Tales of lawless Portland


You can't read the news in Portland for five minutes these days without encountering some crime story or other that makes you shake your head. Usually more than one.

In the last couple of days, a few have really jumped out at me. Today we have a story of a billboard worker who was pretty near killed by a downtown vehicle prowler who was probably looking for tools to fence and wound up trying to execute the vehicle's owner over it.

Then there is the poor guy who's trying to run a nice regular-person bar in northeast Portland. Not far out either – 28th and Sandy. They keep holding him up, but there's only one cop for miles around, and so nothing's going to be done until he gives up and goes out of business.

And then there's the doctor who was attacked at gunpoint at 7 a.m. near Washington Park.

“The passenger opens up the car and then just immediately has a gun pointed at my chest,” Nelson said, recounting an armed robbery that happened around 7 a.m. near Washington Park. “Then he yells, ‘give me your money.’ ‘I don’t have any money.’ ‘Give me your money!’”

KATU asked Nelson what the responding officer told her.

“’This is probably going to happen again, and they will not get caught unless they’re caught doing it,’” Nelson said.

You wonder how it got this bad. The mayor, Dud Wheeler, says it's from "years of neglect." Yeah, the years he's been mayor. He also says you should do your Christmas shopping downtown. Where? There aren't many places still open downtown.

And if something bad happens to you while you're down there, you'll get no help. I don't really like suburban malls, or Amazon, but Portland has left no other rational choice. You can't even roll the dice at Lloyd Center any more.

Not to mention what will happen when the black bloc-heads get worked up again. Usually they have some festive holiday riots. I'm sure those are coming soon.

Comments

  1. It’s going to be a Winter Wonderland here in Portland this Christmas. Can’t you just feel it in the air?

    ReplyDelete

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