discretionary. --Nick Budnick Trawler- TRASH Scrapping ships is a dirty, controversial business--and it's coming to Portland, thanks to a rivalry between two shipyards with ties to embattled moneyman Jeff Grayson. Two 236-foot, 1600-ton factory trawlers, Pacific Scout and Pacific Explorer, left San Francisco Bay under tow late last week bound for their final resting place at Cascade General's shipyard on Swan Island. There the vessels will be dismantled--a difficult undertaking that has polluted waterways around the country. The trawlers' journey to the heart of Portland Harbor, soon to be a Superfund site, reflects both the dire straits of the West Coast fishing industry and the long tentacles of Grayson, the pension-fund manager who stands accused by federal officials of massive fraud. In 1998, Congress decided to reduce overfishing in the Bering Sea by shrinking America's fleet, providing $90 million to purchase and scrap nine factory trawlers. San Francisco-based Astoria Metals Corp. won contracts to dismantle most of the vessels. But an environmental lawsuit prevented Astoria from scrapping the final two fishing boats, which must be at the recycler's yard by Jan. 1 to qualify for the federal payoff. With Astoria tied up in court, Cascade General CEO Frank Foti, who has been eager to get into the scrapping business, grabbed the contracts. It was hardly the first time the companies have tangled. Astoria's owner, Doug Watson, originally ran what is now Cascade General before being forced out by Grayson and other lenders in the mid-'90s. Watson moved his business south, but court records show that he still owes Grayson several million dollars. The two rivals have also sparred over U.S. Navy contracts and equipment disputes. Cascade environmental manager Alan Sprott says the incoming vessels contain no asbestos or PCBs, two of the hazardous materials that have given scrappers a bad name elsewhere. Kevin Masterson of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is confident Cascade can handle the job. "This is something that has been examined pretty closely," Masterson says. "They're not going to be generating new types of waste compared to the work they're already doing." --Nigel Jaquiss Chalk it up to the Caffeine Employees and customers at Diedrich's Coffee People on the corner of Southwest Park and Salmon have been frothing ever since corporate bigwigs swept into the coffeehouse a few weeks ago and removed a beloved chalkboard. The chalkboard, meant as a free-for-all space where customers could respond to daily questions and wax creative, was a last vestige of Coffee People's pre-corporate-takeover quirkiness. A sheet of paper taped to the wall as a replacement was later ripped down; a subsequent petition boasting nearly 100 customer signatures was also ignored. Last week, Coffee People employees told WW they had received neither notice nor explanation for the chalkboard's removal. "They said it was falling down or something," recalls one employee. Not so, explained Marc Fox from the company's Beaverton offices. "People could write anything, and we thought that was cool, but it also meant that they could write things that may be offensive to our other customers," he said. "And there was chalk on the floor and walls." Since we spoke with Fox, Oregonian columnist Steve Duin joined the fray, writing a Nov. 12 column lamenting the chalkboard's demise. In the wake of Duin's assault, Diedrich's honchos seem a bit glassy-eyed. A well-placed source says the board may be back as soon as week's end, but the official edict is about as clear as the presidential results. "No final decision has been made," says Catherine Saar at Diedrich's headquarters in Irvine, Calif. "It's still under discussion. It's not that we have absolutely decided one way or the other." In the meantime, division brass sent out a fax Nov. 13 reminding Coffee People employees not to speak to the press under any circumstances. Perhaps we can ask for our lattes in sign language. --Christie Scotty POLITICAL POT SHOTS Oregon voters, who last week made it more difficult for police to seize property of suspected pot growers, weren't the only ones to fight back in the War on Drugs. California voters overwhelming approved a measure to require drug treatment, rather than jail time, for people convicted of possessing or using drugs (selling drugs, however, will still land you in the pokey). In Massachusetts, a similar measure came up just short, netting 47 percent of the vote. Colorado and Nevada, meanwhile, followed the lead of California and Oregon, approving measures allowing medical use of marijuana--Alaskans rejected that idea. Finally, voters in Utah (of all places) joined Oregon in passing reforms to the civil forfeiture law, while a similar initiative failed in Massachusetts. All the state measures except Alaska's were funded by New York rich guy George Soros and two other millionaires. "Five out of six that were on the ballot this time passed," says Geoff Sugarman, who ran Soros' campaign in Oregon. "As far as any future ballot measures, I don't know about that yet. We're still basking in our victory on asset forfeiture." --Nick Budnick   Murmurs WE NOW RETURN TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED GOSSIP * Multnomah County Corrections Deputy James Borja was rearrested Monday for failing to appear in court after his wife accused him of domestic violence. This time he was denied bail, so he'll be staying in jail for a while, though it will be in Washington County, not his former place of employ. "That's standard procedure when we arrest one of ours," says Multnomah County Sheriff's spokesperson Barbara Simonds. * Artists Repertory Theater has been getting a bit of international attention this week. Artistic director Allen Nause, along with Portland actors Doug Miller and Kristin Brown, are currently in Vietnam working on a bi-cultural production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The BBC has covered the event, as has CNN International. * Murmurs hears that after lamenting his newspaper's editorial advice to vote "no" on Measure 7 (which will force government to compensate citizens for decreasing the value of their land), Oregonian publisher Fred Stickel confided to an acquaintance that he voted "yes" on the measure. * On a trip to his mother's homeland of Thailand this week, Nike golfer Tiger Woods was confronted with a crowd of Nike factory workers who tried to teach Woods some of the global economy's new math (Woods recently signed a $100 million, five-year contract with the Swoosh). "He should be able to really understand why that company can give him so much money," said Thai Labour Committee official Lek Junya Yumprasert. "It would take the workers here 72,000 years to make that money," she said. * Pamplin Watch: A busy week at the Portland Tribune as editor Roger Anthony scooped Christine Gonzales and Jennifer Anderson from the AP as well as former WW staffer Michaela Lowthian and freelance fashion writer Jill Spitznass. "Our average age sank like a stone this week," Anthony says. Over the weekend, Pamplin continued to build a ring around Portland, buying four more suburban papers including the East County News, whose owner Mike Wiley owns a name--The Portland Press--that Pamplin had coveted. Tribune Publisher Don Olson says, however, that the downtown paper will not change its name.   Night Cabbie BY Willie Milkis willie_milkis@hotmail.com HER NAME IS ANGEL. She's gorgeous, and she's in my cab. I feel lucky. I'm picking her up from her appointment as a personal favor and driving her home. She's got long, luxuriant red hair with blond highlights and intelligent brown eyes. She doesn't talk, but as we drive she snuggles up against me and I put my arm around her protectively. She's nearly naked, and it's cold out. Now this is how I'd like every fare to be. I'm driving east on Division and take a left on 60th through the traffic and rain, one hand on the steering wheel and the other never leaving Angel's body. I rub her back, then move my hand around to her belly, slowly stroking it. She wriggles with pleasure and lays her head in my lap. I love this. I work my way down her soft belly to her short hair. It's her favorite spot and she lets me know. Her tongue comes out and then my finger's in her mouth. She has this thing about fingers when she relaxes. I could spend my whole night driving Angel around, but unfortunately we're at her house. She jumps out to greet her owner, wagging her tail and licking his face. I guess I knew I wasn't the only one, but it still hurts a little.