The Mark O Hatfield Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland next to the police station was a secondary target when the Summer of Soros kicked off on May 29 last year. At first rioters were content to cover it in graffiti while focusing on the police station next door.
June 1
By the end of June rioters directed their attention to the courthouse and the federal agents protecting it. Police had been forced to back down in their efforts to protect their building when city and state politicians along with local and national press chimed in with antifa to denounce the use of tear gas and riot control munitions on “peaceful protesters”; cops were reduced to engaging rioters on the street only when they felt they could no longer remain bunkered inside.
But federal agents were not subject to the restrictions placed on police by city and state government. This may have in fact precipitated antifa’s turning attention on the federal building and opening up the next stage of their campaign, now against putative federal jackboots “invading” Portland and abusing “peaceful protesters”, a theme which enjoyed national prominence and is still cited by disingenuous politicians and media.
The windows were boarded up and this only enlivened the attacks; antifa turned up with tools and hammers, trying to pry the boards loose, forcing agents outside to engage them. One rioter drew federal charges for striking a fed with a hammer when agents came out to stop them from getting at the glass doors.
So they tried chain-link fencing.
June 13
But this was easily taken down by antifa, so they went with heavy steel-framed fencing. Antifa was not deterred. Masses of rioters rocking the sections back and forth managed to bend the steel angles on which they stood and get at the building. Authorities then backed the fence up with concrete blocks on one side; still determined antifa managed to bend them over to the unsupported side. Then a second row of concrete blocks was added on the other side, so no amount of rocking could bring it down. Then the feds were forced to nightly defend the no-go zone between the fence and the building front from antifa incursions and the fires they sometimes set. It was in one of these scenes that Mayor Ted Wheeler came out to endure his own ritual tear-gassing–to no avail in appeasing the mob. July 24:
After summer ended and the violence subsided, with antifa’s numbers diminished and crowds no longer turning up nightly, the feds began dismantling their fortifications in stages. First the boards came off the windows and the concrete blocks were hauled away. Yesterday the fence came down.
Antifa turned up within hours. Dozens of black bloc protesters taking up the cause of opposition to a pipeline being routed through Indian land in Minnesota assailed a Chase Bank branch and the courthouse, breaking windows until a Portland police bicycle squad came to assist the now undermanned feds and chase them off.
March 11
Before nightfall the boards went back up.
March 11 (Alissa Azar)
As night set in an enlivened antifa was back in assault mode. This morning tear gas was still in the air as crews began working on the damage.
Drawing law enforcement into a fight that can then be turned by a still compliant media into a tale of jackbooted excess is the whole point. We’re nearing the one year anniversary of this campaign and antifa is showing no interest in laying off and no one in city government dares to show any interest in finally opposing them outright.
Under Portland’s city government its commissioners aren’t elected by geographic district, so they aren’t beholden to one. Thus progressives like (now former) councilmember Chloe Eudaly and Jo Ann Hardesty, the police abolitionist who came into office with the intention of “ending white Portland”, are less hindered by the bipartisan and practical concerns of a given neighborhood. Hardesty sees herself as representing black Portland, which she simply calls “the community”. Ironically, someone like Hardesty can reach office on the votes of white progressives and liberals and avoid the electoral wrath of such as the black Portlanders in neighborhoods absorbing the effects of her successful efforts to defund police and disband its gang unit, all while posturing as their champion.
Eudaly, whose role running the Office of Community and Civic Life and the city’s Bureau of Development was to overcome neighborhood opposition to multi-family housing in the name of density and the imposition of such as drug treatment centers and homeless shelters, dismissed neighborhood concerns by declaring she viewed herself more as “a renter” than a community resident.
With a relatively weak city government of four elected commissioners and a mayor whose power consists of chairing meetings and determining bureau assignments, the city’s neighborhoods have been able to resist government excess through a system of resident associations that began as unofficial organizations and were eventually recognized with tax funding and prerogatives originally designed to give a say to poorer and minority neighborhoods more likely to be disrupted by such as freeway construction.
The first organized neighborhood system grew up around the need for social services during the depression. Their activities were organized in small geographic areas usually using the boundaries of a neighborhood school.
This drew residents closer together as they got involved in helping their neighbors. These organizations lasted through the post war redevelopment period and into the 1950s.
At the beginning of the 1960s, there were no official neighborhood associations except for a few social clubs in well-to-do neighborhoods. However there were still many people in need, especially in deteriorating inner city neighborhoods.
This was a national issue across the country, so the Lyndon Johnson administration instituted the “War on Poverty.” One of the key components was the “Model Cities Program”.
This was begun in NE Portland’s African American communities in the mid 1960s. Federal requirements for the assistance dictated that decisions about local actions must include the people in the neighborhoods. This was the beginning of Portland’s official neighborhood associations.
The Portland Development Commission (PDC), the city’s Urban Renewal agency, became the official manager of the work. Inner SE neighborhoods felt they had an equal right to renewal assistance, but were being ignored because of local politics.
Unsurprisingly the poorer associations’ effectiveness has been unimpressive, while the smarter, better organized groups have used their prerogatives to resist overdevelopment and transformation. With the election of Eudaly and Hardesty their enemies set to dismantling them.
