The Hazelwood neighborhood in Portland is getting reimagined policing good and hard.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland is in the midst of dealing with a rash of gun violence, with one neighborhood having the highest number in 2020: Hazelwood.
According to Portland Police Bureau data, there were 893 shootings in the city in 2020 — a record by far — and is 500 more than the number of shootings that occurred in 2019. More than 200 of those 2020 shootings resulted in at least one injury, and close to half of all shootings in 2020 occurred in East Portland.
Hazelwood had the highest number of shootings of any Portland neighborhood in 2020, with 79 reported shooting incidents. Hazelwood had 25 shootings where injuries occurred, also more than any other neighborhood in that data set…
even the police won’t mention the riots and subsequent disbanding of the gun unit
When asked whether there was a reason for there being a higher number of shootings in Hazelwood as compared to other neighborhoods in 2020, Portland Police’s Sergeant Kevin Allen said, via email Friday, “there’s no clear reason why Hazelwood has been suffering by gun violence more than others.”
Ted Wheeler, after failing recently to restore the unit, has essentially reconstituted it by assigning a dedicated team to the excess gunplay
…we’re working with law enforcement at the federal level, at the state level, with our partners at Multnomah County and of course here in the Portland Police Bureau. We have 11 officers that are now detailed specifically toward gun violence. We’re also working with a consultancy called the California Partnership. They’re helping us to create a comprehensive strategy to reduce gun violence in Portland and I believe that will have a significant impact…
while declaring any attempt at its eventual restoration futile
At all levels of government, from the state, the legislature, the county, local, the push for the last 10 years has actually been to decriminalize and reduce sentences, not go the other way. So my calls for increasing sentences for repeat offenders engaged in criminal destruction, it pretty much has gone nowhere. At some point I just have to acknowledge that it’s no longer worth the energy to keep rolling that rock uphill. It’s not gonna go anywhere.
Fact check true. Wheeler acquiesced to the rioting and demonization of police, joining in to oppose federal intervention after antifa, perhaps anticipating the controversy, turned their attention to the federal courthouse; his appeasement strategy culminated disastrously with his ceremonial humiliation and tear-gassing. Ted stood before rioters assaulting the federal courthous and declared the police response excessive–then beating feet before they could thrash him. All to no avail, of course.
Wheeler represents the moderate faction in Portland politics–not that he moderates between left and right, rather that he moderates the excesses of the left. There is no one to his right. As a neoliberal technocrat he’s been allied with the several movements coming together under this new dispensation–Clownworld. The incoherent passions of the psychologically damaged, socially alienated and just plain dumb that his ilk have been harnessing to bring forth this vision are now out of control. Do they know?
Ted needs to be protected from them now. Coming from a timber fortune he has money for private security. Must be nice.
I have never wanted to have security. I think it’s not the best use of public resources. I will probably never use Portland police officers because there’s already a shortage of officers in the community and I don’t think it’s fair for me as an elected official to lay claim to those resources. So I’ve used pepper spray. But I am now being strongly encouraged by our city’s legal team and others that I should at least use private sector security when I’m out in the community. I will do so. I will do so only when necessary, but unfortunately we’ve come to the point where that’s necessary. I wish it wasn’t but it is.
untethered 