www.

SEptember 19, 2008

Tricks of the
trade-off
Advocates say a strong-arm
approach to prostitution along
82nd Avenue will only send sex
workers walking into other
neighborhoods

R
Page 8
.org

evolution
A founding member of the
youth movement that
toppled Milosevic talks
about non-violent revolt
By Israel Bayer
Staff Writer

S
rdja Popovic is a native of Belgrade, and a
founding member of Otpor, the group
credited with mobilizing a non-violent
movement that brought down the indicted war
criminal Slobodan Milosevic, known as the
Butcher of the Balkans.
Popovic was elected to the Serbian Parliament
in 2000 and served as the country’s
environmental affairs advisor until 2003. He
currently leads the Center for Applied Non-
Violent Action and Strategies, an organization
working with non-violent movements around the
world.
Slobodan Milosevic held power in Serbia for 14
years. His rule brought about a brutal repression
of the people, including the ethnic cleansing of
more than a quarter of a million people in Croatia
and Kosovo.
Milosevic controlled a battle-weary army, a
brutal police force and most of the media. The
regime underestimated a small group of
individuals who created an organization called
Otpor, which means “resistance” in Serbian.
Otpor created a blueprint to non-violently
overthrow repressive regimes around the world
by creating social and cultural wars using music,
ridicule, art, and non-violent direct action. Their
tactics and philosophies have been used in other
non-violent struggles, including the Rose
Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange
Revolution in the Ukraine in 2004. Photo courtesy of Igor Jeremic´

The defaced image of Slobodon Milosevic on a billboard in Serbia.

See revolution, page 10

Trainings improve, but obstacles remain for mentally ill

Two years after By Amanda Waldroupe
Contributing Writer
“It takes a long time with a mental illness.
James Chasse’s for the police to figure “There was a lot of energy after James Chasse

I
f anything has become clear in the two years
death, efforts are following the beating death of James Chasse
gaining ground by the hands of Portland police, it is that
police officers need to know what to do when
in preventing responding to a situation involving someone with
similar tragedies. a mental illness.
Soon after Chasse’s death, Mayor Tom Potter
But is it enough? convened the Mental Health Task Force. On the
task force’s recommendations, Project Respond,
an information referral program for people with
mental illnesses, received $290,000 in additional
funding to strengthen the ties between law
enforcement and mental health providers to deal
with individuals suffering from mental illnesses.
“Police officers are the default interveners for
people with severe mental illness,” says Jason
Renaud, a long-time mental health advocate and
volunteer with the Mental Health Association of
Portland. “They need to know what to do.”
out a situation with died to increase capacity,” says Lynnae Berg,
someone’s that mentally assistant chief of operations for the Portland
ill,” says Greg Borders, Police Bureau.
Clinical Director of “We really wanted to get away from the idea of
Crisis and Intake us and them,” says Leisbeth Gerritson, the
Services at Cascadia Portland Police’s CIT coordinator.
Behavioral Healthcare. The program started in 1995, but was
One of the Task voluntary, and only a fraction of Portland’s police
James Chasse as a student Force’s recommend- officers took it. Officers Christopher Humphreys
in high school ations was to make a and Kyle Nice, the two Portland officers who
training called Crisis approached Chasse, did not have CIT training at
Intervention Training the time of the incident, according to Gerritson.
mandatory for all patrol officers and their As of August 2008, 554 officers have received
sergeants. Officers receive 40 hours of training the training, and all 612 officers will have
about mental illnesses, their signs and symptoms, received the training by December 2008.
and how to interact with someone expressing With the CIT training, any officer has the
those symptoms. Borders says that the training knowledge to properly respond to a situation
has helped the police to have a better
understanding of how to work with individuals
See chasse, page 5
10 street roots
Sept. 19, 2008

