A group of Portland religious leaders sent a letter to the Portland City Council on Friday mostly expressing support for Mayor Sam Adams' ambitious package of anti-gun-crime laws—due for a vote Thursday, November 18—but also asking the city find other ways to address the spasms of gang violence that led Adams to draw up his proposals.
The proposals include "exclusions" from "hotspots" beset by a spike in gun crimes, as well as curfews for youths, tougher punishments for gun criminals found carrying loaded guns in public, and penalties for gun owners who fail to report lost/stolen guns or who allow a child to have access to the guns. The exclusions and curfew would apply only to those convicted of—not arrested for—gun crimes.
The hotspots include a large part of North and Northeast Portland (from MLK to Interstate and Lombard to Russell), much of downtown, and an area near the Gateway Transit Center out in East Portland.
The clergy who sent the letter say they support the curfew, as well as toughened punishment—a 30-day mandatory minimum sentence—for gun convicts carrying loaded guns in public. Still, they wrote:
We call on the city of Portland to do more to address the systematic issues that cause violence. We are particularly concerned that neither Portland nor our region has plans to reduce poverty, for example. Hopelessness breeds violence. The lack of afterschool programs for children and breakdown in family structures are also of concern to people of faith. Many of these issues disproportionally impact communities of color and recent immigrant populations.
The Rev. Chuck Currie, one of the signers, also said on his blog, "I have concerns over the exclusion zones. Different types of such zones have proven ineffective and always been ruled unconstitutional. I suspect if such a new zone was enacted the courts would rule once again that this is not a legal tool that passes constitutional muster."
That's a concern I heard from members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, which I wrote about this week in Hall Monitor. The AMA echoed similar concerns in the Oregonian this morning. I also reported in Hall Monitor this week that Adams is proposing an oversight committee meant to ensure no racial profiling occurs because of the exclusion zones.
Read the full text of the letter after the jump.