Portland Government Doesn’t See It’s Part in the Police Shortage

They blame everyone but themselves, and their attitude toward lawlessness. Your City Hall: Police shortage put on front burner.

The report points to the growing negative image of the police nationwide, calling the problem, “The deterioration of public perceptions of the challenges of serving as a police officer.”

That “nationwide” image is being driven by a couple of places. Chicago and Portland among them.

Consider the article, Dori: Portland police allowed Antifa mobs to take over the streets.

The mob, captured in a series of videos, is unbelievable to watch. Antifa stands in the middle of the road and directs people to turn right rather than drive straight, where their mob has taken over. Portland cops are sitting in their cars all in eye shot of this, and they allow the mob to run the streets.

And then there is Commissioners consult with prominent Black Lives Matter activist on Portland police contract. Because they won’t push for contract terms to hang cops out to dry.

Staff for Portland Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly met Thursday with national Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson to strategize over the city labor contract with the Portland police officers’ union, an official in Hardesty’s office said.

Police made a decision to stand down in the face of violent protests. And the resulting video didn’t make it look too good to be a Portland resident, let alone a Portland cop. So why was that?

Nevertheless, [Mayor Wheeler] says he supports the decision by police to watch from a distance without getting involved.

Would he be supportive if the cops had opted for law and order? In Portland? I doubt it.

My guess is that the police in Portland know that they will get no support from City Hall, and so they make the decisions they do based on that understanding of politics, and their desire to keep their pensions. And the new kids? They see the writing on the wall and get out of there before they have 20 years invested.

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The Most Misleading Headline of the Day

It isn’t exactly a lie, but it leads you to conclude the exact opposite of what actually happened. Portland’s Police Response Times Are Unchanged, Despite Adding 49 New Cops.

Sounds like the police force in question got stronger by 49 trained officers, doesn’t it? If you think that, you would be wrong.

While the total number of officer hires has increased over the past few years, PPB’s ability to keep them around has plummeted. According to the CBO, Portland has historically seen an average of 10 to 15 percent of all new officers leave PPB before their 18-month probationary period is over. Yet recent data shows that as many as 25 percent of officers hired in the past three years are no longer employed by PPB.

They may have hired 49 warm bodies, but attrition took more than that number out of the department. The total manpower is going down, and yet they are surprised that response times are going up. Or maybe they aren’t surprised and just want to bash cops.

If you read this blog even a little, you will be familiar with my “Cops Behaving Badly” category of postings, and you will know I am not a cheerleader for all cops all the time. But beating up a police department because it can’t get better 911 response with fewer people on the job is low, even for the Left-wing Moonbats in the regular media.

So How Is All That Portland Social Justice Working Out?

Not so good, if you measure it by calls to 911. Portlanders Call 911 to Report “Unwanted” People More Than Any Other Reason. We Listened In.

Oh, and don’t call 911 for stuff that is NOT an emergency.

A call of this sort is made to 911 by Portlanders, on average, every 15 minutes of every day.

“One guy,” she told the dispatcher, “is over there, he put a tent over there. It’s very close to our building. It’s almost in front of the door.”

“He’s just camping out?”

“He put like a tent,” the cashier said. “A big tent.”

Where is the Social Justice Compassion Portland is famous for? Calling the cops on a homeless guy who is doing nothing… sounds pretty heartless to me. (Oh, and he wasn’t doing anything, but they were losing business.)

And now the media is calling the homeless “unsheltered.” (Which my spellchecker doesn’t even recognize as a word.) Portland has the 2nd highest homeless population in the country.

Not only do Portlanders call dispatchers every 15 minutes to report an unwanted person: They call every four minutes, on average, to ask police to intervene in situations where there has been no crime committed

Yeah, that’s an efficient use of public resources.

Of course they get around – by about paragraph 25 – to discuss the complete lack of mental health resources. (Which were completely killed off mostly due to a movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.) And so police get called, because you can’t call the fire department unless you’re on fire. And those are really your only 2 choices when it comes to 911. Actually Portland does have a mental health hotline, but you can’t reach it via 911. (That makes no sense at all to me, I’m sure it is perfectly reasonable to the bureaucrats.)

The linked article is quite long, as they have transcripts of a number of the non-emergency calls.

Bad Guy With an Ax, Good Guy With a Gun

4 people dead, before cops shot him. “Shocking scene”: Deputies find 4 bodies, then shoot suspect trying to kill girl.

There is little to recommend this story. “Crazy People Are Dangerous” about covers it. But this sentence from the media did catch my attention.

The victims were not shot, The Oregonian reported. Neighbor Alice Burch told CBS affiliate KOIN-TV one of the weapons used was an ax.

“It was like an ax with a hammer head on it, a long-handled type hatchet hammer,” Burch said. “He stared whaling on her with whatever he was using.”

They feel compelled to say that no one was shot, because nothing bad happens without a bad guy with a gun. Not.

It is hard to get a feeling for what weapon was used. A long-handled hatchet? A maul? A roofing hammer? What? All those things are like a long-handled ax with a hammer head. (Someone needs a reminder: Accuracy. Brevity. Clarity. Though whether the Sheriff’s office or reporters it’s hard to say.)

No one is using the word abattoir – probably because they don’t know what that means – but it sounds like what the deputies discovered. They did arrive in time to save a little girl, so there’s that.

Another Leftist-controlled City

Out of control IV Drug use. Homelessness. Seriously increased crime. It might be time to… Escape from Portland.

Mayor Wheeler won’t go out with a sex scandal, but like his predecessor, he’s unable to reconcile the demands of virtue signaling in a leftist city with the practical problems caused by its implementation. The leftist solutions he’s tried, spending more on homeless services, demilitarizing and diversifying the police, have only backfired.

Property values are falling in Portland because people don’t want to spend a lot of money to deal with drug addicts, etc. (I know, who would have thought?)

Sounds Like a Parent Defending Kids

Which is exactly what parents are supposed to do. Police: Intruder shot, killed by homeowner in Tigard.

If you break into homes, you will eventually find an armed homeowner. That’s what happened here. The result is one dead home invader.

According to police, multiple kids were inside the home at the time, but they are safe.

Neighbors aren’t quite shocked.

This incident certainly has neighbors on edge.

“It’s very friendly, very family oriented – and yeah, this is unusual for here,” said Cheryl Lawhead.

A reminder that they do, in fact, live in the Real World™ where crime can, and sometimes does, happen.

While the investigation continues, Self-defense remains a Human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Self-defense in Oregon

Maybe he thought it would be easy to rob an elderly couple. Fatal Shooting in Josephine County Possible ‘Self Defense’.

An elderly man was on his property along Foothill Blvd when he shot another man to death, claiming it was done in self defense.

The investigation continues, but the homeowner has not been charged, and is cooperating with the authorities.

Self-defense is a human-right.