[pjw] PJW UPDATE: Our (oops!) December newsletter & Feb. 24 annual meeting!

[Peace and Justice Works]

PJW supporters

Below is the text of the December 28 PJW UPDATE, our twice yearly 
newsletter that you may have received via snail mail oooh, I don't know 
maybe about 6 weeks ago. The text has been modified slightly for email 
purposes, but I did not change the tense for then-upcoming actions to past 
tense. (It's been a busy year already, hasn't it?)

This is still coming to you prior to our February 24 annual meeting (one 
week from Saturday), where we review the past year, look to the coming 
year, and elect our Board.

At the Annual Meeting, in addition to voting on the Board, we are asking
that the membership affirm the following amendment to PJW's policies:

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Memberships

Paying Member: Person who sends $20-45 sliding scale* with written 
indication that the money is intended specifically for membership, such as 
a PJW generated slip with the membership box checked.

*- sliding scale was changed from $10-30 to $15-40 on 8/11/07, we are
proposing to increase it to $20-$45.

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We will also ask to affirm Portland Copwatch's proposal to increase 
subscription prices for the People's Police Report from $15 to $20. The 
last increase, from $10 to $15, was in February 2009.

Please let us know if you have any concerns, especially if you can't make 
it to the meeting.

dan handelman
secretary
peace and justice works


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Dear PJW members, volunteers and supporters:

PEACE AND JUSTICE WORKS' 26th ANNUAL MEETING
Saturday, February 24, 2018
12 noon (potluck); 12:30 PM (meeting)
Social Justice Action Center
  400 SE 12th, Portland

Join Peace and Justice Works for the 26th annual meeting at the Social 
Justice Action Center, 400 SE 12th on Saturday, Feb. 24. Our meeting 
begins with a 12 noon vegetarian potluck (bring vegetarian food and 
non-alcoholic drink to share), followed by the business meeting from 
12:30-2:15 PM.

The proposed agenda includes:

--updates on 2017/2018 activities from Affinity Groups (Iraq, Copwatch, 
other) including the 25th anniversary of the Copwatch newsletter;

--election of board of directors and officers*(Nominees: Jeff Clenaghan, 
president/Authorized Check Signer [ACS]; Dan Handelman, secretary/ACS; 
Desiree Hellegers, ACS; Linda Tomassi, ACS; and Shelley Bedell);

--financial report, office updates, volunteer outreach.

General quarterly meetings are good places to get information and find a 
way to plug in if you haven't participated in PJW in the past.

Iraq Group Opposing 16 Years of Guantanamo,

15 Years of US Occupying Iraq

PJW's Iraq Affinity Group (IAG) sponsored demonstrations marking 
anniversaries of the third round of US bombing of Iraq in 2014 (August/3 
years), the bombing of Syria in 2014 (September/3 years), and the invasion 
of Afghanistan (October/16 years). Following our snow-covered action last 
year, the IAG will once again hold a visibility action to close the prison 
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Thursday, January 11. In coordination with 
the Close Guantanamo Coalition and Veterans for Peace Chapter 72, we will 
have the Tower of Peace stationed at the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge 
(SE Hawthorne & Grand)  from 3:30-5:30 PM.

The IAG will mark 15 years since the invasion of Iraq by co-sponsoring the 
Portland Peaceful Response Coalition's weekly Friday rally (SW Yamhill and 
Broadway, 5 PM) on Friday, March 16. We are also in talks to get an out of 
town speaker who's been to Iraq numerous times in recent years.

In early October, the Iraq Group sent a letter to Governor Brown asking 
her to keep the National Guard in Oregon and be sure not to participate in 
any illegal wars. The letter was cosigned by 18 organizations from around 
Oregon. Later that month, we held a forum connecting the current wars (as 
mentioned above, plus Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen), brewing wars 
(with Korea, Iran and Russia), and the street wars perpetrated by white 
supremacists. Please join us in our struggle for peace!

Portland Copwatch Helps Overturn 48-Hour Rule, Breaks News on Review Board 
Report

PJW's project group Portland Copwatch (PCW) continues its efforts to 
promote police accountability. In early July, PCW called attention to a 
proposed policy change that would not only have re-instituted the "48-hour 
rule" giving officers two days after shootings before they had to talk to 
investigators, but extending that time until after a grand jury hearing-- 
likely 3-4 weeks later. By organizing in the community, PCW helped get 
City Council to overturn that new rule. In November, PCW released an 
analysis of the Police Review Board report, which lays out the findings in 
cases of possible police misconduct, before anyone in the corporate media 
had a chance to review the document. It included a case where an off-duty 
cop may have raped someone at his (probably a male) house party, and 
another where an officer knocked a bicyclist down using his squad car.

PCW continues to participate in the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition 
(AMAC) for Justice and Police Reform, which has a seat at the table as 
part of the Settlement Agreement between the US Department of Justice 
(DOJ) and the City of Portland to reduce use of force. With the AMAC and 
other community partners, PCW pushed City Council to make improvements to 
the "Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing" which is supposed 
to replace the Community Oversight Advisory Board (COAB) as part of the 
Agreement.

PCW will be supporting a late January AMAC event to mark eight years since 
the death of Aaron Campbell, a young African American man who was shot in 
the back by a police sniper-- check portlandcopwatch.org for details.

Copwatch also has consistently examined the "Independent" Police Review 
Division (IPR) and its Citizen Review Committee (CRC), which handle intake 
and appeals of misconduct complaints, respectively. PCW also actively 
observes police behavior out on the streets, which we did in August and 
November, with the latter "beat" bringing in a few of the six new members 
who received full training in October. 2018 will mark the 25th anniversary 
of the PCW newsletter, the People's Police Report. Issue #73 just came 
out-- if you want a sample issue, let us know, or of you want to 
subscribe, it's just $15 a year. This year will also mark 25 years of our 
operating our incident report line (503-321-5120).

Be a Part of Making a Difference-- Support PJW!

In November, PJW and PCW released a letter signed by over 20 local groups 
asking City Council to get Portland officers out of the Joint Terrorism 
Task Force. Our campaign in conjunction with the ACLU has generated close 
to 1000 contacts with Council members supporting withdrawal from the 
FBI-led unit, which likely will be far worse targeting Muslims and other 
vulnerable populations now than under previous administrations.

We still have about three months left in our 25th anniversary year. We 
appreciate all the people who came to our celebration in July, and who've 
donated to support our ongoing work. PJW is an all-volunteer group, and 
everything we do to educate people about issues of war, the death penalty 
and police violence comes from our extremely modest $12,000 a year budget. 
Whether you can come to a meeting to help us plan our next events or 
donate funds (or items from our wish list-- 
www.portlandcowpatch.org/wishlist.html), it will be a step toward making 
the world a better place. If you want to donate, send a check or money 
order using a PJW return slip, or online at pjw.info (through Network for 
Good). A few people are monthly or quarterly supporters-- it's of 
immeasurable help to us! For annual voting membership, you can volunteer 4 
hours a year or donate a sliding scale of $15-40. Thank you for joining us 
in asking that nonviolence be followed on local, national and 
international levels!