REVOLUTION, from page 1 point to give up our patriotism and control

Earlier this month, Popovic visited
Portland to speak at the Students United
for Nonviolence academic conference.
Israel Bayer: Can you talk a little bit
about Otpor and how the organization
got started?
Srdja Popovic: The organization started
in 1998. The organization was founded by
11 young people, mostly students with
experience with organizing protests. We
felt like we needed to mount something
new outside of the existing political scene.
We started on a very small scale. We
started with gaining visibility by making
ourselves appear bigger than we actually
were. We performed street theater, threw
leaflets from the tops of buildings, made
graffiti, Web sites, you name it —
everything possible that 20 to 30 people
with limited resources can do.
The actions were well designed and
gained a lot of media attention. We grew in
ranks. We recruited, trained and repeated
our tactics.
I.B.: How did music and art play a part
in building the movement that
ultimately led to the revolution?
S.P.: Most of my generation comes from
a rock-n-roll background. The music and
the dramatizing elements, especially the
fist design and branding became the kind
of in-thing for people. It was attracting
mostly young people. The average age of
people in Otpor was only 21 – which made
me, at 26, a dinosaur.
It also gained popularity among the high
school kids. Young people are so
important. They spend so much time
going door-to-door and spreading leaflets
with our message. Young people play such
a vital role in any non-violent movement
because they have nothing to lose, they
have crazy heads and they’re on the
cutting edge of any number of innovative
revolutions. Most importantly, they make
older people look at themselves and feel
ashamed for not doing more.
I.B.: The idea of adopting military
strategies and terminology to a non-
violent movement in the context of
recruiting, direct actions and
propaganda is fascinating. Can you talk a
little bit more about this?
S.P.: Absolutely. The teachings of my
actual organization (Center for Applied
Non-Violent Action & Strategies) are
something you see in many movements,
including the one of Gandhi. We use non-
violence as a form of warfare.
If you want real non-violent change you
have to apply the same principles of war.
You need planning, discipline, you must
Srdji Popovic
For more information go to www.
aforcemorepowerful.com and look for
“Bringing Down A Dictator,” a 60-minute
documentary about the fall of Slobodan
Milosevic. For more information on the
Center for Applied Non-Violent and
Strategies, go to www.canvasopedia.org
take the offense if you want to win and you
have to put your strong points at the
opposition’s openly weak points. When you
are faced with an oppressive police or
military force you have to destruct and
dislocate, which means you have to create
a lot of activity and involvement all around
a region or country. No central leadership,
just recruiting and messaging and
repeating the same tactics. If you follow
these principles backwards I’m sure you
will find this very thinking in Sun Tzu’s
of what’s happening. It was our country.
If you look to the Otpor movement from
the very beginning, we were very much for
independence. On one side it was very
useful when you look at help coming from
NGOs and other organizations, but we
were very creative and successful in
identity and ranks. We were in no way a
puppet of the West. The Serbian regime,
as many other regimes around the world,
have found ways to present every pro-
democracy force as a puppet of the U.S.
That’s their favorite game. If you’re not
supporting the regime, you are the traitor
or a foreign mercenary. That’s the
propaganda that works with the people.
My advice to the people is to stick to your
own policies, keep clear of your goals and
the right people will find a way to help
you.
I.B.: Eight years after Milosevic’s reign,
how has Serbia developed as a free and
independent nation?
S.P.: Serbia is in a very vivid and
dynamic transition nowadays. Belgrade is
probably the biggest building spot in the
region. We have like $2 billion worth of
investment that has come here. Some of
this is good, some not
so much.
“Non-violent revolutions For the fourth
can not be exported or election cycle in a row
we are electing people
imported, unlike a violent to work for government.
revolution. What do you That’s an achievement
need for a violent of the democratic
revolution? You need 500 process. People realize
in the region that
hundred men with a good democracy was born out
plan. You take the airport, of the non-violent mass
the main roads, you put a mobilization around
election fraud – this
bullet into the head of the happened in 2000 in
Art of War some
3,000 years ago.
Prime Minister, and then Serbia, 2003 in Georgia
you pack up your things and in 2004 in the
I.B.: The U.S. Ukraine. If you can pick
government
and go to the next country
one achievement in all
gave more than and do the same thing... of these countries, it’s
$25 million The only way to win in a that voters will decide
along with non-violent struggle is to the destiny of the
offering experts
in various fields, mobilize the majority of the country.
to help bring people.” I.B.: Is the old guard
down Milosevic. still active in politics?
How did you S.P.: Yes. They
avoid becoming a puppet of the U.S.? reappeared in politics. Still, the strongest
S.P.: One of the biggest lessons with opposition party is the old guard. The
successful movements is that you need to good news is they do not have a majority.
The bad news is that over time, those
cultivate external support. You have to
forces have influence with the secret
cultivate it to the extent of understanding
police and organized crime in the region.
that governments do not have friends, only
They are capable of wielding power
interests. Our relationship not only with
through these forces.
the U.S. but other foreign governments
was very clear. We were standing on the The worst of it came in 2003 when the
same side as you in the context of wanting
a democracy, but were not willing at any See REVOLUTION page 11

