The Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the A-22 Legal Team are proud to announce the opening of

The Northwest Constitutional Rights Center 

see www.nwcrc.org

The following is a history, mission statement and particulars of "The Center."

For years the Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild has worked through the legal process, the political process and through community organizing to insure that the local police are accountable for their actions and that they do not violate the constitutional rights of the citizens of Portland.

The Portland Chapter, particularly through the efforts of Portland Policy Chair Alan Graf, was instrumental in starting the Police Accountability Initiative and persuading Mayor Katz to start a citizen committee to develop a proposal for a citizen based police review board. The committee produced two reports which the Mayor rejected and instead, she directed the city auditor to create a board based upon the auditor’s research and not on the committee’s work.

From the auditor’s efforts, the Independent Police Review (IPR) was formed with a Citizen Review Committee (CRC) as its citizen component. Qualified citizens were appointed to the committee which served as an appellate body that reviewed the initial decisions of the Police Internal Affairs Department (IAD). After two years of operation, many of the citizen members of the committee have expressed dissatisfaction with the IPR and its process and believe that true accountability for the PPB has not yet been realized through the IPR and CRC.

Contemporaneous with the formation and operation of this board, a number of incidents of police shootings and deaths have occurred in Portland which the community has questioned but has never received adequate responses from the Mayor or Chief of Police. Racial profiling by the police continues to occur in Portland with no end in sight despite numerous committee studies and findings and promises made. Political spying by the police on political groups continues to this day despite court orders to the contrary. The police continue to brutalize protestors and systematically violate those protestors’ constitutional rights-- particularly those protestors who object to the policies of the current national administration.

As a result of the actions of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) during the August 22, 2002 visit to Portland, by George Bush, the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild put together a legal team and filed suit against the City of Portland, the City of Beaverton and the Portland Police Bureau for brutally assaulting peaceful protestors and violating their constitutional rights.

In the process of litigating this lawsuit, the legal team assembled massive amounts of information on the local police including internal documents which have never been in the hands of the public before. Documents are still forthcoming due to the aggressive efforts of the legal team. The legal team has also worked with the press to keep the public informed about the information gathered and the progress of the lawsuit.

During the Iraq war, the PPB continued its practice of brutalizing protestors-- attempting to persuade them by violence to abandon their constitutional right to protest and assemble. The legal team was able to assemble many videos and photographs of the PPB in action during these protests. The videos demonstrate clearly that there has been a systematic effort by the PPB and the City of Portland to suppress the constitutional rights of the protestors and intimidate the protestors from exercising those rights.

The legal team has realized through its work that there are many ways citizens can make their government agencies accountable for their actions and for their abuse of power. One such way is to obtain information about the agencies’ malfeasance and then release that information to the public through the press. Transparency in a democracy is a powerful and necessary tool.

Another method to make governmental agencies accountable is to question government officials about their actions and abuse of power, through depositions and other discovery tools, which are each party’s right within a lawsuit.

A third method is to win lawsuits against the city such that it becomes too expensive for a municipality to continue a pattern and practice of violating the constitution and disrespecting the rights of its citizens. This method has made a huge difference in Los Angeles resulting in a marked and statistically significant decline in police misconduct.

Because the Guild has already seen some positive effects of its efforts on the behavior of the police

AND

the governmental agencies in charge of overseeing the Police and other governmental agencies HAVE FAILED MISERABLY in their prescribed mission of oversight-----

The legal team, born from the August 22^nd protest, along with the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, announces the opening of

The Northwest Constitutional Rights Center

For the purpose of providing an official citizen based place and organization where staff, volunteers and volunteer lawyers and legal workers can continue to further the democratic principles of accountability based upon the protections afforded by the US. and Oregon constitutions.

Using these protections, the Center is committed to serving and protecting the citizens of the Northwest from governmental agencies and corporations which have a history and pattern of abusing their power and privileges and exceeding their prescribed limitations.

The Northwest Constitutional Rights Center (NWCRC) will use the following tools and resources for the furtherance of its goals:

1. Litigation against Governmental Agencies or Private Companies that deprive citizens of their constitutional rights;

2. Media releases and press conferences designed to inform the public about information gathered at the Center and other actions or relevant events;

3. Research facilities and storage of files and information on governmental officials who abuse their powers and privileges (we will keep files on them);

4. Organizing teams of legal observers for protests or other public activities where the U.S. or Oregon Constitutions are in danger of being violated; and

5. Educating and assisting organizations and people who are fighting for peace, justice and equality.

The Center is a project of the National Lawyers Guild.  The Center is a non-profit corporation under Oregon law, and has applied for its 501c3 status.  Thus, we do take donations and they maybe tax deductible.

The Center will also earn its upkeep by winning lawsuits and collecting attorney fees. Currently, The Center has an agreement with attorneys who work for it, to pay those attorneys 50% of any contingent fee earned by an attorney, based upon their hourly work. The remaining 50% is absorbed by The Center for its continuing work in protecting the constitutional rights of the citizens of the Northwest.

Donations should be mailed to the address above.