Bend activist urges city leaders, police to take action against racial inequality

Creates Facebook group for people of color in Deschutes County

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A community leader in Bend has created a Facebook group as a gathering point for people of color in Deschutes County. 

Riccardo Waites is the director of the Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly, which he created recently to unite the community following the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody in Minneapolis.

Waites told NewsChannel 21 on Monday it's important for people, especially law enforcement and city leaders, to understand why people in the black community are frustrated and angry.

“All people of color want is to be treated fairly and equally,” Waites said. “We don’t want special favors, or special treatment. We just want to be treated like our white, Anglo-Saxon counterparts. That’s all.” 

Waites served in the U.S. Navy and moved to Bend from Las Vegas 20 years ago. 

He said he wanted to find a better place to raise his children, and his brother, who played for the Bend Elks, suggested Bend.

“I fell in love the first day I was here,” Waites said. “Just the way people looked at me. Nobody was staring, even though there were very few people of color in town. People actually waved. Police officers waved, and it blew my mind.”

However, he said, things have changed since then. 

NewsChannel 21 asked him when he started feeling he was being treated differently, based on the color of his skin.

“It was noticeable right away, and most of the members of my assembly understand and know it’s noticeable right away,” Waites said. “It doesn’t take a genius to understand it.”

Waites said he has had run-ins with law enforcement before. He recalled a time he said he was followed by Bend police officers who were responding to concerned calls from his neighbors.

"It just hurts, because Bend is a beautiful place. My kids deserve to have a piece of it, just like everybody else that lives here."

-Riccardo Waites

“The very first time I left my brand new home that I rented when I moved here, I saw a police car in front of my house,” Waites said. “I got in my car, drove to the corner. I saw another police car at that corner. I turned that corner, and saw another police at that corner. All three of them followed me for a mile. I knew at that time.”

Waites said he understands the perspective of police officers trying to do their job.

“It just hurts, because Bend is a beautiful place,” Waites said. “My kids deserve to have a piece of it, just like everybody else that lives here.”

He shared this message for law enforcement and city leaders.

“Be tolerant of the pain that people of color have gone through, not just over the last week,” Waites said. “But for decades, and my whole life.”

Now, Waites said he fears for the safety of his children, including his two young daughters, 9-year-old Kiyah and 7-year-old Pippi.

Kiyah Waites told NewsChannel 21 she has been asked by peers whether Pippi is really her biological sister, because of the difference in their skin tones.

“They say things really rudely, asking, ‘Is Pippi your sister?’ and, ‘You don’t look alike,'” Kiyah said. “I really want to say something mean back, but I don’t say it out loud.”

She said she's also been called the “N”-word on the school bus by another student.

Her father said, “For them to be so young and process that at this age, and deal with that at this age, is something that I watched my mom go through. I watched my grandma go through it, I went through it, my dad -- and now, I moved here to try to get them (somewhere) so they wouldn’t go through it.”

Waites runs a custom T-shirt business and has designed shirts for people to wear at local Black Lives Matter rallies. 

He said his goal with the Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly is to gather at least 1,000 members over the next month to help share a unified message, urging lawmakers, city leaders and law enforcement to push for racial equality.

Waites said he has responded to the Facebook post by the Bend Police Department on the murder of George Floyd, asking Chief Jim Porter to include people of color in their discussions.

His response to the Facebook post says, “We do not need empty letters of remorse, we need results and we are willing to work with you to achieve that goal.”

Waites said he also hopes to join in a productive discussion with Bend Mayor Sally Russell and Deschutes County commissioners.