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For several years, Portland was the pinnacle of artistic community. Its oddball style appealed to many and drew thousands to the city. There was even a comedy series, Portlandia, that celebrated its diversity.
But…those days are gone. And you can blame anyone that supported the “defund the police” campaign.
A new report from Fox News reveals that the city, which was one the “crown jewel of the West Coast,” has now fallen into hard times, mainly due to rising crime within the communities.
In fact, police data shows that crime has dramatically increased over that of other states – including Chicago and New York.
Speaking with Fox News, Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton explained, “Each area has different challenges, but what we’re seeing in the metro area is absolutely rising crime.”
Spread across Multnomah County, Washington County and Clackamas County, the crime has reached astronomical levels, forcing both citizens and businesses to flee elsewhere.
“The increases that we’re seeing are nothing like the increases that we’re seeing in our neighbors,” Barton explained.
“What’s happening is with our de-carceration and elimination of bail culture, we’ve got all these people running around,” Kristin Olson, a trial attorney and host of the Rational in Portland podcast, added. “And it’s really scary because we also have this anti-police culture.”
So how did it come to this? It’s simple – Portland succumbed to those rioters that believed defunding the police would be the answer.
You may recall this heinous campaign that launched in 2020, following the death of George Floyd. Thousands got the insane idea that taking funding away from the police would be the definitive answer for his death, and would make this nation great.
But what happened from the fallout of that? Thousands of officers have left their jobs, either by retirement, simply being tired of their job or, in some extreme cases, suicide; millions of dollars have gone into other campaigns that have since failed to launch off the ground; and some politicians have become jaded, still believing that police officers are the problem even as their cities erupt into criminal chaos.
The biggest thing, however? The rise in criminal activity. It’s ravaged a lot of cities over the past couple of years, including Denver, Los Angeles and several others. And yet, these politicians still don’t have an answer when the clear one is sitting right in front of their faces – restore the police budget.
Oregon State Police data made it very clear that crime is increasing due to a lower police presence, with an increase over nine percent compared to the previous year.
So…why aren’t city officials doing anything about it? Because they refuse to admit that they’re wrong. They refuse to admit that “defunding the police” was the incorrect answer. Even as their Portland-based businesses fall apart and citizens move away for greener pastures, towards people that actually care about them.
It doesn’t help that President Biden is twiddling his thumbs as well. A while back – sorry, a long while back – he vowed to “fund the police” with a new campaign, after months of supporting “defund the police.” But you might notice that there’s been nothing introduced to Congress or the Senate, despite the best efforts of our Republicans to get something going. (You can thank the middling Democrats who still believe in “defunding the police” for that.)
Something needs to be done. Someone in the Biden administration (or perhaps someone who actually cares about what’s happening) needs to take a closer look at Portland and let it serve as an example of what will happen to these states if they don’t give the police the proper support they deserve. Otherwise, I fear where the next turn in this country will take. Imagine every city ending up the way that Portland is. Scary thought, isn’t it?
My heart goes out to the police working in the streets of Portland, as well as the citizens and businesses that continue to support them. They’re fighting a good fight when the people that can actually get anything done refuse to. And that has to be the most frustrating aspect of all.
Michael Letts is the Founder, President, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. He also has over 30 years of law enforcement experience under his belt, hence his pro-police stance for his brothers and sisters in blue.
Hello Michael Letts. We are living in a time when we see “the increasing of lawlessness” worldwide. And from what you say the defunding of the Police is an excellent mechanism for making sure that lawlessness does increase. Over here – the other side of The Pond – it often seems that when the Police go to the trouble of finding and catching violent offenders and bringing them to trial, the legal process simply returns them straight to the streets, with maybe a bit of community service or probation.
But, having said that, I must acknowledge that our overcrowded prisons are on the brink of failure, and that our Orwellian “Care” system seems to work to deliver its “cared-for” children straight to our prison.system, giving them next to no chance of anything else.
So what is the answer? There are some short term solutions of course – REfunding the police for example. But I believe with all my heart that the only government that is going to solve our problems is the heavenly one – the Kingdom of God for whose coming Jesus taught us to pray. Under its loving and perfect rule, the whole earth will become the paradise of peace our Creator always intended it to be.
Britain/Ireland are not nearly close to the level of violent criminality they have in the States.
Even supposedly law abiding cities in the Us are much worse than European jurisdictions.