A city committee advanced legislation on Thursday that would repeal the laws establishing Portland’s system of neighborhood associations.
In place of the old code, the 25-member panel recommended the full City Council adopt a set of “aspirational statements” that lay out the equity-focused responsibilities of the citizen engagement bureau, the Office of Community & Civic Life.
The change would likely have major effects if adopted. At its core, it would purge from civics code the neighborhood associations system, which has been hailed nationally as a potent example of citizen activism.
By August the inept Eudaly’s effort flopped after meeting strong resistance from the 95 associations. Text and email messages, obtained by The Oregonian, between her and staff revealed their shock at resistance and hostility toward the associations’ “white” and “privileged” members.
Eudaly’s changes would have gutted the associations.
Also repealed is the associations’ power to submit official comment to city agencies on “any topic” affecting a neighborhood’s livability, safety or economic vitality. So, too, is the responsibility that the government tell neighborhoods of any actions affecting them, such as zoning changes.
The list of deletions goes on: Requirements that neighborhoods open their meetings to the public and retain copies of records. A procedure for neighborhoods to file grievances about city actions. Even the responsibility to enforce noise control laws.
Leaders from Portland’s 95 neighborhood associations say adopting these changes would kneecap their organizations, which perform a variety of functions from picking up trash and hosting block parties to filing complex land-use appeals that opponents say stifle development.
Proponents of the change say it would not curtail neighborhoods’ influence but merely spread those powers to additional affinity groups such as those formed around religion or race. They say power has for too long been concentrated among neighborhood associations, which are controlled primarily by homeowners and may not reflect the interests of Portland’s diverse population…
Also repealed is the associations’ power to submit official comment to city agencies on “any topic” affecting a neighborhood’s livability, safety or economic vitality. So, too, is the responsibility that the government tell neighborhoods of any actions affecting them, such as zoning changes.
The list of deletions goes on: Requirements that neighborhoods open their meetings to the public and retain copies of records. A procedure for neighborhoods to file grievances about city actions. Even the responsibility to enforce noise control laws.
Leaders from Portland’s 95 neighborhood associations say adopting these changes would kneecap their organizations, which perform a variety of functions from picking up trash and hosting block parties to filing complex land-use appeals that opponents say stifle development.
Proponents of the change say it would not curtail neighborhoods’ influence but merely spread those powers to additional affinity groups such as those formed around religion or race. They say power has for too long been concentrated among neighborhood associations, which are controlled primarily by homeowners and may not reflect the interests of Portland’s diverse population.
A more effective enemy of the neighborhoods is Suk Rhee, Vietnamese immigrant and director of the city’s “civic engagement bureau”, the Office of Community and Civic Life, now under commissioner Hardesty’s purview; the office’s mandate conflicts with that of the neighborhoods and has been devoted entirely to equity:
Supporting communities in creating safe, fun, and inclusive neighborhoods.
Providing resources for immigrant and refugee communities.
Investing in community power by reinvesting cannabis tax funds into communities targeted and harmed by past cannabis prohibition.
Teaching communities about and providing resources for conflict resolution.
Supporting leadership development for Black Indigenous, people of color, immigrant, and refugee communities.
Helping businesses grow while protecting patrons and communities by leading safe, sensible, equitable, and environmentally-friendly regulation.
Building stronger communities by connecting neighborhood groups to resources and funding.
Connecting people to local government by inviting Portlanders to join advisory committees that impact policies and budgets.
Investing in programs to train diverse young leaders to engage in and lead on civic matters and creating a more representative local government…
Suk Rhee, the leader of Portland’s civic engagement bureau, on Friday defended her agency’s drive to lessen the powers of the city’ storied neighborhood associations, declaring the change necessary to make government more inclusive and stating emphatically that it is not meant to diminish the influence of neighborhoods…
The City Council ordered Rhee’s bureau in 2018 to reexamine city code regarding neighborhood associations in light of shortcomings identified by city auditors, including unequal funding to neighborhood groups and lax oversight of the spending. The bureau, the Office of Community & Civic Life, then convened a 25-member committee to suggest new code language.
A draft of the recommendation includes removing all mention of neighborhood associations and deleting requirements that the groups abide by state public records and open meetings laws. The draft addresses auditors’ spending concerns by requiring “an equitable distribution of public resources.”
Those potential changes have leaders of neighborhood associations worried that the promise of greater inclusivity is a pretext to curtail their powers for political reasons. In particular, they fear the government wants to lessen the influence of neighborhoods over land use decisions, such as those to build apartment complexes or high-rise towers, because the groups have stymied development to the annoyance of some local politicians…
“If someone tells you that I or we do not want neighborhood associations in the city of Portland, they’re not being truthful, and I want you to know I don’t lie,” Rhee said.
Civic engagement is a cornerstone of democracy, Rhee said, and it’s incumbent on the city government to make that system more inclusive. She said that is especially so given that American democracy “has its origins in white supremacy and economic exploitation.”
With the broader effort stalled for the time being and, now, with Hardesty’s slightly weakened position after losing ally Eudaly in the last election, they have turned their focus on one of the more recalcitrant and vulnerable groups which has been on their radar for some time, Southwest Neighborhoods Inc (SWNI), which represents such whiter, politer areas as Multnomah Village and Hillsdale, where opposition to multi-family housing is great.
