https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2021/09/editorial-city-councils-slow-wake-up-to-a-gun-violence-crisis.html

On Thursday afternoon, the Portland City Council gathered in an online work session to discuss one of the most dire issues facing Portland – community safety. But the agenda didn’t focus on what to do about the year’s record-setting pace of homicides or the dozens of shootings that take place every week in the city.

Rather, council members learned of research linking infrastructure improvements with reduced crime; heard a proposal for the city to partner with a health care provider to handle non-emergency medical calls; and discussed how to ease the crush of calls overwhelming 911 dispatchers over the next year.

About a half hour into that meeting and six miles east of Portland City Hall, two people ­were shot in the Madison South neighborhood in one of the year’s 🤡🤡🤡889 shootings🤡🤡🤡 so far. One of those shot was a juvenile. No arrests have been made and no suspect information has been shared.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43143552)

😂😂😂😂😂😂

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43144196)

64 so far in 2021

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43143619)

defund!!!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43144189)

The victims last year ranged in age from 8 months to 71 years old. Most were men.

Forty-one of the killings resulted from shootings.

There were 15 homicides in July, the most in a single month in more than three decades.

Nearly half of the killings last year -- 26 -- remain unsolved with no arrests made.

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/01/55-homicides-in-portland-in-2020-the-most-in-26-years-involved-victims-from-8-months-old-to-71.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43148769)

Editorial: City Council’s slow wake-up to a gun violence crisis

Updated: 11:02 a.m. | Published: 6:15 a.m.

Downtown Portland shooting

Police investigate an overnight shooting in downtown Portland on Saturday, July 17, 2021, that left seven wounded.Mark Graves/The Oregonian

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By The Oregonian Editorial Board

On Thursday afternoon, the Portland City Council gathered in an online work session to discuss one of the most dire issues facing Portland – community safety. But the agenda didn’t focus on what to do about the year’s record-setting pace of homicides or the dozens of shootings that take place every week in the city.

Rather, council members learned of research linking infrastructure improvements with reduced crime; heard a proposal for the city to partner with a health care provider to handle non-emergency medical calls; and discussed how to ease the crush of calls overwhelming 911 dispatchers over the next year.

About a half hour into that meeting and six miles east of Portland City Hall, two people ­were shot in the Madison South neighborhood in one of the year’s 889 shootings so far. One of those shot was a juvenile. No arrests have been made and no suspect information has been shared.

The gulf between what’s being discussed at Portland City Council tables and what’s playing out in Portland neighborhoods could not be more apparent or more disturbing.

Without a doubt, the City Council’s efforts to identify and address the underlying causes of gun violence are worthy and necessary. Portland ­cannot simply police its way to a safer community while ignoring the social, economic and environmental factors that foster crime.

But the council’s long-term vision does not excuse its short-term sluggishness in facing this urgent, unyielding epidemic of violence. It’s been five months since the four city commissioners refused to fund Mayor Ted Wheeler’s plan for reviving a gun-violence specialty police unit. Instead, the council hastily adopted a hybrid strategy earmarking $4.2 million for nonprofit groups and adding park rangers to serve as unarmed ambassadors through the summer. While they begrudgingly allowed the creation of Wheeler’s gun violence police unit, they insisted that the police bureau absorb the cost.

Since then, the city has distributed only about $1 million to groups, though it expects to release another $2 million by the end of September; only three of the 24 new park ranger positions have been filled, although city officials note that the bureau extended job offers to seven more candidates last week; and the police unit is not expected to be fully running until November. Nothing about this strategy reflects the urgency that councilmembers professed five months ago.

Since May, more than 140 people have been shot or killed, according to Portland Police statistics. Victims have included a man watering his lawn and a woman sleeping in her home, both wounded by stray bullets. Others have reported gunfire narrowly missing children as they bathed or played outside. Nine separate shootings occurred in a 16-hour period; unknown suspects sprayed more than 100 bullets in a Northeast Portland residential neighborhood, striking apartments, cars and homes last week; shootings occur morning, noon and night. The strategy adopted last April by the City Council did not stop any of this. And yet, the council as a whole has failed to provide an update or take additional action.

It’s hopeful that there are small signs that may be changing. While councilmembers defended the April plan in emailed responses to The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board, they conceded the rollout has been slower than they hoped and that the city must look at other measures.

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said she is looking at additional short-term ideas such as a gun buyback program, gun storage requirements, a community mediation program and a new tip hotline. Commissioner Mingus Mapps, who has written an op-ed that appears in this Opinion section, supports adding police officers and is urging that the city acknowledge and confront the role of gangs in the ongoing violence. He also on Thursday called for aiming to reduce gun violence by 20% in the next 15 months. In a press conference on Friday, Wheeler discussed bringing retired police officers back, a sensible proposal to try to shore up the severely depleted ranks on the police force. Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Dan Ryan similarly pledged their cooperation for urgent action while emphasizing the need to keep a community-focused approach. All appear to support expanding Portland Street Response to help divert some of the calls going to police – while recognizing that the agency may also need to start responding to select suicidal calls.

But saying you want to do something and doing something of significance are two different things. While Wheeler, Mapps and Ryan all seem supportive of adding police officers, Rubio was noncommittal while Hardesty outright opposes it, noting existing vacancies that the bureau has been unable to fill. If Wheeler and the police bureau can persuade retired officers to come back, the commissioners as a whole should get behind it.

The need for urgency was there back in April. It’s even greater now. While we can all acknowledge that long-term change takes time, city leaders must not cling to that excuse for a lack of progress or resistance to change. For the more than 30 people who have been killed since April, time has run out.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board

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(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43144203)

eventually they will flee portland and infest some safe red or purple city, and the whole process with start anew. they are like locusts.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43144536)

Jewish perverts and their dumb ‘goy’ libs. Together, they have caused thousands of EXTRA murders in shitlib cities during the last 18 months.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43144924)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0cycKuy2v4&ab_channel=TonySoprano

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4925430&forum_id=2#43145230)