Don’t know your sources of information the other side the Puddle, but from what I read I’d have to say you are either delusional or are reading the “processed” paulum of the government hacks responsible for the mayhem who do not wish to see their own cover blown lest they face real accountability nxt go at the polls. Britan have been well known, infamously so, for the impenetrable networks of shilc sex grooming, involvong the highest levels of government an dlaw “enforcement”. Tens of thousands of young girls have fellen victim to tese schemes and todate almost no one has been brought before the bar to stand charges for their evil.
One might think it barmy that here in the States we read of so many unprovoked shootings in certain larger certain-party=controlled cities. But that is moslty concentrated in certain “sections” of the larger cities. Yet in London the Poohbahs Grands outlawed the sale of common kitchen and chef’s knives…. Brits can no longer pruchase any such knife with a dsharp point for standard use in cooking. They have all been replaced by newly mandated models with blint points. How will one now dig out the eye of a common potato when one cannot acquire a knifewith a POINT? And WHY the dearth of these devices? You LNOW the answer and it belies your claim.
Yes, Jesus is coming to ‘fetch” His bride any day now. BUT, immediately after ‘rescuing’ us (those who believe in in Him, follow Him and accept His free gift of salvation through His redeeming blood…”there is NO forgiveness for sin without the shedding of blood’ ), He kicks in His 4 part GREAT RESET, called the 7 yr..Tribulation Period, otherwise known as the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ (which makes it a uniquely Jewish event which is why the church has no place in the tribulation).
Part 1….He prevents mankind from annhilating itself….Part 2…He redeems His Chosen people Israel….Part .3…. He brings His long prophesied judgements on this sin sick, evil, Christ rejecting world…Part 4 He sets up His Kingdom and rules from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. (Boy, is Klaus Schwab gonna be ticked or what0. 🙂
Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. (This Sept. would be nice).
Rev. Roy………..<
Hello Reverend Roy, Please read the book by Dr Michael Youssef “Is the End Near?” – we ARE going through the tribulation.
Also please read Carl Gallups, best selling author, “Masquerade: Prepare for the Greatest Con Job in History” + “Be Thou Prepared: Equipping the Church for Persecution and Times of Trouble” and rest assured that as God allowed Noah to survive the Flood, as the Hebrews crossed the Sea of Reeds, as Daniel and the others went through the furnace unscathed, so will it be for God’s children traversing what Matthew 24 states: NO ESCAPING THE TRIBULATION, STAY FOCUSED ON MATTHEW 24, not 3 or 4 lines in Thessalonians. It will transform you and make you brave and courageous, most of all souls are headed to hell, it’s a real place, and we are here to draw people to God. We aren’t escaping any End Times wrath. Don’t be further mislead and also “Renewal Theology: Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective (Three Volumes in One)
by J. Rodman Williams. The rapture theory is a British doctrine from the 1800s, no one believed in it prior, it is erroneous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture : “The idea of a rapture as it is currently defined is not found in historic Christianity, and is a relatively recent doctrine originating from the 1830s. The term is used frequently among fundamentalist theologians in the United States.[2] Rapture has also been used for a mystical union with God or for eternal life in Heaven.[3]” We must warn people that in the next 10 yrs the world will end up looking like the Ukraine – there is NO WAY we are spared, Russia and China are the main players, this world will then bend under the Beast they will no doubt help introduce through a mouth piece from the Vatican and all addicts with serious troubles will hail to it. God bless you. Christ comes and Israel is saved in ONE DAY as she recognises her Messiah.
The JFK Military Autopsy and an Oswald Prosecution
boy hve you got things all twisted up. Go back and reread Jesus s He tells his twelve, after declaring the Jerusale temple will be destroyied WITHIN THIS NEXT GENERATION…. then He begins to tell thm of the other things to come up to the time of said destruction. He clearly states ALL HESE THINGS will also take place WITHIN THIS PRESENT GENERATION freferring to the time in which He was actually speaking. In there you will find the much-dreaded “THE tribulation”, the very misunderstood raoture”, the great falling away, or apostasy, famine, wars, every one of these thngs included in the “all these things will take place before tis present generation paasses away”.
There is no way anyone can twist the meaning of “generation” to stretch it out to two thousand years, give or take.