In October of 2020 rogue current and former SWNI board members allied with Hardesty sued to force the organization to open up its books, citing a 2011 embezzlement conviction of a former board member
One current and one former board member of Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. — a nonprofit responsible for fostering civic engagement in Southwest Portland — are suing the group, asking a judge to rule that district coalitions are and required to turn over records to the public.
Shannon Hiller Webb, a current board member, and Marie Tyvoll, who left the board this past summer, have been pushing to see years’ worth of records — including executive session minutes, emails, police reports and credit card statements. A former board member was convicted of embezzling $130,000 from the group in 2011, and Tyvoll and Hiller-Webb said they want to investigate potential financial wrongdoing. The plaintiffs said their public records requests were either ignored or denied.
Portland Public Schools has agreed to pay $410,000 to a former employee who claimed she was fired for repeatedly raising red flags over a lack of safety for seventh-graders working with band saws, nail guns and other dangerous equipment.
The Portland school board unanimously approved the settlement Tuesday.
Only $60,000 of that settlement will be covered by the district’s insurance. The other $350,000 will come out of the general fund, district spokeswoman Karen Werstein said.
The suit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday, asks the court to declare district coalitions in Portland are public bodies and responsible for turning over public records.
The effort to force SWNI to open the books was denied by then-District Attorney Rod Underhill, who has since been replaced by the strenuously progressive Mike Schmidt:
In May, after the members appealed the public records request, former Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill decided the group was not a public body and therefore not subject to Oregon’s public records law. The plaintiffs, represented by public records advocate Alan Kessler, asked the judge to reconsider, arguing the group should be considered a public agency because most of its money comes from the city. Last year, the city’s $307,000 grant accounted for 85% of SWNI’s budget, according to city documents.
Kessler is a ferociously anti-police gay Jew presently raising money for something called “Total Recall PDX” to remove Ted Wheeler for not cooperating fully with police abolition efforts and a supposed heavy hand in dealing with rioters.
SWNI turned over its records after its funding was withheld, and the city sicced the financial auditor Marsh Minick on them. The firm trashed the group for lax accounting procedures. Dissident SWNI board members featured this along with the usual charges of white supremacy and an insufficient commitment to “equity and inclusion” after the board resisted efforts to force them to pay eight thousand dollars for equity training from Portland State University professor Sally Eck. This is one of her presentations:
The neighborhood associations barely managed to preserve their funding this year, but will have to run the gauntlet again next year.
In her first major decision as the elected-in-charge of Portland’s civic life bureau, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has decided to permanently cut city funding from embattled neighborhood group Southwest Neighborhoods Inc…
“This was not a rash decision. I didn’t come in with my mind made up,” Hardesty told members. “What I did was review years of documentation, years of audits, years of non-accountability with how the dollars were utilized. … It was based on a lot of factual data that tracks a history of financial mismanagement.”
Members at the Wednesday evening Zoom video meeting did not seem shocked by the decision, quickly turning to logistical questions and thanking Hardesty for delivering the news to their faces.
One member was notably less civil in his disappointment.
Richard Freimark, who represents the Bridlemile Neighborhood Association, accused the commissioner of lying, though he did not specify about what, and said she made the decision to pull funding out of spite over the wealth of the neighborhoods in the southwest part of the city.
“Because we pay more taxes than anyone else, you’re jealous,” he said, before other members told him he was out of line.
Below is a video made by rogue board member Shannon Hiller-Webb:
Portland antifa has sent out the call on social media for a night of decentralized actions around the city, and even their conditional ally Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt is promising to prosecute the expected property crimes.
“Target the state” suggests they’ll go after the court buildings and police. The ICE facility at the riverfront will no doubt be targeted.
Myanmar is now a cause for the anarchists.
Since the new era of “police accountability” and criminal indulgence effected by antifa and allied political leaders Portland’s weekends are filled with the gunfire of newly liberated gangstas and others. Antifa’s planned actions for Saturday coincide with an already stretched-thin police department’s efforts to put more cops on the streets in the eastside neighborhoods. This will leave fewer police to deal with rioters downtown. Portland Police Bureau:
In response to community concerns about the rise in violence in Portland, and the calls to increase public safety and respond to calls in a timely manner, the Portland Police Bureau will take steps over the next two days to provide additional officers to respond to incidents of gun violence and public disorder.
Eight officers from the Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST) will work Friday and Saturday evening with the express purpose of following up on shootings that have occurred and responding as quickly as possible to shooting calls. ECST officers will enhance the work already being done by patrol officers.
Police response to shooting calls, especially when there are gunshot victims, takes multiple officers to locate fleeing suspects, render aid until medical help arrives, secure the scene, preserve evidence, and contact witnesses.
“The Enhanced Community Safety Team officers will focus on high visibility and an enhanced police response to incidents of gun violence in progress,” said Assistant Chief of Investigations Jami Resch. “Their priority will be apprehending those engaged in this violence which threatens the safety of our community.”
In addition, PPB has listened to community members’ calls for a stop to vandalism and senseless destruction that has occurred periodically over the last several months. Portland Police will deploy additional uniform presence from its three precincts to keep watch in areas commonly targeted by vandals and respond quickly to any calls of public disorder. The community has expressed its desire for peace and safety in neighborhoods and shopping districts city-wide, and these additional officers will be as responsive as possible to those concerns.