A brief history on the rise of Slobodan Milosevic and the fall of a violent dictator
Slobodan Milosevic was the leader of the
Serbian Republic (formerly Yugoslavia) and
later Serbia from 1989 until 2000 when a
non-violent revolution toppled the
controversial leader. During his reign in the
region he became known as the Butcher of
the Balkans after a violent breakup of
Yugoslavia along ethnic lines.
In 1991, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia
declared independence, followed by Bosnia
in 1992. The remaining republics of Serbia
and Montenegro declared a new Federal
Republic in 1992. Serbia under Milosevic
led various military campaigns in the region
to unite ethnic Serbs resulting in the ouster
of the country from the United Nations.
Milosevic kept tight control over Serbia
and officially became the countries
president in 1997. In 1998, an ethnic
Albania uprising in the formerly
autonomous Serbian province of Kosovo
provoked a Serbian campaign that resulted
in the massacres and massive expulsions of
ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo.
The Milosevic government’s rejection of
an international treaty led to NATO’s
bombing of Serbia in the spring of 1999
and eventually to the withdrawal of the
Serbian military and police forces from
Kosovo.
At the same time a youth movement was
being born at the University of Belgrade,
Serbia’s capital, called Otpor, meaning
“resistance.” The youth movement began
organizing students and citizens around the
country to take part in a non-violent
movement made up of art, music and
direct action. Otpor organizing activities
were brushed off by Milosevic and the
police, believing the group had no real
power.
By 2000, Otpor had recruited thousands
of youth around the country and had
organized hundreds of non-violent rallies
that helped mobilize Serbians into taking
action against Milosevic, the military and
police. They convinced opposing politicians
to unite under one party to run against
Milosevic in the summer of 2000. After a
massive voter turnout against Milosevic, the
dictator declared himself the victor.
Days later, hundreds of Otpor youth
organizers and politicians convinced elders
and workers throughout the country to go
on a general strike that led to hundreds of
thousands of people converging on
Belgrade in a massive non-violent protest.
Milosevic was ousted from power and
remained on the run for nearly a year
where he orchestrated the murders of
dozens of political leaders, organizers and
others. He was eventually arrested by
authorities in the spring of 2001 and later
tried and convicted of war crimes. He died
in the United National war crimes tribunal
detention center.
Otpor founders went on to create an
international organization called the Center
for Applied Non-Violent Action and
Strategies that would later play an
important role in the non-violent uprisings
in the Ukraine and Georgia.
— Compiled by Israel Bayer
street roots .
Sept. 19, 2008
REVOLUTION, from page 10 couldn’t, but because we choose not to.
We transfer knowledge and education. The
first democratic Prime Minister of Serbia simple fact is that non-violent revolutions
and my very good friend was assassinated. can not be exported or imported, unlike a
The good news is most of those people violent revolution.
responsible for the assassinations are in What do you need for a violent
jail for a very long time. The bad news is revolution? You need 500 hundred men
we lost one of the brightest leaders of our with a good plan. You take the airport, the
generation in main roads, you put a bullet into the head
Serbia. of the Prime Minister, and then you pack
“Young people play such a up your things and go to the next country
vital role in any non-violent I.B.: Otpor and do the same thing.
movement because they currently does Non-violent revolutions are all about
