Wheeler slips beyond pathetic


Portland's mayor is so bad. Just when you think he's waking up – he just declared a "gun violence emergency" after a couple of years of constant gunfire downtown and on the north and east sides – you read what he's going to do about it. Read it and weep, that is. Or maybe laugh hysterically, in total despair.

The emergency declaration, Wheeler said, accompanies his Safer Summer PDX initiative, that aims to reduce gun violence by 10% over two years.

Dear Lord, can you spare it, Ted? Between 2019 and 2021, shootings spiked from 412 to 1,319. This year we're on pace to break 1,500. Reducing that by 10 percent over two years gets us to 1,350 in 2024. You should be ashamed of suggesting that that's a response of any kind, much less an "emergency" response.

But it gets a lot worse:

“Rather than arrest and prosecute, our goal with this program will be to offer each person at risk of gun violence a meaningful and workable plan tailored to each person’s specific needs to prevent them from getting involved in this in the first place,” Wheeler said.

The mayor added “for those already engaged in gun violence, we will provide all that we can to help them decide to stop and leave that life behind.”

Additionally, Wheeler detailed plans to expand place-based interventions which may include increased lighting, traffic diversion or the use of non-law-enforcement personnel.

So let me get this straight: more orange traffic barrels, fix the street lights, and hire some "ambassadors" to ask the gang bangers to pretty please stop being murderers every time somebody looks at them funny.

And who's "we" who are going to do all this social work? Why, the nonprofit industrial complex, of course. Dole out some more pork to the legion of well-connected do-nothings who feast at the tax revenue trough while the city falls apart.

What a complete and utter clown Wheeler has become. You can only shudder to think about how he's handling the rest of the city's business. Maybe he's on drugs.

I suspect that this latest touchy-feely Jo Ann Hardesty imitation that he's doing is to make up for his release last week of a consultant's report that explained where most of the shooting is coming from: gangs. The experts actually uttered the forbidden "G" word, although softening it up to "gangs or groups." The report also identified the suspects in all the shoot-'em-ups by race, age, and gender, which around Portlandia is a real no-no. Certain realities must never be acknowledged.

Whatever the motivation behind Ted's excellent plan may be (if there even is one at this point; maybe he's losing his mind), this lady doesn't think it's enough. And she should know. She was shot in the face while running errands in southeast Portland the other day. Two gangster dudes were shooting at each other from opposite sides of Powell Boulevard, U.S. 26. She was unlucky enough to be trying to drive down that street on a Wednesday afternoon.

Ted, old buddy, here's some advice: Take early retirement. Head out of the country for a year or two. Work on your tennis. There are mountains to climb, and women to meet, and trust me, you're not improving as anyone's catch.

Comments

  1. The problem is that as awful as Ted is, the alternatives in this city are always worse. I’d still take him over nut job Sarah. Who else is there in this city to run for mayor who’s not far far left? Maybe Vadim, but he won’t even say that he’s against Hardesty. What a sad mess.

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  2. Why does the political left focus so much attention on the well-being of criminals and pay so little attention to their victims?

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  3. “Listen Mr. Gangbanger, we don’t want your guns, and we aren’t going to arrest you. We just want to put you on the path to a better life. And as you know Portland is the place to fulfill all of your dreams. Let’s start now OK?

    Did you know that Trimet is currently hiring bus drivers? Or how about a scholarship at the school of your choice. Portland is now offering (to consenting gangbangers) 4 years paid tuition INCLUDING all room and board. There are many careers waiting for you here at home, especially in Diversity and Equity Compliance. Learn to dream, just like the Mayor and City Council do.”

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  4. The city of dread and despair is broken in too many ways to be fixed by anyone in any position in sight.
    Every elected and appointed office is full of the bottom of the barrel people. Rearranging their Titanic chairs does nothing about the sinking. Mostly because they all still feel they did nothing wrong and the ship is unsinkable.
    The momentum for further demise means much more degradation is ahead.
    Wheeler can't even undo the most obvious error and put back all of the gun and gang task force they foolishly defunded. But that's far from the only need. The collective derangement shared by Portland, Mult. Co and METRO has made systemic rot so bad it's unstoppable.

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  5. What makes absolutely no sense is that the city is able to identify the gang members and offer them the once in a lifetime opportunity to have their own personal “life coach”, but they can’t use that same information to crack down on them.

    I thought the whole reason to avoid being mean to them was because it would be discriminatory to pick them out for observation or surveillance or arrest? But it’s OK to single them out for some touchy-feely, pie in the sky plan such as this? They are trying to rehab people that have no interest in being rehabbed, because to them life is cheap. Beyond ridiculous.

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