Ideally for antifa police will be unable to effectively oppose their rampages. The last action antifa undertook, breaking windows and the like in the gentrified Pearl District was met with an ineffective bike platoon that could do little more than trail them and try to contain their damage somewhat.
Two protesters were arrested in a Pearl District protest Saturday night that left windows broken at several businesses.
The protest began at The Fields Park, near the north end of the neighborhood, and continued through the Pearl District. Photos show an estimated 150 people gathered at the park about 9 p.m. Fliers for the protest called for “No borders! No nations! Abolish deportation.”
(…)
Police said their response to the demonstration was constrained by multiple shootings happening across the city, limiting the officers available to address the protest.
Antifa has not pulled back with the election of President Klain’s doddering sock-puppet Joe Biden. The hangers-on and naive who swelled their ranks early on are gone, but committed antifa, who I estimate (on just a hunch) to be around two hundred in number, remain committed and crazy.
From a poster on Portland’s federal courthouse last July:
4-Step Plan for Revolution in the USA 1 Vote Green Party in the November election to prevent a corporate candidate from being elected. 2 Keep the country mostly shut down by way of strikes, boycotts and peaceful demonstrations. 3 Establish consensus on a plan for the new system. 4 Persuade the National Guard to assist the majority in the overthrow of the state.
Combining the obnoxious trend of dancing healthcare workers, black sexual immodesty, dick pics and media gullibility in one tawdry tale:
He’s been featured on “Good Morning America” and other national news shows, dancing in his medical scrubs. He’s garnered millions of social media views for making people smile with his viral dance videos and has been dubbed the TikTok Doc.
Now Jason Campbell is named as a defendant in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, accused of sexually abusing a former co-worker at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Portland, where he sometimes worked as an anesthesia resident.
As someone who uses this VA hospital this story heightens my existing dread of medical malpractice.
A lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court in Portland alleges Campbell harassed a woman social worker from January through March last year, sending a pornographic photo of himself through social media and sexually charged text messages.
Then on March 12, the suit alleges, Campbell went into the woman’s office area at the medical center, crept up behind her and forcibly pressed against her so she could feel his erection.
“Plaintiff was terrified and yelled at Dr. Campbell to leave,” the suit says. “Plaintiff followed up with a written message, ‘Don’t EVER surprise me by getting in my physical space.’”
Campbell responded by text message, “I should’ve asked. I’m sorry,” according to the suit and a screenshot of the text exchange.
The woman complained to Oregon Health & Science University in early April about the alleged sexual harassment and nonconsensual touching.
The suit also names OHSU, where Campbell worked as a second-year resident and was given a pass to access the premises of the VA center, located next to OHSU on Marquam Hill.
An OHSU investigation concluded in August that Campbell had violated its harassment policy and code of conduct with unwanted touching and sending inappropriate electronic and text messages, including an unsolicited picture of his erection through his scrub pants.
Campbell and his scrub-shrouded chub have beat a retreat to Florida, but he leaves in his wake a me-too reckoning for the VA hospital that does nothing to reassure my fears of medical incompetence.
The suit also claims that OHSU leaders “bury” sexual misconduct complaints by shaming and retaliating against people who report harassment while protecting those accused.
The university doctors, faculty and supervisors haven’t routinely reported sexual misconduct allegations to the OHSU human resources office, equal employment office or Title IX coordinator, as required by its policy, the suit says.
Knowing as we do the me-too process is as often as not about snatching desirable positions away from capable men to replace them with women and minorities like Campbell and that this may soon be in effect at my local VA hospital as a result of the lawsuit, my dread is not assuaged. I may just take my chances out here. No thank you for your service, VA.
A judge who questioned the competence of the top doctor at the Oregon Department of Corrections now faces a state effort to remove her from a series of prison cases over alleged bias.
It is unclear what prompted the Oregon Department of Justice to file motions this week seeking to disqualify Senior Marion County Circuit Judge Claudia Burton.
But the move follows a scathing rebuke by Rep. Janelle Bynum, who said the judge owes an apology to Corrections Chief Medical Officer Warren Roberts for calling him unreliable and questioning his credibility in a ruling earlier this year.
Ironically Burton’s rebuke came in support of the prisoner’s rights campaign that is part of the broader progressive “racial reckoning” movement presently using the coronavirus pandemic to demand early release of prisoners, bar arrests for many and stump for prioritization of inmates’ access to vaccines because of the close quarters in which prisoners live.
The controversy began five weeks ago after Burton found the prison system had provided substandard medical care to Richard Weaver, a 46-year-old inmate at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem. Weaver suffers from asthma, pulmonary disease and chronic pain, according to court filings. Weaver also had an untreated dislocated wrist and contracted COVID-19 in prison, according to court records.
Weaver filed a habeas corpus case, a challenge under the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Inmates commonly seek legal relief, including release from prison, for what they see as problems with their conviction or their treatment in prison.
The judge no doubt knows ignorance of the law is no defense. Likewise for the higher law, that black incompetence must not be noticed:
The judge was unaware of Roberts’ race when she presided over a January trial that involved the medical chief, said a state official briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak about pending cases. The trial transcript shows Roberts testified by phone.
Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty denied Thursday that she was involved in a minor hit-and-run accident in Southeast Portland that another motorist reported to police.
A driver reported that she was rear-ended Wednesday afternoon while stopped at a traffic light, according to sources familiar with the allegations but unauthorized to speak publicly.
The driver reported the collision after returning home. She told police she had been side-by-side earlier on the road with the car that struck her and saw the other driver on the phone or looking down in her lap before the accident.
Hardesty leads the police abolition movement. She’s rather distinct-looking, so it will be hard to refute eyewitness testimony. Nonetheless I’m confident she will escape consequences. It’s the driver I’m worried about.
Hardesty was involved in an embarrassing encounter with an Uber driver last year when she availed herself of police assistance over a petty squabble despite leading the campaign to essentially deny others of that help in cases of black violence:
Hardesty became upset over a mixup about where she was waiting for the car, then she didn’t want the windows open for ventilation because she was cold, then she wouldn’t get out when the driver cut the ride short and tried to drop her off at a gas station miles from home.
The Nov. 1 trip ended with dueling calls to 911 and a request from Hardesty for police to respond, even though a dispatcher repeatedly told her that no crime had been committed.
No doubt the driver (race unknown) didn’t consider black people are biologically acclimated to higher temperatures. Wait, that’s racist.
The Apple store in downtown Portland has partially reopened after eight months. Customers can now pick up items ordered online, after passing through a barrier of heavy steel fencing and concrete blocks.
The store came under attack on the first night of rioting, May 29, or, as the Oregonian story linked above characterizes it, ” raucous protests spurred by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd”.
Boards went up the next day and the store was closed.
Surveying it the day after it appeared they never managed to break through the thick glass or breach the doors to get at the showroom full of goodies. The plywood became a graffiti canvas along with everything else downtown.
Apple painted the boards black after it became apparent the rioting wasn’t going to let up.
By the sixth of June it was a shrine to Floyd, shrouded in the ugly aesthetic of Black Lives Matter:
The artist who drew the first George Floyd head around which the rest of the art formed enjoyed fifteen minutes of social justice fame and the store drew onlookers like pilgrims. The longer the work stood the more perilous would be any attempt by Apple to remove it.
By the end of the year off-narrative graffiti began appearing, and even the original George Floyd head was desecrated
This may have spurred Apple finally to act. In January they put plywood over the art, which they announced they would donate to local BLM subsidiary Don’t Shoot PDX:
“Artists in the Portland community reimagined the blank canvas surrounding our Pioneer Place Apple Store and created a monumental art piece honoring the ongoing fight for justice and the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Apple stands in support of the artists and all who are fighting for social and racial justice. We are honored to have hosted the murals and are very happy to entrust the artwork to Don’t Shoot Portland in support of their advocacy for social change.”
They then barricaded the area around the store and set to work extricating it. Now it resembles the entrance to a prison, where customers pass through a checkpoint and show ID to enter.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Officers responded to four shootings in different Portland on Sunday alone, authorities said.
The shootings happened in the Hazelwood, Parkrose and Centennial neighborhoods.
The first shooting was reported around 4 a.m. in the Hazelwood neighborhood near the 13600 block of East Burnside Street; responding officers found one shell casing, but no evidence of any bullet strikes or a victim.
The next shooting happened in the 4600 block of Northeast 102nd Avenue in the Parkrose neighborhood just before 1:30 p.m., when responding officers found a victim who was taken to a local hospital, Portland Police Bureau said. The victim’s current condition is unknown.
Officers in the East Precinct responded to more reported gunfire in Hazelwood just before 9 p.m., which was reported near Southeast 139th Avenue and Southeast Main Street. Officers found at least 21 shell casings, but did not find a victim and did not see noticeable property damage.
Meanwhile, while officers were responding to the second Hazelwood scene, they heard gunfire to the northeast, authorities said. When they responded to the scene in the Centennial neighborhood, authorities say witnesses flagged down officers and reported the shots were fired from a vehicle, which had left the scene. Twelve shell casings were found and officers noted bullets hit a nearby vehicle and building.
Authorities said they did not have “enough certainty” about the vehicle or suspects to release descriptions.
All of the shootings remain under investigation.
Hazelwood continues to lead in the Aspiring Rapper Fantasy League rankings. Parkrose lags well behind and, on paper at least, looks like a quieter neighborhood. Centennial is a perennial contender. Sellwood-Moreland is a neighborhood that isn’t known for gun violence. Two people were shot an killed in a bar shootout there last Saturday night. Portland police report:
Two men were shot, one fatally, at a bar in the Sellwood Moreland Neighborhood.
On Friday, February 27, 2021 at 11:28p.m., Central Precinct officers responded to a report of two people shot at a bar in the 8300 block of Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard. When they arrived they found two injured victims. Medical responded and found one deceased. The other was transported by ambulance to a hospital with life threatening injuries.
The suspects left the scene before police arrived. No suspect information is being released at this time…
The second shooting victim in this incident died in the hospital Sunday, February 28, 2021. Additional information, including the names of the two people who died in this incident will be released at a later time.
