Father of the Year, Portland (February 19)
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A domestic violence call in the early hours of Friday quickly escalated when the suspect allegedly used an infant as a shield after crashing his car and confronting Multnomah County deputies.
The incident began around 1:15 a.m. when a woman called for help after being physically assaulted at a home near Powell Butte Nature Park, officials said. The woman also said that in her effort to escape she left her 3-month-old baby behind and she feared for the child’s safety.
The suspect, Zaday Atenogenes Rojas, was believed to also have weapons, authorities said. Deputies was his red Ford SUV speeding away from the scene. As it did, he crashed into another car and a snowbank in the 17400 block of SE Franklin Court.
Rojas allegedly had the infant on his lap and refused to surrender. Instead he got out of his car and held the infant as a shield. Eventually, deputies were able to rescue the infant and arrest Rojas, the sheriff’s office said.
Some domestic violence calls will be taken over now by the city’s brand-new Portland Street Response Team, sending four social workers with a paramedic to mental health calls. The program is in its pilot phase in the Lents neighborhood, and is a first step in the police abolitionists’ goal of eliminating or taking over police functions.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — During the early days of the 2020 unrest, calls were made for Portland to stop sending armed police officers to deal with mental and behavioral health challengers. The first step toward that goal began on Tuesday.
The Portland Street Response team is now responding to calls, beginning in the Lents neighborhood after a month of training and walking the area to introduce themselves.
The team said they were dispatched to a report of a woman yelling in the street along with some other calls on Tuesday.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and PF&R Rescue Division Chief Ryan Gillespie held an afternoon press conference to introduce the Portland Response Team and answer questions about it. Wheeler said the program is good for both first responders and the homeless community.
“They deserve our support and access to appropriate treatment. That means sending the right responders to the right place at the right time,” Wheeler said. “Others will benefit, too. Every time Portland Street Response is dispatched, fire[fighters] and police are freed up to respond to Portland’s other pressing needs.”
At the outset, the team includes 5 people: a program manager, a firefighter/paramedic, a mental health clinician and 2 community health workers. They’ll be available 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A second team will be added to cover nights and weekends in 6 months. The program will continue to expand in 2022 to cover more of the city.
Gunplay is out of control since the summer riots and the city’s immediate abandonment of its Gun Violence Reduction Team. The GVRT is the same “gun” or “gang” unit model seen in other cities and coming under the axe wherever the abolitionists have the means, because they “target” the black community, by going where the crime is. Ted Wheeler tried resurrecting it but gave up quickly when he saw he had no allies in the effort–despite the clear connection between our new “reimagined” policing and violence. So our petty mandarins get away with citing Covid:
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who was the driving force behind the vote to dissolve the Portland Police Bureau’s Gun Violence Reduction Team last July, also believes the increase in gun crimes is related to COVID-19. The GVRT came under fire for allegedly targeting members of the Black community. City councilors cut the GVRT, along with $15 million from the PPB’s budget for the next fiscal year.
It appears Mayor Wheeler has resurrected the team under a different name. No word yet on whether the Hardesty forces will try to take it down.
Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST). At the direction of Mayor Wheeler, PPB is implementing this plan to address gun violence in our city. The ECST is an investigative team which falls under the Investigations Branch of PPB. The team is composed of three sergeants, 12 officers and six detectives that will focus full-time on the investigation of shootings.
The assigned personnel will primarily be from the existing assault detail, so many of those on the team are experienced investigators and have been doing this work for months or even years. Before now, the Assault Detail has been investigating these shooting cases, making arrests and forwarding cases to the Multnomah County District Attorney (MCDA). The DA announced recently that his office is moving forward on 26 gun violence related cases, including two homicides ( https://www.mcda.us/index.php/news/district-attorney-mike-schmidt-announces-26-gun-violence-related-case-filed-in-the-first-18-days-of-february/ ).
This team also will work collaboratively with other partners including the MCDA, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Multnomah County Parole and Probation, the Portland Office of Violence Prevention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and investigative units from neighboring law enforcement agencies.
The gang unit model arose from the realization a small hardcore of young men are responsible for the bulk of violence in their neighborhoods, at the center of the personal pride matrix that is the cause of most shootings. Taking the hardest heads off the street disrupts these idiot networks of offense.
The Portland Police Bureau hopes to narrow the investigative focus on repeat shooters who are responsible for many of these gunfire incidents. The goal is to take those responsible off the street and reduce the disturbing trend of gun violence in our neighborhoods.
