Letter from a Friend: Crime in Portland

My friend Josh von Kuster writes the following for the Red Electric:

I am guilty.

Before I call you out on the carpet for also being guilty, know that I hold each of you dear. I hope to spark thoughts, not to offend.

A teen has been killed in North Portland every month since February.
• Yashannee Vaughn disappeared near Northeast 82nd on March 19. She is presumed dead.
• Shiloh Hampton was killed at Lloyd Center on April 18th.
• Shalamar Edmond was shot and killed in New Columbia around midnight the morning of May 16.

Additional very recent criminal happenings in Portland:

• A Tri-Met bus was struck by gunfire on the corner of North Williams and Fremont on April 21st.
• Two men were arrested for possessing $200k of heroin in North Portland on May 5.
• Debra Ross was shot in the chest on North Lombard on May 10.

This is a woefully incomplete list of the dangers and carnage raging in our city this year.

In OUR CITY!

Portland is a great town; home of Powell's, bicycling, Mercy Corps, food carts and more excellent coffee and beer than I could ever possibly enjoy (although I intend to give a go).

Portland also is home to double-digit unemployment.

And Portland is no longer home to Shiloh Hampton, Yashanee Vaughn or Shalamar Edmond.

Portland is home to even more self-styled do-gooders, including yours truly, than it is to coffee houses and brew pubs combined, by a power of 10. We all want to change the world, be it by ending petlessness, buying only fair trade/organic goods, urban composting, not eating meat, fighting the violence inherent in "the system."

But what about ending the violence plaguing OUR CITY?

How can we possibly hope to make the world a better place when our own backyard is a killing field? Let’s get together to end the homicide, larceny and decay rampant IN OUR OWN CITY! Let’s decide to raise healthy, safe, secure, respectful youth IN OUR OWN CITY! How can we tell the world how to solve all its problems when we can't even keep our children alive long enough to graduate from high school?

Shame on me. Shame on us.

There are other worthy goals, true. But certainly preventing of the killing of own young people must be high on our list.

The first step to reclaiming our city is to pay attention and talk about what's going on.

Next is to take some action.

• Stand on a street corner with a sign asking who Shalamar Edmond is.
• Write a letter to the mayor or the city council.
• Ask the metro desk at The Oregonian how Shiloh Hampton's family is dealing with his death.
• Go to church somewhere in North Portland this week.
• Check out what some people are already doing about the problem here: http://www.kptv.com/news/27698442/detail.html
• Ask your children if there are gangs at school or if they have ever seen a firearm in their friends' possession.

I wish I had a good idea for what to do, but as I have confessed, I too am guilty.

Criminals' "media histories" may help explain behavior

In recent years, many pediatricians have started taking “media histories” of their young patients. As part of office checkups, the doctors gather answers to such questions as “How much time do you spend playing computer games or watching TV each day?”

The answers can be telltale signs of vulnerability to attention-deficit disorder, risky behavior, early on-set diabetes and obesity.

Similar “media histories” are needed for criminals whose law-breaking is suspiciously like fantasy behavior encouraged by video games.

Such behavior taken into the real word is both criminal and dangerous.

Oregonian columnist Steve Duin recently wrote that Oregon State troopers in the first six months of 2006 cited 258 drivers for driving at more than 100 miles per hour. The majority were 24 and younger, and 80 percent were males.

The statistics are frightening but not surprising. Many of us are shocked to see such recklessness with increasing frequency on our freeways. What are these young drivers thinking? They aren't thinking at all; I suspect they are playing out their fantasies.

The demographic group reported by the troopers is telling too because it matches a particular cohort, young males, drawn to video games featuring reckless fantasy driving at break-neck speeds.

Media histories of the young violators might reveal the link between fantasies and freeways.

Then there is the matter of high school shooters, a tragic phenomenon that also coincided with the increase in violent video gaming.

Co-incidence?

Was 18-year-old Douglas Chanthabouly, who shot and killed a classmate in Tacoma last week, a player of “shooter” games?

So far news accounts don’t tell us.

Of course, the vast majority of gamers naturally make the distinction between fantasy violence and real violence and its real consequences. But what about those few who don’t, or can’t? Chanthabouly, who reportedly had a history of mental problems, is exactly the sort of person who could be vulnerable to spending hours assuming the perspective of a killer staring down the barrel of his gun and destroying every living thing.

According the newspaper, witnesses said Chanthabouly pointed a handgun at his victim and shot him in the face. Then he stood over the body and shot him twice more. Any number of video games sold at your local Fred Meyer allow—indeed reward—players to do the same.

As relevant as Chanthobouly’s history of mental illness may be, his media history in combination with his illness could be equally, or more, revealing about his murderous behavior.