Portland, prisons and white supremacy - part two

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The second part of this two-part documentary continues the story of Portland, Oregon and its struggle with white supremacists.

Portland has a reputation as one of the United States’ most liberal and tolerant cities. Since the death of George Floyd, it has been at the forefront of protests and violence as anti-racist demonstrators and far right groups have battled with each other and with the police. Yet, in 2016, the killing of a young black man sparked a national debate about race hatred. Nineteen year old Larnell Bruce died after a white man called Russell Courtier drove his car at him. A trial for murder and a hate crime followed, and exposed a culture of white supremacy in Oregon, rooted in the state’s history and which endures today despite its easy-going image. In this two-part documentary for Assignment, Mobeen Azhar follows the trial of Russell Courtier and investigates the issues it exposed.

Part Two follows Mobeen as he leaves the courtroom to meet Portland’s white supremacists and find out how they operate. He discovers that violent gangs are thriving because of the very institution meant to prevent crime – the prison system. Then, it is time for the verdict.

(This programme was adapted for radio from the feature-length TV documentary, “A Black & White Killing: The Case That Shook America”, made by Expectation Entertainment.)

(Photo: Prisoner being escorted by guards. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	The trial of Russell Cortier continues in the Multnomah County Courthouse.
0:07.0	BBC World Service.
0:09.0	Welcome to assignment.
0:10.0	Police say Russell Cortier is a member of a white supremacist prison game.
0:14.0	Good morning jurors.
0:16.0	Last year an extraordinary murder trial took place in Portland, Oregon in the United States.
0:22.0	911. I'm calling you from... Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
0:23.0	I'm calling you from the 711 on Burnside.
0:26.8	As we heard in the first part of this two-part story,
0:29.9	what started as a fight outside a convenience store
0:33.2	ended up with a white man driving his jeep
0:35.9	into a black teenager, Larnell Bruce.
0:39.0	Here is where the jeep jumped up onto the curb.
0:43.0	At this point then, Larnell Bruce is running trying to get away from the car.
0:46.6	Absolutely he's running.
0:47.9	And the Jeep is accelerating chasing him.
0:50.6	The death of Larnell Bruce revealed a disturbing site to Portland because the Jeep driver Russell Cortia was a member of European Kindred, believed to be one of over 20 so-called white power groups in the area and he went on
1:05.8	trial not only for murder but for a hate crime. To many people Portland is a liberal utopia, but this case started a very public
1:16.9	discussion about the region's white supremacist past and present. And it's shown how an institution that's meant to rehabilitate offenders,
1:26.0	the prison system, has become a conduit for racist gang violence.
1:32.0	I'm Mobeinazar and in today's program I'll go inside the prison system and
1:37.9	meet the white gang members that have committed savage crimes. I'll ask why these gangs are thriving and I'll sit in on the concluding days of the
	...

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