When it comes to crime, Portland is special


Every once in a while I come across somebody writing that the crime situation in Portland isn't so bad. It's like this everywhere, they say, just part of living in a big city, suck it up.

My blood starts boiling when I read that. It's crap. Portland has become a more dangerous city than most. I was in Los Angeles recently, and not the particularly nice part, and it was a heck of a lot safer than what I see and encounter on a regular basis in Portland. Yes, there were some homeless, and some mentally ill people roaming around, but it's nothing like what you see here. Not even close.

And the nearly complete lack of police presence in Portland is truly frightening. Did you see last week that when the vice principal at Franklin High School called 911 to report guns being brandished outside the school, the cops didn't show up for nearly an hour and a half? Then there are the homicides, a couple a week at least. Over a four-day stretch last weekend there was a fatal shooting in Old Town, a fatal stabbing a block or two from City Hall, another dead body out in the hobo zone where I-5 meets Marine Drive... It's so routine now, you probably didn't even see the stories.

Car theft is out of control. The police can't be bothered; vigilantes will go looking for your stolen vehicle for you. One reader reports that when a friend's car was stolen, they were told they would have to wait 14 months to get a hard copy of their police report.

Here's a guy whose business has been the victim of hate crimes, multiple times. He called the cops the first couple of times, and was still waiting for them to call him back when he got hit again. Dude, you'll be waiting forever. No dead body, no bullet casings to photograph, no cops.

The police force is such a non-entity in Portland that the City Council is spending millions on private security now. Apparently even the sewer repair crews have to have private bodyguards above ground when they go down into the manholes downtown.

We need more cops in Portland, preferably good ones. We need the City Council to say to the police chief, "How much do you need? We will give it to you, but then you have a year to show results." Let the kids at the Merc and the ACLU squawk, it's their jobs. Let the black-bloc-heads march around protesting it. But just shut up and do it. Lay off the park rangers. Lay off the people putting up traffic barrels and planning more bicycle foolishness. Get us some cops. And shelter beds. And mental health treatment beds. And rehab beds. And yes, jail beds.

Of course, we also need a different police chief, and a different mayor. The two guys we have in those jobs now are complete failures who need to move on to the next thing.

It is not this bad everywhere. It simply isn't.

Comments

  1. I looked it up and the population of the city of LA is six times bigger than the city of Portland. But last year, they had roughly only 4.4 murders per capita to our 6. So you might have a point there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please run for council or mayor!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The usual folks will continue to attack or gaslight anyone who doesn't mouth the platitudes. We've gone full on Animal Farm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Portland will never change as long as voters are fed government PR pieces published by the local media

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's pretty easy to look up crime statistics for each city in the U.S.. One of my biggest concerns for police departments nationwide - as public employees, are they complying with and following orders of their civilian leaders and the appointed police commissioner - or, do they now only comply with whatever the police union tells them to do? Are the problems in Portland due solely to an officer shortage, or is there some intentional sabotage by the union going on? If Portland police officers, collectively, decide to just intentionally "slack off," who's going to do anything about it? Some of what is reported - I mean, come on, an hour an a half to respond to someone waving a gun outside a high school? - what more pressing "crimes" could all officers on duty that day across Portland have been responding to? Unless there was a mass shooting going on at the exact same time, what could have been the excuse? A police shortage? Please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The statistics are garbage. Try calling in something to Portland police. You'll be on hold forever. People around here don't report crime, because they know it's useless.

      We rank 48th of the top 50 cities in the country for police per capita. That's horrible.

      The cops are basically on strike, yes. And their union sucks. But that doesn't mean we don't need more sworn, armed officers in this crime-infested hole.

      Delete
  6. I suspect the Oregon Health Plan has brought thousands of physically and mentally ill people to the State. The $1.1 Billion boost will bring even more and many bring family members along.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not the Oregon Health Plan. It's Measure 110, which needs to be repealed ASAP.

      Delete

Post a Comment

The platform used for this blog is awfully wonky when it comes to comments. It may work for you, it may not. It's a Google thing, and beyond my control. Apologies if you can't get through. You can email me a comment at jackbogsblog@comcast.net, and if it's appropriate, I can post it here for you.