As shootings were flaring up throughout the city Saturday night antifa descended on the gentrified Pearl District to smash windows and engage with police.
Arrests were made during a destructive protest in the Pearl District Neighborhood Saturday evening.
On Saturday, February 27, 2021 at about 9:00p.m., a group began marching from The Fields Park at 1099 Northwest Overton Street. During the march, which lasted over two hours, some individuals spray painted buildings and broke windows. When destructive acts began, officers responded. The Portland Police Bureau began giving advisements to the group over loudspeaker, “To those marching in the Pearl District: Officers have observed and community members have reported members of this group have damaged buildings in the Pearl District. Immediately stop participating in criminal behavior including damaging property. Failure to adhere to this order may subject perpetrators to detention, citation, arrest, or use of crowd control agents, including, but not limited to, tear gas and/or impact weapons. Immediately stop participating in criminal activity.” While tear gas use is currently restricted, state law requires that warning be given.
Police response was constrained by multiple shooting incidents happening across the city, limiting the officers available to address the criminal behavior in the protest. Still, officers responded to the criminal behavior and made two arrests. Items that could be used as weapons were seized, including a large bat.
A suspect has been arrested in Vancouver, Washington for charges related to the shooting Saturday morning in the St. Johns Neighborhood.
On Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 5:14p.m., North Precinct officers located a suspect vehicle related to the shooting and followed it as it drove northbound Interstate-5 into Washington State. Vancouver Police Department officers responded to assist and stopped the car on I-5 at about Northeast 78th Street in Hazel Dell.
Jaron Mulkey, 35, was booked in the Clark County Jail on an arrest warrant for Attempted Murder, Assault in the First Degree, and Felon in Possession of a Firearm. An extradition hearing will take place at a later time.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A 14-year-old and 15-year-old were arrested and charged with multiple crimes for their alleged roles in a carjacking early Sunday morning near Portland’s Laurelhurst Park.
Officers from the Portland Police Bureau were dispatched to the Kerns neighborhood just before 1 a.m. on a report that a person had just had their car stolen at gunpoint by two teenagers.
After arriving in the area of SE 31st Avenue and SE Pine Street, officers found the stolen vehicle and tried to stop it. PPB said the car eluded police and was driving so erratically that the pursuit had to be suspended in order to keep the community safe.
Soon after the chase, police found the car unoccupied near SE 28th Avenue and SE Hawthorne Street. Officers subsequently found two teens matching the descriptions of the suspects and took them into custody.
No gun was found during a search of the area where the teens were apprehended.
Both suspects have been charged with Robbery I, Robbery II — one of the two also faces Attempt to Elude.
Some fights also broke out in the street between spectators and protesters. In one video shot by an independent journalist, a woman can be heard exchanging words with someone in the group dressed in black bloc. The woman yelled several racial slurs as the confrontation eventually escalated to physical violence with punches thrown.
Residents in the Pearl could also be heard yelling at protesters, telling them to “go home” at some points. Protesters yelled expletives back at the residents.
Two people were arrested during the demonstration…
Police said they were limited to addressing criminal behavior among the protesters due to several shootings that had occurred around the city while the demonstration was going on.
Pearl District Neighborhood Association President Stan Penkin said he is “disappointed” in the lack of communication between the community and the city on how to respond to the demonstrations, particularly when there was advanced warning that there would be destruction.
“We’re doing everything we can,” he said. “It’s certainly a frightening and frustrating time not just for our neighborhood but I think for the entire city.”
Penkin said that while he doesn’t know why the Pearl District was a target for Saturday’s demonstration — other than it being the location of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services field office — he suspects it may be because the neighborhood is “erroneously” portrayed as being for the elite.
“We are often mislabeled and perhaps some of those folks feel that they can target the Pearl because of that.”
The Pearl is seen as heavily gentrified and the businesses there as fair game.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Shots were fired and an officer was injured after his patrol vehicle was rammed twice by a stolen van in Cowlitz County.
Just before midnight on Sunday, a Castle Rock police officer was attempting to stop the stolen vehicle near Toutle, Washington. The driver of the van then reportedly rammed the patrol car twice and the officer fired off gunshots.
The van was struck but its occupants fled on foot, unharmed. However, the officer suffered serious injuries. The officer was transported for medical treatment, but there is no word on their current condition.
The driver and passenger from the van were located once the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office and several police agencies responded to the scene.
The two suspects, identified as 40-year-old Dale Woodley Jr. and 33-year-old Timothy Bean, were arrested and now face charges including assault, attempting to elude a law enforcement.
WEST LINN, Ore. (KOIN) — Deputies are investigating a drive-by shooting in Millersburg after reports of multiple gunshots fired into a duplex on the 4300 block of Waverly Drive Saturday night, Linn County Sheriff’s Office officials said.
Deputies said no one was injured during the shooting, but bullets penetrated a home, nearly missing two people. It is unclear if the two people were the suspect’s initial target.
House bill 2574, sponsored by representatives Pam Marsh and Brian L. Clem, would allow bodies to be disposed of by alternative processes, including natural organic reduction — colloquially known as human composting. It also clarifies rules surrounding alkaline hydrolysis, known as aqua cremation, and extends other funeral industry privileges and responsibilities to include reduction…
If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2022, and would make Oregon the second state in the nation to permit the practice.
