Amid continued calls from the far left to defund the municipal police department, the city of Portland, Oregon is “on pace to surpass its all-time record for homicides this year,” according to Fox News.
As of Thursday, the network said the Rose City had logged 37 murders. The record for slayings was set back in 1987 at 70. Last year, Portland reported more than 50 homicides as Antifa mobs continually demonstrated and rioted through the summer.
As if to underscore the problem, the Portland Oregonian is reporting four men were killed in a marijuana deal apparently gone bad. According to the newspaper, “Mitchell Jay Nacoste, 31, about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.” Three men reportedly flew in from Texas and arrived at the Southeast Portland residence that became the scene of the gun battle. Two of those men were also killed but they were not immediately identified.
Over the past 15 months, Portland has been rocked by an uptick in violence that erupted following the death of George Floyd while under police restraint in Minneapolis. The city has long been something of a hub for Antifa anarchists.
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The city administration under liberal Mayor Ted Wheeler has not been able to handle the situation. According to Fox News, “Portland’s pervasive gang violence in the 1990s — when it was estimated that there were 2,500 people in up to 600 gangs in the area — left a crimson stain on recent city history. But now, after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, Black Lives Matter protests demanding change following the murder of George Floyd and a diminishing police presence, community leaders say the problem has returned.”
The story also noted, “Police are recording multiple shootings a week with 50 to 70 shots fired, and in one case more than 150, as gang attacks and retaliatory shootings again spiral into a vicious cycle.”
In the midst of the violence, anti-gunners are trying to push additional restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.
Portland is Oregon’s liberal Mecca, with Democrats firmly in control of the city’s policies and politics.
In a report last month, KOIN News noted that in April, Portland police were “more than 100 members short” of full strength. Departing officers “cited burnout, ongoing riots and low morale as reasons for leaving. Some said they didn’t feel supported by their city council.”
A poll commissioned by the Oregonian in mid-May revealed “a vast majority of Portlanders and those living in the metro area reject the call to diminish police presence in the city.” The newspaper reported that less than 25 percent of survey respondents think there should be fewer police. At the same time, the Oregonian acknowledged that “activists and some civic leaders…continue to demand further reductions to policing” while Wheeler and the city council “work to re-imagine the city’s public safety system.”
The poll was conducted by DMH Research.
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