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https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/poll-reveals-75-of-portland-residents-do-not-support-defunding-the-citys-police-force/?fbclid=IwAR1dv6CIoVOJ0c_Rk9dDnRyERYjVwVLz11msUk8SSy3lBnztxLwm0EcHZ88

Poll reveals 75% of Portland residents do not support defunding the
city’s police force
Posted by: Jenna Curren|May 19, 2021 |CategoriesFeatured, Homeland
Security, News
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PORTLAND, OR – Nearly one year since the “defund the police” movement
began, a new poll has revealed that nearly 75% of Portland residents
stated they do not support defunding the city’s police force.

According to a recent poll commissioned by The Oregonian, three-fourths
of Portland-area residents said that they do not want to see policing in
the city dip below its current levels, with a several stating that they
support an increase in police.

From April 30 to May 6, 2021, DHM Research conducted a survey of 600
residents in the Portland metro region. The survey consisted of 600
adult residents in the Portland metro region with half of them in the
city of Portland.

When asked in the survey, “Do you think downtown Portland is more or
less safe than it was 12 months ago?” 42% of those survey said that it
is “much less safe” and only two percent stated it was “much safer.”

Fewer than a quarter of survey participants in Portland and even less
among suburban residents, believe that there should be fewer police
officers. This important findings coming as activists and some civic
leaders in Portland continue to demand further reductions in the police
force.

Survey participant Brandon Lane, 61, said that it makes sense to beef up
the city’s police force amid a large spike in shootings, a homelessness
and addiction crisis, and a downtown battered by a pandemic and months
of destructive protests.

“I’m not sure that it needs to be drastically higher, but if we
defund or reduce the headcount any further, we’re likely to be inviting
bigger problems.”

Fox News reported that the poll found that in addition to 75% of
respondents who disapprove of the city’s handling of the homelessness
situation, 68% also stated that they are not happy with how protests and
riots have been handled.

Residents surveyed about the city’s downtown said that they plan to
visit less frequently, mainly citing the homelessness and rioting that
has plagued the area for nearly a year.

Respondents to the poll used words like “dirty,” “trash,” “riots,” and
“unsafe” to describe the heart of the city, which appears to have
deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest of the past
year.

Downtown Portland, once a cultural and tourist center, is now filled
with homeless tents, smashed windows, graffiti, trash, and boarded-up
businesses.

The city has yet to quell continued destruction caused by smaller groups
who go through the city purporting to demonstrate for racial justice,
smashing windows, and tagging buildings in the process.

Residents also expressed frustration with the apparent lack of arrests
related to the destruction. Respondent Laurie Lago, 75, who lives near
where the protests have been centered, said:

“There seems in the last year to be this permission to do violence.”

In response to the survey results, Daryl Tuner, the executive director
of the Portland Police Association, the union that represents the city’s
rank-and-file officers, said:

“Residents want to be safe and protected and they don’t have that
feeling right now.”

He added that City Council trimmed the police budget by $15 million
during summer 2020. He stated:

“This message is clearly not being heard by Portland’s elected leaders,
who only listen to those who talk the loudest.”

After the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office refused to file
charges against many of the rioters arrested for assaulting police and
destroying property during 2020, federal prosecutors stepped up at the
urging of then-President Donald Trump and filed charges against 97 suspects.

However, under President Joe Biden’s administration, 58 of those cases
have been deferred or outright dismissed. Felony assaults on federal
officers were the nexus for 16 of the 31 deferred cases.

Seven suspects plead guilty, but reportedly, only one will serve any
prison time. Former acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Chard
Wolf, said in a statement:

“It’s offensive to all the men and women who risked their lives in
Portland for 90 to 120 days or even longer in some cases, being attached
night after night after night.”

In 2020, when the city cut $15 million from the Portland Police Bureau’s
(PPB) budget, the move did away with school resource officers, the Gun
Violence Reduction Team, and the Transit Division Program.

The Gun Violence Reduction Team was later brought back to help combat
the surge in gun violence, but there was no additional funds to help
support it.

In the meantime, city lawmakers dumped $6 million into adding 24 unarmed
park rangers to patrol neighborhoods and parks as well as to help fund
community organizations seeking to address violence in the community.

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LET Unity

After nearly a year of nightly riots, Portland Mayor finally calls
(begs?) for ‘unmasking’ of violent protesters
April 26th, 2021

PORTLAND, OR– According to reports, Black Lives Matter and Antifa
activists spoke out against Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and his call to
“unmask” violent protesters. Hours after the mayor’s comments, another
riot broke out in the city.

On Friday, April 23rd, Mayor Wheeler said in a statement:

“We must stand together as a community against this ongoing criminal
intimidation and violence. Our job is to unmask them, arrest them, and
prosecute them. People know who these criminals are.”

Within hours of the mayor’s statements, violence broke out again in
Portland following a social media post calling for demonstrators to
“Bloc Up.” According to reports, “Bloc Up” is a reference to the Antifa
“uniform” of all black clothing, masks, and helmets.

The social media post called for an “Autonomous Demonstration” at Couch
Park in Portland and to “Bloc Up,” making it difficult for police to
identify lawbreakers.

Authorities said that as demonstrators began blocking roadways, smashing
windows, painting graffiti and forcing their way into a least one
occupied restaurant, police declared the incident to be a riot and
ordered protesters to leave.

During Wheeler’s remarks, he extended the city’s state of emergency and
directed Police Police Bureau officials to “arrest people engaged in any
crimes.” He reportedly supported the police tactics of “kettling,” which
refers to boxing people in.

Wheeler and the acting police chief both urged the public to safely
stand up to the black bloc violent demonstrators who continue to plan
“direct actions” around the city that routinely end with shattered
windows, fires, and other vandalism.

Both stated that they believe residents are fed up with watching the
threats and destruction by a small group of “self-described anarchists.”
Wheeler said:

“They want to burn. They want to bash, like they did to the nonprofit
Boys and Girls club in Northeast. Really they want to intimidate. They
want to assault.”

He added:
“If BLM leaders can show the courage to stand up to this mob, then we
all should. Make a stand and take our city back.”

According to reports, following the riot on Friday, April 23rd, one of
many this month alone, Black Lives Matter activists and other
“protesters and community leaders” marched on city hall to protest the
mayor’s call for action.

Amber Boydston, a speaker at the protest on Saturday, April 24th, was
one of dozens of black Oregonians who drafted an open letter aimed at
those participating in demonstrations. The letter said, in part:

“Actions that neither increase solidarity nor broadcast purpose while
making the lives of local black communities more difficult are not
acceptable.”

The letter also talked about concern with police violence, but the group
alleges the mayor misused those words in his call to extend the state of
emergency. Protest Mac Smiff added:

“I would appreciate it if people would listen to the words that we say
and read the words that we say, absorb the words that we say, think on
the words that we say, but stop adding your own lends to it. Sometimes
you have to be quiet and listen.”

On Monday night, April 19th, a group of about 80 people gathered in
Northeast Portland and some smashed windows at the Blazers Boys & Girls
Club, causing nearly $20,000 in damage to the club.

On Friday, April 16th, a large demonstration downtown erupted into a
riot that left the front windows of the First Christian Church broke,
anti-police messages scrawled on the exterior of the Arlene Schnitzer
Concert Hall, and windows smashed at the Oregon Historical Society.