Portland’s Parkrose neighborhood, enjoying its liberation from the police, is getting so lively it’s getting deadly (but no fatalities, today):
On Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 1:38a.m., North Precinct officers were dispatched to several reports of shots heard in the area of Northeast 111th Avenue and Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Officers arrived and located evidence of gunfire. They learned that the victims drove off before police arrived.
A short time later, officers learned that two adult male and one adult female victims with gunshot wounds had arrived at a local hospital. Two had minor injuries and one had serious injuries.
There is no suspect information to release at this time. Assault Detectives are investigating.
The dispatch goes on to list what has become a nightly tally of gunfire in Portland’s east.
It was another busy night of shooting events. All of these cases are under investigation.
At 2:40p.m., North Precinct officers responded to a report that someone fired a shot into the air in the 4400 block of Northeast Cully Boulevard (case number 21-11741).
At 9:08p.m., East Precinct officers responded to a report of shots heard in the 3100 block of Southeast 136th Avenue (21-12094). Evidence of gunfire was found. No evidence that anyone was injured.
At 9:56p.m., East officers responded to a report of shots heard in the 100 block of Southeast 146th Avenue (case number 21-12117). They located a crime scene in a nearby apartment. A victim had been assaulted, but the victim was not struck by gunfire. An adult female suspect was detained.
At 11:13p.m., officers from North Precinct responded to a call of shots heard at Northeast 8th Avenue and Northeast Tillamook Street (case number 21-12169). They located evidence of gunfire and obtained some information that possibly two vehicles were driving through while occupants shot at each other.
At 12:52a.m., East officers responded to shots heard in 3100 block of Southeast 136th Avenue (case number 21-12214). They located evidence of gunfire but no strikes.
At 12:59a.m., North Precinct officers responded to the 12000 block of Northeast Thompson Street (case number 21-12218). Officers found evidence of multiple firearms being discharged. Three occupied houses were struck by bullets, one which had a 14-year-old and a 7-year-old inside. Another house had a round pierce a bedroom where a couple was sleeping. Three cars were also struck by gunfire.
Violent crimes are on track to double or more this year after the summer of BLM rioting and the police abolition movement that still dominates city politics. Applying Sailer’s Law of Lead factoring in the poor marksmanship of thugs we can assume, say, a doubling of gunshot wounds reflects something like a quadrupling of shots fired. Portland’s east is becoming Scarface’s Miami without the cocaine and pastels.
The City Council voted in June to dissolve the PPB’s Gun Violence Reduction Team amid nationwide protests for racial justice after the death of George Floyd. The GVRT came under fire for allegedly targeting members of the Black community at a disproportionate rate. Portland saw 99 shootings the following month compared to 35 in July of 2019, according to police data.
And shooting scenes have been getting larger.
“In the 10 years of working in gun violence I would say if we had a shooting at 40 or 50 casings, that was a lot,” said Duilio.
A 23-year-old Uber driver was shot in the head on Saturday in Northeast Portland on his way to pick up his next rider. Police said at least 60 shots were fired at his car.
The Uber driver was likely mistaken for a rival gangbanger, police say. His story passed like a faint wisp in all the handwringing about the class of poor, vulnerable youths who killed him in an act whose savagery is excelled only by its astounding stupidity. Antifa zombies won’t be chanting the Iraqi refugee’s name, Dhulfiqar Kareem Mseer, and they’d be relieved to know it, if they cared to know it. I’m still waiting for a “victim” of “racist” police to appear on the scene with both the perfect story and the most impossible name. “Say his name! Shitavious Imkwametrious Jackson!”
Gun crimes are up after the city disbanded its Gun Violence Reduction Team, because it was too effective–meaning it put too many black gunslingers in jail. The Oregonian reported (paywalled and not found elsewhere) yesterday Mayor Ted Wheeler, having changed his posture from prone to defiant regarding the police abolitionists’ movement after winning re-electon and, I suspect, consulting internal polls revealing how little genuine popular support for abolition there is, quietly tried, unsuccessfully, to reinstate the program recently but found no support. Party on, Portland.
One problem is the money looted from disbanding the gun unit was transferred to police abolitionist councilmember Jo Ann Hardesty’s Portland Street Response program sending social workers in place of police to presumptively non violent domestic and mental health calls. No, Portland isn’t crazy (pardon the phrase); we’re not sending the social workers in to deal with the gunslingers formerly dealt with by police. We just don’t send the police in to deal with the gunslingers any more. The gun unit was abandoned without an argument in the heady days of June–no one even bothered to argue whether or not it was effective; that it put black “men” in prison was the only question or concern, publicly.
Wheeler’s failed, secret attempt to reinstate it as a mayor with weak powers demonstrates the power progressives wield in opposition to public interest or opinion, despite only having one remaining hardcore advocate in Jo Ann Hardesty sitting on the council.
The city pulled back from gutting the police to the tune of fifty million (the police budget’s around 250 million) when they held the whip hand in the summer–I suspect because they weren’t positioned to redistribute that much cash to their own programs, such as Street Response. Even Hardesty voted against cutting that deep. They weren’t going to eviscerate the police just to save the city money, after all.
Well the abolitionists still hold the whip hand and the political wind is behind their back (but still not, curiously, popular support, which is trumped by demands made on behalf of the small and dysfunctional “Community”–Portland’s long suffering and long insufferable, blacks). It is in this clownvironment, along with collapsing revenues and morale, that the police union is negotiating a new contract:
When negotiators for the city of Portland and the Portland Police Association resume contract negotiations Wednesday, they will be stepping into an arena that has changed dramatically since negotiations paused in February due to the pandemic.
They’re going after the police union, the office of which has been a regular target of antifa (this is from OPB, which has been positively soviet in its coverage):
At the heart of the current debate about how to hold police more accountable is one document: the police union contract. Advocates for changes in policing say the Portland contract has been carefully constructed over the years to shield officers from discipline and prevent the public from knowing when officers are disciplined.
They also say now is the time to make significant changes.
Despite my conviction there’s no popular support for the abolitionists after the summer, Portlanders overwhelmingly voted for new police oversight and the ridiculous new woke District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
Negotiations over the police union contract are expected to come into direct conflict with the will of Portland voters, who passed a measure in November to create a new police oversight board with an overwhelming 81% of voters supporting it.
Among other changes, the new board would be empowered to investigate deadly use of force and have the ability to fire officers. That’s proving to be a sticking point before contract negotiations have started.
Two days after the election, the police union filed a grievance with the city and police bureau, arguing that the proposed oversight board violated state law mandating that disciplinary practices, among other things, must be negotiated with union representatives.
“The City is well-aware that it cannot escape its bargaining obligations by sending mandatorily negotiable subjects, such as a new disciplinary system for (Portland Police Association) members, to voters for a (city) Charter change without first reaching agreement with the PPA over those changes,” the grievance reads.
Unite Oregon, a coalition of people aimed at improving racial and economic justice for people of color, immigrants, refugees and people from low-income backgrounds, issued a statement outlining demands for the upcoming negotiations. The statement, with more than 30 signatories, voiced support for organized labor and the importance of negotiating working conditions. But, the statement rejected the notion that accountability and oversight constitute working conditions.
Unfortunately this argument will stand easily enough with the help of a friendly judge or two, though I fail to see how the system of discipline one works under isn’t in fact the ultimate working condition.
untethered 