Washington became the first state to allow natural organic reduction in 2020. In late December, two facilities received their first bodies, and the process officially got underway.
The Rose City Park neighborhood in Portland’s beleaguered east rose in the Aspiring Rapper Fantasy League rankings, standing now at 653 total offenses (see chart at bottom for qualifying incidents)
PORTLAND, Ore. — There were multiple victims in a shooting in Northeast Portland Thursday night, Portland police said.
The shooting happened near Northeast 66th Avenue and Broadway.
A large number police responded to the scene.
Large police presence @ NE 66th and NE Broadway in NE Portland. Hearing reports of a possible shooting. Working to confirm. 9:35 PM #LiveOnK2pic.twitter.com/YhtNwKRVpH
Another mentally ill white man is looking down the barrel of a bias crime conviction:
PORTLAND, Ore. — A man now faces bias crime and assault charges, accused of attacking a Safeway store employee and calling her a racial slur earlier this week.
The suspect, identified as George Richardson, was seen standing outside of a Safeway store on Northeast Broadway and yelling Wednesday. Authorities say he approached a Safeway employee who was on her break, a Black woman, and started screaming at her, unprovoked. According to the police report, he called her a racial slur multiple times, as well as other expletives, and punched her in the face.
The assault left the woman with a “ping-pong ball-sized lump on her forehead, just above her nose,” said police.
At one point, the suspect threw a bottle of wine at the front door, shattering the window, before leaving.
The victim was later able to identify the suspect in security video as the person who both assaulted her and damaged store property.
The security guard at Safeway’s Broadway location shared the suspect’s photo and information about the attack to neighboring stores. Later that same day, a security guard at a NW Lovejoy location later spotted Richardson and was able to flag police officers down to arrest him.
An affidavit from the Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney said, based on the police report, there was probable cause to charge Richardson with multiple counts of bias crime, assault, and criminal mischief.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — A Klamath Falls man faces kidnapping, rape and other charges after he allegedly kept a woman against her will for three days.
Court records show David Garcia, 32, is also accused of spraying the woman with bear mace and beating her over several days, from Thursday through Saturday, The Herald and News reported.
According to Klamath County District Attorney Eve Costello, once arrested Garcia tried repeatedly to contact the woman from the Klamath County Jail.
Garcia is charged with kidnapping, rape, sexual abuse, unlawful use of a weapon, coercion, strangulation, menacing and assault among other alleged crimes.
Christopher Wilcox, 46, was found dead in his car from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a rural area east of Springfield on Thursday, Springfield Police said.
Police identified the victim found dead Wednesday night as 17-year-old Spencer Wilcox, the son of Christopher Wilcox.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that Christopher and Spencer were involved in a verbal dispute when Christopher shot and killed Spencer with a handgun,” police said.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man with a knife carjacked a FedEx truck in Vancouver and caused a traffic shutdown on the Interstate Bridge, police said.
The man showed a knife to the FedEx driver and took the truck near the 2200 block of Columbia House Boulevard, Vancouver police said.
The stolen truck was spotted and police took the suspect into custody on the I-5 bridge, police said. Traffic was shut down on I-5 while police arrested the man.
Antifa police abolitionists’ campaign to ban police from commuter trains is looking good!
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man was arrested after shots were fired Thursday afternoon at the Washington Park MAX Station, deputies said.
Transit Police officers were called to reports of a shooting at the station just before 4:30 p.m. Officers found signs of gunfire at the scene but no one was hurt, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said.
Officers did, however, find a suspect. They arrested 41-year-old Russell Andrew Martinez on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon, disorderly conduct and interfering with public transportation.
TriMet MAX trains were briefly delayed. An investigation is underway.
The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office determined the victim died from stab wounds and ruled the death a homicide.
The deceased has been identified as James Setty, 57.
This is the 12th homicide in Portland in 2021.
###ORIGINAL MESSAGE BELOW###
A suspicious death investigation is underway in the Lloyd District neighborhood.
On Saturday, February 20, 2021 at 2:12a.m., Central Precinct officers responded to a report of a medical check on a person down on the east end of the Broadway Bridge. When officers arrived they located a deceased person with suspicious injuries.
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
Judging by the nature of the event and the booking photo, I took it to be the act of a homeless lunatic, of which we have many.
Today Andy Ngo’s Post Millennial reports the perpetrator has been involved in antifa violence before and that it was a Catholic Church–something local news station KOIN left out (describing the rector there as a “pastor”)–that may have drawn attention for a demonstration described as an “exorcism” of the city’s political violence.
A cathedral in Portland was broken into and vandalized on Ash Wednesday by an armed intruder known for previously attending local Black Lives Matter-Antifa protests.
On Feb. 17 around 3:30 a.m., Portland Police responded to an emergency call regarding a burglary in progress at St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in northwest Portland. A suspect identified as Christopher Lee Colletta, 44, was arrested. He’s accused of vandalism and throwing property outside the historic church’s smashed stained glass windows…
The Post Millennial can report that Colletta previously attended a BLM-Antifa riot in August last year where he was hit with a rubber munition by police at one point.
