"My good-faith efforts at de-escalation have been met with scorn by Antifa and anarchists bent on destruction. It's time to push back harder."
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler
No. It's past time. Way past time.
Portland's Mayor Ted Wheeler seems to have discovered something that has been glaringly obvious to people in his city, state, and country since the beginning of June. He spoke at a New Year's Day press conference. He seemed to realize, finally, that Portland had gotten out of control. "There are just some people on this planet who are bent on criminal destruction. There are just some people who want to watch the world burn," he said.
Well, yeah.
Portland has had nightly confrontations since the beginning of June, when the protests over the killing of George Floyd began. The protests gave cover for street violence, arson, looting, vandalism and police confrontations. Yes, Mayor Wheeler, there are people who not only want to watch the world burn, they are burning it, burning Portland, your city, and under your watch.
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| New Year's Eve |
Hoodlums have been taking advantage of Portland's residents and its government. America has been watching them for seven months. Americans of all political stripes have been telling Mayor Wheeler that there was a profound difference between peaceful protests over injustice and the behavior of people who were using the protests as cover, and in some cases moral justification, for vandalism, arson, and hooliganism. I watched Democratic Senator Ron Wyden say it early, repeatedly, and forcefully. Peaceful protest are fine, an all-American activity. But put a stop to the violence, he said. Violence is not peaceful protest.
The arson, vandalism, and violence continued night after night. It went beyond tiresome; it became incomprehensible. Disorder in Portland was making life miserable for residents anywhere near it, and residents who could stay away from it, did so, which created dead zones. Those became magnets for more violence. The disorder was destroying neighborhoods and businesses that had given Portland its charm and "livability." Good, old, friendly, "weird" Portland was becoming dangerous.
Portland had become the national poster child of Democratic incompetence. In Republican messaging it was the undeniable documentation that the public could not trust Democrats to protect citizens. Trump's rallies and GOP ads nationwide had a message: Look at Portland. Look at the fires, the vandalism. Look at the riots. Democrats do nothing. They are afraid to offend rioters. They think destroying statues of George Washington and burning up businesses is racial justice. If you want your town to go up in flames like Portland, vote for Biden.
At his press conference Mayor Wheeler asked himself out loud, "Why? This is the hardest of all questions to answer. Why would a group of largely White, young and some middle-aged men destroy the livelihoods of others struggling to get by? It's the height of selfishness."
The answer was readily apparent to people across the political spectrum. Peaceful protests had been hijacked by bad actors. Some of those vandals were completely un-political and opportunistic; the protests provided cover to act out, steal things, and get into fights. It was complicated by the fact that some people adopted political rhetoric and moral justification; the world is screwed up so break things to force change. The nihilism of frustration is a theme this blog has seen voiced in several guest posts this week. Nihilism of the right has a supposed-upstanding prosperous, White, retired physician advocating revolution in the form of discarding a election. Nihilism of the left finds frustration in the corporate and government institutions that entrench wealth, causing people to want to re-make capitalism.
Portland had become the national poster child of Democratic incompetence. In Republican messaging it was the undeniable documentation that the public could not trust Democrats to protect citizens. Trump's rallies and GOP ads nationwide had a message: Look at Portland. Look at the fires, the vandalism. Look at the riots. Democrats do nothing. They are afraid to offend rioters. They think destroying statues of George Washington and burning up businesses is racial justice. If you want your town to go up in flames like Portland, vote for Biden.
At his press conference Mayor Wheeler asked himself out loud, "Why? This is the hardest of all questions to answer. Why would a group of largely White, young and some middle-aged men destroy the livelihoods of others struggling to get by? It's the height of selfishness."
The answer was readily apparent to people across the political spectrum. Peaceful protests had been hijacked by bad actors. Some of those vandals were completely un-political and opportunistic; the protests provided cover to act out, steal things, and get into fights. It was complicated by the fact that some people adopted political rhetoric and moral justification; the world is screwed up so break things to force change. The nihilism of frustration is a theme this blog has seen voiced in several guest posts this week. Nihilism of the right has a supposed-upstanding prosperous, White, retired physician advocating revolution in the form of discarding a election. Nihilism of the left finds frustration in the corporate and government institutions that entrench wealth, causing people to want to re-make capitalism.
