On June 3, 2021, Asian-Pacific Islander American Advisory Council members, Chief Chuck Lovell and Assistant Chief Mike Leasure and other PPB members and business community partners gathered at the Fubonn Shopping Center to formally announce this new partnership which will focus on working together on justice reforms and concentrate on the APIA community's safety issues.
The APIA council chairs shared the following message about the spirit and mission of this Council:
"We are the Asian & Pacific Islander American Advisory Council, and we are a community-driven, community-led Council to the Portland Police Bureau that is willing and committed to building a lasting relationship with all Bureau members, fostering a two-way learning and cultural growth; valuing mutual understanding and respect, and we are coming together to create a safer and thriving community.
"We are focusing on long-term solutions with our APIA communities that live in pockets and various neighborhoods; this is not just about the Jade District, old China Town, but it's about our collective efforts to address livability, well-being, and safety of over 100 different APIA groups in the Metro area.
"We recognize that justice reforms cannot be done in silos, and no single entity or stakeholder can carry it out alone; instead, we need to work in concert with one another, which is the focus of our APIA Council - having our members, who represent wider marginalized APIA communities, work together with Police Bureau members to addressing not just primary community safety issues, but get to know one another, see each other as human first, and focus on shared values, shared humanity and strive toward building and preserving universal human rights goals such as dignity, fairness, equality, respect, and independence.
We want to directly participate, guide, and carry out justice reforms while advocating for the needs and rights of our APIA families. We want to promote APIA voices and embed them in the process of justice improvement."
Who We Are
We are Americans!
We are Oregonians!
We are the Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) each have a unique history, culture, language, and other characteristics. AAPI is the largest growing populations growing from 23 million in 2019 and estimating to hit 46 million by 2060. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau data, AAPI traces their roots to over 19 countries in East, South, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent. Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese account for 85% of all Asian American in 2019, others make up the 15%. Western States, started allowing AAPI laborers in the 1800s (mainly Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Koreans, and Hawaiians). Regulations codified into law regulated the flow in the mid-1900s due to fear, sexism, and racism. In the late 1970s, Oregon started resettling Refugees from Vietnam, Laos, Hmong, Cambodia, and has continued to resettle other Asians today. Asian have mix status families, meaning they can be US citizens, green card holders, student visa holders, business visa holders, refugee/asylee status, and those who are undocumented.
The makeup of the diversity of Oregon AAPI community encompasses vast cultural, historical, and linguistic difference. AAPI have helped build railroads, mining, industries, farming, and continue to shape the fabric of America.