NOW go and raed contemporary hisotry.. the roman military and government records, and the writings if the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. I have read these reliable sources. These are contemporary accounts of what actually happened They detail how every one of “all these things” did infact come to pass during the exact generation Jesus preducted would see them all.
Further, since Jesus himself declared all these things WILL cone to pass within this present generation”, I am forced into one of two conclusions: either they DID in fact happen precisely as and when He said t hey would, or He is a liar. I don’t know about you. but that does not leave any option, the choice is easy and certain.
You live in a very small closed world with dreary seg ideas.
The JFK Military Autopsy and an Oswald Prosecution
boy hve you got things all twisted up. Go back and reread Jesus s He tells his twelve, after declaring the Jerusale temple will be destroyied WITHIN THIS NEXT GENERATION…. then He begins to tell thm of the other things to come up to the time of said destruction. He clearly states ALL HESE THINGS will also take place WITHIN THIS PRESENT GENERATION freferring to the time in which He was actually speaking. In there you will find the much-dreaded “THE tribulation”, the very misunderstood raoture”, the great falling away, or apostasy, famine, wars, every one of these thngs included in the “all these things will take place before tis present generation paasses away”.
There is no way anyone can twist the meaning of “generation” to stretch it out to two thousand years, give or take.
NOW go and raed contemporary hisotry.. the roman military and government records, and the writings if the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. I have read these reliable sources. These are contemporary accounts of what actually happened They detail how every one of “all these things” did infact come to pass during the exact generation Jesus preducted would see them all.
Further, since Jesus himself declared all these things WILL cone to pass within this present generation”, I am forced into one of two conclusions: either they DID in fact happen precisely as and when He said t hey would, or He is a liar. I don’t know about you. but that does not leave any option, the choice is easy and certain.
Roy; “salvation through his redeeming blood”, “NO forgiveness for sin without the shedding of blood” this really sounds like it’s from a Pagan cult. Blood sacrifice and cannibalistic rituals are Satanic by their very nature.
I was dragged up on this dreary sad stuff.
There is a world of need that should preoccupy is. Not this thumb sucking.
We should attempt to have a greater understanding of other people’s faiths and ideas and quietly shard our own. No go wasting time on rubbish
Lived in the Middle East for 20 years. On a visit I went to a large market and walked through the gold and money changing sections. There was a shop, and outside were three table about 4×8 piled about 6 inches high with DM, ponds, francs (swiss and french) dollars, yen, and many others. There was no one guarding these tables. There were many people walking by. I entered the store where they were engaged in selling gold and jewelry and asked why there were no guards noe visible safeguards.
The owner explained that no one would dare steal. The other merchants and buyers would not tolerate ity and besides the penalty was well known. Being a foreigner I asked what those penalties were. He replied that once a week any thieves were taken to a park outside the souk, and on a raised platform their hands were cut off. Similar venues existed around the city and such events were well attended.
Seems to me the West could learn alot from other cultures about the care and feeding of criminals.
Learn what ? Brutality and being sub human. ? How honest and just were those traders? How much poverty is there in those countries?
What consideration of human rights?
Hopefully America aims at something better and is civilised . Well mostly
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Not too many years ago, I was jealous of Portland, and wished I had lived there. My how times have changed.
It’s a crime what the elected incompetents have done to our formerly glorious urban centers. They should be made to pay for what they have done, for it’s true sedition.
Portland has become a waste dump site, well on it’s way to becoming a surreal hellscape like Baltimore or Detroit.
(Friend visited Portland after a 7 year absence, and was stunned by the change.)
It’s what happens to any city where shithead leftists have absolute control.
The problem I have with calling them shithead leftists is that it assumes that they actually believe in the policies they support. These policies are so irrational that it begs the question, could this all be engineered chaos? Could the desired result be martial law and eventually dictatorship? Our constitution assumes a basic degree of morality among citizens, which anymore I am having trouble finding.
Deep down, you’re right, but it’s a “at the back of their heads” kinda thing. The front of their minds is “if we just give this agenda one more college try . . .”
They know it’s ruining a city, but as long as they have their gated palisades to live in – they don’t care.
Plus they seem too naive to consider the effects of the world they are creating on their kids and grandkids.
for those puddnghead eftists tonget into power ittakes legions of puddig=inghead eftists to VOTE for them, or to work at manufacturing a sufficient nimber of “votes” to put tem in power.