workshops and numbers. The only way to win in a non-
have nothing to lose, they offers Web-based violent struggle is to mobilize the majority
have crazy heads and tools for of the people. The reason a non-violent
they’re on the cutting edge movements revolution can not be imported is that
around the world.
of any number of The organization
Ukrainian people will not follow Serbian
innovative revolutions. organizers, they will follow Ukrainian
has been
organizers. That’s where we come in and
Most importantly, they instrumental in
share knowledge, ideas, and technology,
make older people look at helping youth
but no leadership. We work to help
movements
themselves and feel throughout movements have the tools needed to
ashamed for not doing Eastern Europe, achieve mass-mobilization, efficiency,
reduce fear, and work with media. For
more.” including
example with planning, we work to give
contributing to the
uprising that people the tools they need and they plan
birthed the Rose Revolution in Georgia themselves. We are working to spread
(2003) and the Orange Revolution in the these tools all around the world.
Ukraine (2004) among others. Can you
I.B.: How are you funded?
talk a little bit about your involvement?
S.P.: Many of the funds for the
S.P.: Yes. Three out of the 11 founders organization come from my partner who
of Otpor created the Center for Non- owns a large internet company and myself.
Violent Action & Strategies. We are an The workshops that we’ll put on all over
international network of trainers from non- the world are coming from so many
violent movements from all over the world. different sources – local businesses,
We have brought together trainers from private donations, sometimes it’s non-
Serbia, Georgia, the Ukraine, the profits or NGOs, sometimes the United
Philippines, Lebanon, South Africa and Nations.
more. We do not accept traditional funding
We travel around the world transferring from governments including the Serbian
knowledge of our successes. Our specific government.
policy is that we do not interfere with
what’s happening on the ground. We don’t I.B.: There’s so much misinformation in
give specific advice, not because we the media about what’s actually
11
happening on the ground between
Georgia and Russia. Do you have a sense
of what’s actually happening and how
the global community should be
thinking about the conflict?
S.P.: What is happening in Georgia now
is the people are victims of foreign aid and
outside forces encouraging the country to
join NATO, while Russia is flexing its
military muscle.
Georgia is a byproduct of the
legalization of preemptive violent
intervention in the 21st Century. It’s a
policy of double-standards, especially for
the U.S. Russia only has to look to the
Middle East to say OK, you bomb
independent countries, build military
bases and recognize the independence of a
region brought about by a violent
overthrow of a government. If it’s OK for
the U.S., why is it not OK for another
superpower? It’s very bad for everyone
around the world.
I.B.: How do we overcome these
realities in the United States?
S.P.:  The only way you can change
things are with numbers. And the only way
to mobilize alternatives is to give them
realistic alternatives. I must say that
witnessing the tremendous amount of new
voters and young people registered to vote
in the November elections is promising.
Obama has reached out through
technology and the Internet and touched
an entire generation of people. All of these
people are becoming active in politics.
Obama through technology has not only
inspired people in the U.S. but around the
world. Mobilizing people to participate in
the electoral process in the only way I can
truly see the United States’ foreign policy
changing. It’s very important, because
America no longer wears a pretty face
around the world.

