Winterborn wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:39 pm
Stay safe '88.
Fatal shootings in almost all sections of the city have followed fistfights, social media disputes, and drug deals gone bad. People sitting in cars, relaxing after work with friends in a bar, attending house parties or walking in a park have been shot dead.
Forensic analysis of spent bullet casings from crime scenes reveals connections between many of the shootings, pointing to gangs and retaliation as frequent drivers of the gun violence, investigators say…
From January through the end of September, police counted a total of 943 shootings that killed or injured 307 people. That compares to 488 shootings and 126 people killed or injured in all of last year.
During that same period, police recovered 4,909 bullet casings. That compares to 4,652 in all of 2020.
The comparison to last year is especially worrisome because the number of murders had already spiked 83% last year according to FBI data. Another conspicuous aspect of the murder rate is that it is disproportionally impacting black residents. Portland is one of the whitest cities in the US (nearly 75%). The black population only makes up about 6% of the city. And yet, the breakdown of homicide victims this year looks like this:
So in a city where Black Lives Matter protests were a constant last year, the city now has a murder rate for black residents that is 8 times the murder rate for white residents.
After one particularly bad weekend this summer when an 18-year-old woman was shot and killed, Mayor Wheeler vowed to “fight for more police officers.” But it turned out that no one wanted the jobs. The city listed 14 openings with the Focused Initiative Team in May, after two months they had a total of four applicants. Meanwhile, officers were resigning their jobs in Portland to take similar jobs making less money elsewhere.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/10/08/ ... ry-n421193
It's a downward spiral that Portland's elected leaders don't understand and can't figure out how to address.
They've allowed the homeless to build camps in a variety of places because they want to respect the economically disadvantaged, mentally ill, addicts, etc. and they don't care about the impact on working people or property/business owners. Homeless camps have become a haven for drugs and violence that spills out into nearby neighborhoods. They waited way too long to start sweeping the homeless camps and the drugs and violence have become a part of the culture that follows them from camp to camp. Drive-by shootings and shoot-outs are becoming more common.
Add in the low morale, staffing shortages, and operational constraints placed on the Portland police and you have a recipe for violence and crime spiraling out of control. The results of defunding the police are being felt but city leaders don't have the courage to admit it.
I live in Portland but I vote and receive services from a nearby suburb. That's good for me because I have a lot more faith that suburban police will show up if there's a call than I do in the Portland police. There's a homeless camp a 1/4 mile from my moorage and I'm thankful that the moorage owner put in a security gate to enter the parking lot from Marine Drive. If it wasn't there my car would be getting broken into on a regular basis.
There is also a security gate to go down the ramp to my dock so a tweaker would need to swim to get to my house which actually happened earlier this week. Some dude climbed down the levee on the vacant lot next to my moorage and then walked along the shore to the shortest point to swim to my dock. He swam across buck naked and then broke into a neighbor's house and took a shower. The police were called and were waiting for him when he exited. He told them his "aura" told him to jump in the river and swim over.
I hear gunshots and street racers on Marine Drive at night on a regular basis. The homeless have also been filling in the path along Marine Drive that I used to like to walk when the weather was iffy. It's a great recreational path that is no longer safe. The houseless are obtaining some great waterfront property ...
I lived in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago so I know how to be careful but I have been thinking that it's time to take Cid and 93's advice on a shotgun. If someone takes me out it will likely be random bad luck.
Let me know if Kalm.1 needs a guardian angel.