So Portland Ore, is Complaining

[Ninurta]

Beyond protests, is violence on the rise in Portland? How dangerous is Portland?

Portland’s current violent crime rate remains below the average for violent crime in large U.S. cities.
That said, statistics show that gun violence in Portland is on the rise, mirroring similar trends in cities nationwide.
Police documented approximately 900 shootings in 2020, compared to 393 shootings in 2019. 2020 saw the highest number of
homicides in Portland since the early 1990s.

Plain English translation: "You are only about 3 times as likely to get shot in Portland today as compared to a year and a half ago."

Portland’s increase in gun violence is concerning, which is why plans are in place to address it.
Most of the reported gun violence and homicides have occurred in neighborhoods away from hotels and business districts popular
with visitors.

Hedge-word: "most".

In December 2020, Mayor Ted Wheeler, Police Chief Chuck Lovell and Office of Violence Prevention Director Nike Greene announced
first steps in a new plan to decrease shootings and homicides. The plan includes assigning more detectives to investigate and follow up
on shootings, as well as more outreach and hospital-based trauma responders.

Plain English translation: "Yes, you will get shot in Portland, but we are hiring more medical staff to plug any holes created in you by our mostly peaceful citizens, and more investigators to ask you questions AFTER you get shot".

The mayor also enlisted the Police Bureau and Office of Violence Prevention to submit budget requests that better reflect their needs to
respond to gun violence.

Plain English translation: "We don't care about ball-bat violence or bicycle chain lock violence, as those are perpetrated by our Antifa pets. We only care about gun violence, and will not be addressing any other types of violence perpetrated against you in Portland. We do not believe violence is the problem here, we believe guns are."

How is Portland addressing police reform?

In June 2020, the Portland City Council approved a budget diverting $15 million from the police bureau to social services.
Nearly $5 million from the police bureau was redirected to Portland Street Response, a new program to dispatch unarmed first responders
to answer calls for people experiencing homelessness.

As of January 2021, Mayor Ted Wheeler — with support from the rest of the city council — has stressed police reform, affordable housing
and the vivacity of downtown to be the top priorities of his second term in office.

Plain English translation: "We are addressing police reform by defunding the police to starve them out and cut their jobs, while reapplying that money to hire more social workers to hand out hypodermic needles to the homeless population".

This passage also begs the question of what is "affordable" housing to a homeless population with no income beyond panhandling just enough to buy their next bottle or crack rock?

A few years ago, the title -as another name for Portland, would've been Beirut!

Beirut was a tad less dangerous than Portland. In Beirut, you could potentially cross the street unscathed if you could run and zig-zag fast enough. In Portland, that avenue of approach is blocked by the mobs of "mostly peaceful" protesters. Don't worry, though - those mobs will not shoot you, they will instead thrash you with sticks and metal objects. Gun violence bad, all other forms of violence good. It's just a matter of having visitors adjust their attitudes towards what is good violence versus what is bad violence perpetrated upon themselves...

... you see, it is not Portland, it is the bad attitudes of visitors to Portland! They just ain't got their minds right yet!


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