Portland have what they have voted for. I live close enough to, and spend more than enough time in, Portland to have observed their descent into darkness over the past forty years. Incrementalism has done its work. I had many friends who lived i Lovejoy, Pearl, Powell, Broadway north, a few on the eastside around Alberta/Albina, and then north of broadway. NONE of them are still there, all have fled those zones. I will not go into those areas at night any more, and NEVER without my trusty friend on my right hip. I was able to get my non-resident Mother May I Card. Even with that there are many places I just will not go any more, and quite a few more I will not go into at night, especially on a bicycle which I used to do any time anywhere night or day no issue whatever.
No more.
I have watched many small businesses close down because of the rampant crime, the little guys have no fallback position, they jst lose. At leas t WalMart can cut their losses and vacate, That organisation islarge enough losing ten stores will not kill them. A one off Mom n Pop coffee store or craft shop or music store… not able to survive. Then there was the o=woman who had apsnt lots of time deep in Mesxico, fell in love with their food where she was, learned how to make it true to standard, then opened a pace in Portland to prepare and sell it. She was run out of business because of her alledged “cultural appropriation” and her business destroyed. I know quite a few people in the Portland metro area and love spending time with them, but no way would I ever MOVE back there. It is a jungle, and jungles eat their own.
The anarchists are PAID to riot and perhaps believe in the leftist policies they support.
“A city crumbles under a wave of anarchy and crime.”
postmodernism accepts the skepticism position, which leads to rejection of objective truth and objective values, which leads to relativism, nihilism, emotionalism, and whim-worship, which leads to anything goes, which leads to anarchy, which leads to out-of-control crime
It’s not just police funding that is the problem. It is also the lack of political support for the police in these cities, the revolving door justice system, weak on crime prosecutors, etc. Why would anyone risk their life to actively police when the criminal will be back on the street before the cop finishes his paperwork, the prosecutor will not bring charges or, if there is actually a prosecution and conviction, the sentence will be minimal or the criminal will be subject to “restorative justice” and make an apology and be freed, and, if the arrestee is black and a single hair on his head is injured while resisting arrest, the cop will have his life ruined? The people running the train in blue cities are insane and destructive. And their voters seem to like it that way. See, e.g., Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, D.C., St. Louis, etc.
The article failed to mention one key element. Coupled with defunding the police was a coordinated attack on the police by rioters and public officials. Many elected prosecutors and legislators really don’t like police and made it much harder for their police to do their job. Portland not only devalued their police, neighboring communities who used to supply backup police services refused to expose their police to attack by Portland prosecutors.
EVERYTHING a Democrat hand touches dies, wilts, rots.
EVERYTHING!!!
The culture of:
Can’t we all just get along?
Can’t we just move on?
Always more rules and regulations. ALWAYS!
Never look at the root cause…
The removal of God as the definative line of right and wrong.
The destruction of the nulclear family.
The erasure of our history.
I could go on but if you are paying the slightest bit of attention you know the thousand other examples that could be called out.
I want to feel sympathy, empathy but as my mother made clear to me…. you made this mess you can get yourself out of it.
Accountability, responsibility, respect for another persons dollar. These are lessons not taught anymore.
This is what living on shifting sand looks like.
This is what worshipping at the altar of man begets.
Left to our own devices, our own whims and desires truly we are our own worst enemy.
God is watching and his heart is sorely grieved.
George Floyd died of a Fentanyl overdose, the communist infiltrated media pushed the lie that the Police killed him, when they did not. The Communists need to get rid of local Police in order to overthrow the country.. They push the lies, the media useful idiots, they lie that the election was legitimate while covering up all of the stories of election fraud, they cover up the soaring crime while claiming Law Enforcement is the problem, they say the illegitimate Biden Economy is great while inflation is soaring and people can afford less and less while at the same time the currency is being debased. They defend the Money Laundering operation called the Ukraine while the United States depletes it’s military munitions and supplies. They defend the corrupt Nazi regime in Ukraine while politicians are getting tens of millions in kickbacks and bribes. They defend the destroying of the infrastructure in the name of bogus communist pushed “climate Change”. They have depleted our Petroleum reserves while stopping America from refilling them and pumping our own oil and gas. They say everything is wonderful while destroying our economy, our farms, our electrical grid and allowing America’s borders to be wide open. There has been a 700% increase in Chinese military aged males in military shape crossing our southern border.. The Treasonous communist Media, Democrat party, along with RINOs are intentionally destroying the country.