“It’s coming from inside the church!” (February 17)
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — One man was arrested following an attempted burglary of a church in Portland Wednesday morning, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
Officers were dispatched to a cathedral in the 1700 block of NW Davis Street just before 3:30 a.m. after receiving reports someone was breaking things and throwing objects through windows from inside the church. Upon their arrival, PPB officers discovered a man holding a box cutter or type razor blade, yelling at one of the resident church pastors.
The pastor was unable to calm the man down and eventually fled outside to police who had surrounded the building by then. A K9 unit helped officers with searching the church and eventually the suspect tried to escape out an exit and was quickly apprehended and arrested.
Police charged the man with burglary. Though it sounds more like a demon infestation. Imagine the sight of a church with various religious implements crashing out the stained glass windows from inside.
Something rotten in Portland (February 17)
A grocery store in Portland lost power during the recent snowstorm and tossed out its perishables as unsafe. The word went out to antifa on social media and a crowd soon descended on the dumpster. Portland Police Bureau:
On February 16, 2021, at about 4:00p.m., a call came in at a grocery store in the 3000 block of Northeast Weidler Street regarding a group of people arguing with employees and refusing to leave the property. The power was out and employees were discarding spoiled food. People in the crowd took exception to their work. Initially, no officers were available to respond.
At about 4:17 p.m., an employee called back because they felt the situation was escalating and feared there may be a physical confrontation. The crowd grew to about 20 people and the employee calling wanted police to remove the people from store property. At about 4:30p.m., North Precinct officers arrived and gathered information from the store representative.
The position of the employees of the store was that the food was spoiled and required to be disposed of due to lack of refrigeration. The food was unfit for consumption or donation. Officers also tried to explain this to the group of people. No subject in the crowd was willing to have an open dialogue with the officers and continued to shout insults at them and store employees.
As it was private property, the officers asked the group to leave store property or risk potential arrest for trespassing. People in the crowd slowly moved away. Officers’ interest in this call was to preserve peace, prevent violence, and restore order. Officers estimated the crowd grew to about 50 people.
Between about 5:05p.m. and 5:15p.m., there were the most officers on scene. One lieutenant, one sergeant, six officers, and three trainees (who were there with their training officers). Most were there for about 10 minutes. Three officers (plus one trainee) were there for the duration of the call, which lasted about an hour.
Antifa and most media outlets reported the scene as police “guarding a dumpster” of food, when in fact they were called by store staff because the mob was threatening employees who had been given that miserable task–trying to keep antifa scroungers from distributing spoiled food.
Apparently in Portland, now, you only get one distress call a night, if it involves antifa
Officers left the scene once they believed parties were separated and there was no longer any threat of harm. After officers left, employees called to report people in the crowd moved back onto store property and were confronting employees again. Store employees reported that people in the crowd were making threatening statements to them. Police supervisors decided that unless there was an imminent threat to life or threat of serious injury, police would remain away. Police did not return to the scene.
Car crashes into boat (February 18)
On Tuesday, February 16, 2021, a Portland Police officer assigned to Central Precinct took two burglary reports from storage units in northwest Portland. Through the officer’s investigation he zeroed in on a suspect, later identified as 35-year-old Travis J. Hendon.
On Wednesday, February 17, 2021, the same officer, accompanied by another officer, followed up on these burglaries. Their follow up led them to north Portland, where they spotted Mr. Hendon driving a white SUV in the Kenton neighborhood. Moments later, Mr. Hendon crashed the SUV into a small boat, parked near a house near North Hunt Street and North Drummond Avenue. Officers found Mr. Hendon on foot in a yard close to the crash, and arrested him.
Aspiring Rapper Fantasy League Update (February 18)
A victim is in the hospital after a shooting in the Portsmouth Neighborhood.
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 1:35p.m., North Precinct officers were dispatched to a report of shots fired in the 3800 block of North Alaska Street. When they arrived they located evidence of gunfire. There was no victim found but they learned that someone may have been hurt and left the scene before officers were called.
At about 2:58p.m., officers were notified that someone with a gunshot wound was being treated at a hospital for a serious gunshot injury. It is believed to be related to the shooting call.
No arrests have been made.
Portsmouth remains in the pack well behind the heavy hitters with only 551 total offenses reported; Hazelwood continues to dominate, having reported 3,871 offenses to win the last year (Dec 2019 to Dec 2020). Nearby Lents (2,152; home of the Street Response program’s pilot efforts), Centennial (2,230) and Powellhurst-Gilbert (2,445) remain contenders for this year’s crown.
untethered 