PDX Police Blotto: Bros Before Hoes, Mayhem

2022 continues the high plateau in crime rates following 2020’s BLM riots and subsequent raft of new laws directed at police and criminal prosecutions. Progressive Oregon politicians followed the shock and awe of the riots like invading troops following a bombing campaign, achieving a host of long-time legislative goals. Mercifully they did not get all they wanted.

Bail reform passed (allowing “individualized assessments based on objective criteria”, which sounds like a contradiction in terms and probably just means high discretion for woke district attorneys–it sounds like college recruiters using “holistic” methods to accept dull Blacks!).

Democratic Party androgyne and candidate for governor Tina Kotek voted for it and it immediately began producing little travesties. It’s hard to predict how much this might hurt her in the campaign. Business interests, old liberals (some remain) and regular people (again, some remain) are chafing over all the reimagining of public safety openly and money is pouring in to defeat the abolitionists’ leader, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, in November.

But genuine free speech doesn’t exist here. Needless to say any public demonstration defending police or opposing progressive “reforms” (or suburban moms opposing drag queen story hour) will be met with violence; small businesses are threatened for adopting a neutral attitude. “Don’t talk to cops” now extends to any dialogue with police. A cafe that’s long held a “coffee with a cop” function, where citizens could have a sort of “ask me anything” with a live cop, was recently vandalized for the impertinence. Bad police are good politics for the anarchist left, and the last thing they want is better communication and understanding between civilian and police.

Meanwhile the hierarchy of grievance of social justice is dynamic, never settled and stable. Subtle changes in narrative focus change things on the ground to an extent hidden in all the media obfuscation. For instance the focus on keeping Black! men out of prison at all costs means many more dead women, many more rapes, many more beatings. Violence against women is one of those costs.

KOIN News reports

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Portland Police Bureau said they are conducting an internal investigation after a man accused of a deadly Old Town stabbing was released from jail the day before the murder, after police say he reportedly assaulted a woman earlier that week.

Now, Portland Police are looking into whether the initial assault investigation went far enough.

On Wednesday, Sept. 28, Portland Police arrested 20-year-old Kalil Ford for beating up a woman. Police charged and booked him with assault in the fourth degree.

However, fourth-degree assault is a misdemeanor and the Multnomah County Court requires a felony charge (i.e. assault in the second degree) to hold someone in jail past their first court appearance.

Court records show Judge Rebecca Lease released Ford on Sept. 29, the day after the assault.

Then on Friday, Sept. 30, police arrested Ford again for reportedly fatally stabbing a man identified as Mark Davis in Old Town. Now, Ford is facing murder charges for Davis’ death.

The new bail rules aren’t the problem here. Police are charging less often and for lesser crimes, anticipating the leniency of District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s office, especially if the name is something like “Kalil”. The state is also in the midst of a public defender shortage, and the District Attorney is meanwhile spending money to spring convicts via his Justice Integrity Unit.

I suspect a strategy used by police before would be to overcharge–say, if the assault indeed wasn’t bad enough to warrant a felony second degree assault charge and bail (and assuming bail reform would not have come into play and effected his release anyway–and I don’t see how it wouldn’t have) police, recognizing his danger to the public (or, yes, just being bastards) might have charged him with the felony to hold him in lieu of the bail he cannot afford, until he can be tried and sentenced of, or more likely pleas to, the lesser charge.

Meanwhile we continue to have little eruptions of violence the media and cops like to package, as Aristotle would approve, in dramas limited to one circuit of the sun: four homicides in a 24-hour stretch recently

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – The city of Portland has seen four murders in a 24-hour period.

This includes two deadly stabbings downtown, one near West Burnside and Northwest Third, and 12 hours later, another near Northwest Broadway and Northwest Couch. On Friday morning, a person was shot and killed near the 200th block of Southeast 148th Avenue, and 23 hours later, another person was shot near Northeast 162nd Avenue and Northeast Sandy Boulevard.

Northwest Portland seems to continue the gentrification that preceded the Racial Reckoning at the same time the neighborhood declines. But Northwest is also home to longtime ground zero for the destitute, Old Town, site of the first two homicides listed above, which was always going to be a hard nut to crack.

Police have made arrests in connection with the first three of the four murders, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said the PPB feel the same impact that the community feels.

“A lot of people died violent deaths in a very short period of time,” Allen said. “That’s what we signed on for, but we’re all human beings too and when we have this much going on and this much terrible things happening – it affects us as well. While we do this for a living, it’s still hard. It’s still difficult.”

Three years ago, the Portland homicide rate was 25-30 homicides a year.

SEE ALSO: 1 dead in second deadly Portland stabbing Friday, suspect arrested

“We are now at 72 homicides this year to date and counting,” Allen said.

Allen said he doesn’t believe there is any connection between the four deaths.

“As far as we can tell, it’s just a tragic coincidence that they all happened in such a short period of time,” Allen said.

Police are still looking for anyone from the community with information about the deadly shooting off Sandy Boulevard to come forward, something Allen said was vital to the arrests made on the previous three.

So people are still talking to the cops. That’s good. Last year Portland achieved a new record annual homicides at 90. We are on track to beat that this year.

Also what the cops are billing as “six significant calls” in “under 24 hours” today:

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Portland Police Bureau says they responded to “several significant calls” in less than 24 hours — including a homicide investigation, a shooting, an alarm call, a pedestrian crash and a stabbing.MultCo murder suspect arrested after release from jail day prior

Just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday, officers responded to what was initially thought to be a possible burglary at a home along Northeast Siskiyou Street. On the scene, PPB said officers determined that a man was intoxicated, in a mental health crisis and threatening others in the neighborhood.

PPB said as officers were talking to the man, he picked up a shotgun. As officers sought cover, the man went into the home.

The man surrendered peacefully after officers used “de-escalation and communications skills,” authorities said. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Officials said evidence suggests birdshot was fired on the scene.

Jo Ann Hardesty’s signature project is Portland Street Response, teams of unarmed social workers and EMTs with which she imagines replacing police city-wide. A recent case of a mentally ill man waving a replica gun and being shot dead by police sparked a renewed push for expanding the project, despite the fact even the abolitionists aren’t yet suggesting Street Response respond to reports of man-with-a-gun. But the case of the drunken would-be duck hunter above is presumably something to which proponents expect PSR to routinely respond–the gun wasn’t in play when the call was made.

Several hours afterward at about 2 a.m. on Friday, police reportedly found a man dead at the intersection of Southwest 4th Avenue and Southwest Washington Street. A homicide investigation ensued.

While police have not identified the victim, they said this marks the 64th shooting death in 2022.

Just over 30 minutes later at 2:35 a.m., officers were dispatched to a reported shooting at a lounge on Southeast 92nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard. PPB said they learned that a group of five people won money from the lounge’s lottery machines and as the group left, a suspect approached the group with a gun and demanded the winnings — resulting in a struggle.

According to officials, four of the people in the group sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The other group member sustained an elbow injury unrelated to gunfire.

Officials noted that no immediate arrests were made.

No “immediate arrests were made” doesn’t necessarily mean a suspect escaped.

“…per policy, officers did not pursue the suspect”:

Hours later, just before 5:30 a.m., PPB said officers responded to an alarm call at a cannabis business on Northeast Alberta Street.

Authorities said at least one suspect drove away in a reportedly stolen car and eluded officers who tried to stop him. PPB said per policy, officers did not pursue the suspect.

However, officers did detain one 14-year-old suspect who was still in the area.

And the beat goes on…