According to the police report, Colletta wielded a “box cutter type” of blade in the rectory, where a clergyman tried to speak with him. The rector at St. Mary’s Cathedral told the Catholic Sentinel about his interaction with Colletta.
Monsignor Gerard O’Connor says he was awakened by the sound of screaming and was joined by two Portland-area clerics who had spent the night at the rectory after losing power at their parish homes due to the heavy snow storm. He tried to calm the suspect but failed. He met police outside the church.
The PM fills in a bit more left out of the local report
Monsignor Gerard O’Connor says he was awakened by the sound of screaming and was joined by two Portland-area clerics who had spent the night at the rectory after losing power at their parish homes due to the heavy snow storm. He tried to calm the suspect but failed. He met police outside the church.
“The Portland Police get a lot of criticism, but they were uber professional and kind,” he said.
A police K9 unit assisted officers with searching the church and finding Colletta. The suspect allegedly tried to escape through a back exit but was arrested by officers stationed outside.
Colletta was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of felony burglary, felony criminal mischief, interfering with an officer and resisting arrest. Colletta was released the following day on pretrial supervision.ADs
During the height of nightly riots by BLM-Antifa in Portland last year, Colletta took to Facebook to complain that he was hit in the ribs with a rubber munition by police on Aug. 22. That night, hundreds of Antifa rioted outside a police station in southeast Portland and assaulted police.
Colletta was also convicted of felony criminal mischief for an unrelated break-in incident last year. He was only given 18 months probation.
St. Mary’s Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland. The cathedral’s clergy performed the rite of exorcism for the city last year in response to months of riots.
That rite may have of course drawn antifa attention.
I’ve seen some evidence antifa is turning their attention to local churches. One of their number recently tweeted they should be forcing churches to open their doors during cold weather. Recently one of the more “progressive” churches in the area (and that’s pretty damn progressive) has boarded up:
Virtually every church in the downtown area–and we have some lovely old churches–are now thoroughly down with the progressive vision, adorned in rainbow flags or black lives matter propaganda.
Portland District Attorney Mike Schmidt took office early in Portland’s summer of rioting. One of his first acts was to drop most charges against rioters.
Schmidt was surrounded by four Black leaders from Portland who are part of his 15-person transition team, a rare display of public collaboration between community members and a Multnomah County district attorney, especially one just days into his new job.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, leaning on a group of community representatives he called his transition team, announced Tuesday that his office will drop most of the charges filed against protesters in Portland…
His prosecutors won’t pursue demonstrators accused of interfering with police, disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, escape or harassment if the allegations don’t involve “deliberate’’ property damage, theft or force against another person or threats of force, Schmidt said.
He’s kept his word in only prosecuting the most egregious acts of violence.
In January 2019 Oregon passed Senate Bill 577 expanding the definition of “bias crimes” and requiring our Department of Justice to maintain a database of them along with recorded “bias incidents“, which, at the moment, aren’t illegal.
“Bias incident” means a person’s hostile expression of animus toward another person, relating to the other person’s perceived race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or national origin, of which criminal investigation or prosecution is impossible or inappropriate.
“Bias incident” does not include any incident in which probable cause
of the commission of a crime is established by the investigating law enforcement officer.
One wonders if this includes giving someone the wrong look, which is after all an expression.
The first concessions to the police abolitionist rioters last summer included gouging the police budget and disbanding the city’s gun violence team for racial profiling. No debate regarding its effectiveness was even humored; it was enough the police were “targeting” black gunslingers. The subsequent increase in violence suggests it was in fact effective in taking the most violent off the street (and saving the lives of other, lesser thugs along with everyone else).
The other demand capitulated to immediately by Mayor Ted Wheeler was the removal of Portland cops from the Transit Division, which, along with other law enforcement agencies, patrols our mass transit. As with the gun unit, no debate around the effectiveness of the division; disparate impact was enough. Wheeler insisted the safety of passengers would not be compromised because crime victims can still “call 911”. Response times for 911 calls have gone up, of course, as police are increasingly understaffed due to budget cuts, demoralized cops taking retirement or leaving for other, less hostile municipalities or leaving the profession entirely and, no doubt, what Steve Sailer calls the “retreat to the donut shop”.
The present obsession of the abolitionist forces is the homeless and mentally ill; they seek to eliminate all contact between homeless and mentally and the police, and the city still operates under a US Department of Justice consent decree after a “pattern and practice” finding declared the police were violating the civil rights of the homeless (now described as “houseless”, which is somehow less offensive).
It is in this context I considered a recent conviction announced by Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
February 21, 2021
PORTLAND, Ore. – Today, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced that 51-year-old Thomas DeLong received an 18-month prison sentence for committing a bias crime.
This case was prosecuted by Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney BJ Park.
DeLong pleaded guilty to one count of bias crime in the first degree, one count of menacing, and one count of disorderly conduct in the second degree…
The victim of the bias crime is African American and works for TriMet as a transit supervisor. In addition to the prison sentence, DeLong will be on five years of formal probation and three years of post-prison supervision. Part of the probation conditions include having no presence on any TriMet property, having no contact with the victim, and undergoing a drug/alcohol/mental health evaluation.
Eight years in the system for a mentally ill man who happened to call someone the dread word “nigger” as he chased him.
untethered 