Why do we keep blaming the politicians when they are chosen by the voters? A corrupt govt. is only a mirror image of a corrupt and degenerate people that choose them. The only way to reverse this seems to be to correct the ideals held by the population. It’s really far past the time when the people should be shooting each other and recalibrating what people care about.
The US needs to be broken apart same as the old USSR was. The Federal govt. is the root of many of the problems.
I believe 100% that Biden and Democrats stole the election in 2020. Trump smashed Obama’s old vote tally of 69 million with 75 million votes and Biden should have received around 60 million votes and voting on election night seemed to be showing that. Then- voting stopped for 3 hrs then started again with huge vote dumps for Biden and 20 million more votes were cast in 2020 than any other election in history.
Where did 20 million never before seen votes appear out of, why did all swing states stop counting, how could Trump 18 or 19 bell weather districts and still lose, what did Biden mean when he assured his 100 dedicated voters he would definitely be president because he had created the largest voter fraud organization in history?
American cities are cess pools of communist/liberal/Anti-Christ beliefs but most of the country is not.
Thank you for this. The notion that we get the leaders we elect is for dreamers. With ballot harvesting and midnight absentee vote dumping and such, it begs the question are we voting for anybody? Or are we just seeing a show that looks like an election? I remember Frank Zappa (whose father worked in military intelligence) saying something like our elections are the entertainment wing of the New World Order.
The only solution lies in retaking our schools. Pull your kids out of public schools, homeschool them if you can or join like-minded people to form mini-schools in your neighborhood. Put the teachers’ union out of business by closing most of their schools and taking away most of their victims. The country would turn around in twelve to fifteen years as a new, educated generation arises and takes over.
Welcome to the real world Portland get used to this its going to get worse for you so brace yourselves
The people in power in the big cities aren’t going to change anything enough to matter. They look upon crime as reparations. Even if they did change, it would take years to undo what has been done.
As Terminator II said to the Helicopter pilot: “Get. Out.”
Everyone I know (including us) who has “gotten out” is happier and safer.
As the proud son of Philadelphia Police Lieutenant, Edward Honigman, of blessed memory, this story hits too close. to home.There are bad apples in every profession.
It’s ironic when I see and hear
lawyers, who very often earn there aka other names, “liars” (and worse)”behaving unscrupulously and dishonestly, and not having to endanger themselves in their line of work anywhere near as much as police do—with the latter making a small fraction of the income of what many/most lawyers make.
We “escaped” from California (Bay Area) about 11 years ago. After reviewing our choices, we moved to SW Washington (state). We live about 10 miles north of Portland. In the past, we have enjoyed various cultural amenities available in the (roughly) 25th largest metro area in the country. Since the 120 days of daily riots in Portland after the George Floyd excuse by BLM and ANTIFA rioters, we have gone into Portland only two or three times — and have avoided the downtown entirely. (WA residents near Portland have traditionally done much shopping on the Oregon side of the Columbia River due to no sales tax in Oregon…)
The policy Portland followed for rioters was to “arrest” particularly violent ones, take them on a bus to the local jail, then take their names and release them. (No one ever even went to trial, so far as I know.) However, on one occasion, some of the Portland rioters came to the WA side of the river to hold a “protest” in a downtown park. When things got out of hand (as they always did), the rioters were collected by our local sheriff’s department and taken to the central jail where they were booked, and put in the lock-up where they were told that the would see a judge in the morning when they could post bail. Surprise — that first “rally” on this side of the river was the last “rally” here.
Many years ago, I lived in Berkeley CA, and “experienced” various protests and riots (Free Speech Movement, People’s Park, anti-War, etc.) and violent rioters were generally arrested, held until bail was set … and some (including a friend of mine) actually served a few days (1-week sentences were common) at the Alameda County Jail. (You can ask David H. about those times…) I note that after all this time, downtown Berkeley has never quite fully recovered,
The current situation is that rioters are not only tolerated, they are not even fully booked nor given any jail time, regardless of how violent or how much property damage they may cause.
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THEIR PAYMASTER GEORGE SOROS MUST BE BANNED AND DEPORTED!
Democrat City Crime Rise: Six Killed in D.C. Shootings on Saturday
“Thine alabaster cities gleam/
Undimmed by human tears” Er..not so much any more.