DEALER, from page 9
During the second rehab attempt he
never even reached this rock bottom
feeling as he swallowed some pills every
day just to function normally. But the
motivation to quit was there. ‘I begged
doctors to help me overcome my
addiction. After doing well for some time, I
was prescribed Prozac in combination with
Bromazepan, in an attempt to slow down
the usage of the previous drug. Nothing
helped. Only after the third attempt, with
the help of a loving friend, John managed
to stay away from the pills without caving
in again.
‘And what happened then…it was as if a
volcano erupted,’ he gestures, wildly. ‘It
was as if I had woken up from a long
dream. I had been asleep for 15 years.
Now I know how a coma patient feels like.
When I woke up I experienced the worst
headache. That came from my brain
starting to work again. It’s scary though.
All the old sorrow came up again.
Benzodiazepines don’t solve any problems,
they only cover them. I went into a
psychosis. This stuff is worse than
heroine. It paralyzes your mind; you
repress everything, but it has to come out
eventually in every possible way. In prison
I used thirty pens to put down on paper
the feelings I repressed for so many
years.’
The detoxification effects weren’t fun,
John admits. ‘You should have seen me….I
was stuffed with poison. Recuperating
addicts sometimes tell you about
experiencing itchy eyes. That’s the poison
coming out of your body. If you only knew
how much has come out of my face in the
past two years. I may even have swallowed
more pills than Elvis. I have actually been kind of addiction is done to you. I have issue. As long as you’re using, you don’t
just as fat as him. The only difference been slowly pushed into a coma, it is like talk about it. You’re scared that you would
between him and I is that I’m still here — an attempted murder. You become a slave be ‘out’ otherwise. When people admit
I’m a medical miracle. When somebody to your doctor and your doctor becomes they’re using tranquilizers, they always
quits after being addicted for so long, your dealer. First he prescribes, which take just one a day. Well, I can tell you,
seizures can occur. Benzos weaken your makes you addicted, then he starts they lie. After three weeks of daily use
muscles and cause significant harm to nagging that you should use less. Benzos your body doesn’t work in the proper way
your body’s biggest are truly hard drugs. anymore without them. Your body is
muscle, the heart. I And still they are getting addicted, which makes you need to
know many people “First he prescribes, which certified by the
increase the daily dosage. Yet despite the
who experienced a makes you addicted, then government
addictive risk the prescriptions are still
stroke as the drugs everywhere. Even
wear your body he starts nagging that you children of 7 years- easy to come by. According to the ‘Dutch
should use less. Benzos are Institution for Responsible Medicine Use’,
down. Last year I old can get Valium on
a repeat prescription is given by an
also found myself in truly hard drugs. And still prescription.”
assistant in 61 percent of cases, not by the
intensive care all of they are certified by the John filed a
doctor. Many older women who take the
a sudden with heart complaint and started
failure.” government everywhere. a procedure at the drugs have been using for some 10 or 20
But apart from Even children of 7 years- Medical Disciplinary years. My own mother had already used
the pain and the old can get Valium on Board against the this shit for 30 years. With all the
physical problems, doctor who consequences it brings, I think they
it was the shame
prescription.” prescribed him the should at least mark the boxes with a
— John Broek
that affected John medicine. He lost, death sign, just like cigarettes.’
the most. ‘I’m not but didn’t cave in: Nowadays John has been clean for three
the man I’ve been for 15 years anymore. ‘Hundreds of people die in accidents due years. Bit by bit he is rebuilding his life
My son had to get reacquainted with his to tranquilizers every year. I myself have again, but it isn’t easy. ‘I’ve become a new
dad all over again; I fell off the wagon caused many accidents. I owned the most person, but all the old sorrow is still
when he was 4 and I came back to earth beautiful cars in the world and wrecked
present in my mind: a criminal record,
when he was 19. Suddenly I saw him with them all. Friends told me: “Did you lose debt, friends and family who were
totally different eyes. “hey, did you know track of your driving ability?” I sometimes
alienated. I have to hold my hand up to
your eyelashes are so long and nice, son,” say: “Benzo has cost me my life, but
survive. Through the social department I
I said to him. I never really looked at him Mercedes Benz saved it. I was one of the
before.” first people to be saved by an airbag. I finally got a little house. From the money I
And then John got angry. Nobody ever have now been clean for three years and I got for decorating I bought clothes. As a
told him about the addictive nature of haven’t gotten a scratch. That tells it all, result, I have lived in a sort of construction
sleeping pills and tranquilizers. “My life doesn’t it?’ site for 7 months, but you know what, I
got wrecked as a result of prescription Nevertheless, 1 million Dutch people sleep like an angel. At around 8 p.m., I get
drugs. I went there to get help and got take around 250 million tranquilizers each tired and around 9, I’m in my crib. It’s a
prescribed something that’s heroine’s year. 650 thousand of them do this revelation to be no longer dependent on
brother or sister. But at least if you take regularly. A large percentage of them are sleeping pills for a good night’s rest.”
drugs like heroine, you’re doing it to addicted. ‘However, few of them will admit
yourself, you make that choice. But this it,’ John says. ‘There’s a taboo around this Courtesy of Straat Magazine © Street
News Service: www.street-papers.org

If you like what you read, but don’t

live in the Portland metro area, you
can subscribe to Street Roots and Rose City Resource Portland’s comprehensive guide to
public and private services will soon
support the vendor program. Call us be expanding to include Clackamas
at 503-228-5657 to learn more about Call Eddy Barbosa at Street Roots at 503-228-5657 or
and Washington counties.
subscribing to Street Roots. write to pdxrosecityresource@hotmail.com