Mayor Wheeler had allowed the claims of moral justification to violence, and the muddle confused peaceful protests with violent vandalism and it muted efforts to restore order. He did not articulate well enough that the vandalism and violence was not bringing racial justice; it was delaying it.
John Flenniken lives at the edge of Portland and has spent a career in teaching and working for the electric utility in buildings in downtown Portland. He is up close to the situation in Portland. I consider him to be a political liberal, and therefore his voice of frustration over the problems in Portland have special salience. He isn't taking direction from Trump or Fox News. He is living life in Portland. Liberals don't like street vandalism, arson, destruction of property. They don't like sidewalks littered with human waste. He has felt frustration over what has been happening in Portland.
John Flenniken lives at the edge of Portland and has spent a career in teaching and working for the electric utility in buildings in downtown Portland. He is up close to the situation in Portland. I consider him to be a political liberal, and therefore his voice of frustration over the problems in Portland have special salience. He isn't taking direction from Trump or Fox News. He is living life in Portland. Liberals don't like street vandalism, arson, destruction of property. They don't like sidewalks littered with human waste. He has felt frustration over what has been happening in Portland.
Guest Post by John Flenniken
The last straw.
I have attended, as a favor to the coffee house owner, a fact-finding meeting on the homeless situation, petty crime and vandalism around her business that harassed her employees and customers on occasions to the point where they had to hire private security for their staff. These two long-time successful business owners felt the city was not listening to their concerns nor responding to clear and continual threats and vandalism. The downtown jewelry store had to be open by-appointment-only to their boarded-up shop in the main core downtown business district, but few customers were willing to risk being downtown.
I also have relatives that served on the Portland Police force, but are now retired. My retired relatives stated that if they picked up a vandal or homeless person assaulting an employee or a citizen, their reaction time was slowed by cuts to 911 personnel, caused by the need to hire more officers and provide more resources to handle the rise in serious misdemeanors and minor felonies. Walking beats in the core are gone. The mounted officer patrol in Old Town is disbanded. The police task force concentration on gun violence is disbanded. The police presence is low throughout the city at the moment. If they did make an arrest, the person was often released with low or no bail if the jail was too crowed or the District Attorney’s would not prosecute.
Serious problems now facing Portland are magnified by the COVID pandemic and resulting restrictions declared by Governor Brown, whose restrictions are mostly ignored by the small group of hell-raisers who spend most of their time on the street. Incarcerating too many leads to overcrowding and virus-spread. Overcrowding is against court orders to limit the number of people that can be in one cell.
So Ted Wheeler says it’s the last straw, this latest spat of vandalism and violence. Well that’s just great! He’s about 4 years late in this declaration. I know two business owners, one a jeweler in downtown and another who owns a unique boutique Portland-weird coffee house, both of whom are out of business, and most likely will never reopen because of the continual vandalism and street violence. If you combine their years of successful business operation they span almost 150 years of operation.
I have attended, as a favor to the coffee house owner, a fact-finding meeting on the homeless situation, petty crime and vandalism around her business that harassed her employees and customers on occasions to the point where they had to hire private security for their staff. These two long-time successful business owners felt the city was not listening to their concerns nor responding to clear and continual threats and vandalism. The downtown jewelry store had to be open by-appointment-only to their boarded-up shop in the main core downtown business district, but few customers were willing to risk being downtown.
I also have relatives that served on the Portland Police force, but are now retired. My retired relatives stated that if they picked up a vandal or homeless person assaulting an employee or a citizen, their reaction time was slowed by cuts to 911 personnel, caused by the need to hire more officers and provide more resources to handle the rise in serious misdemeanors and minor felonies. Walking beats in the core are gone. The mounted officer patrol in Old Town is disbanded. The police task force concentration on gun violence is disbanded. The police presence is low throughout the city at the moment. If they did make an arrest, the person was often released with low or no bail if the jail was too crowed or the District Attorney’s would not prosecute.
Serious problems now facing Portland are magnified by the COVID pandemic and resulting restrictions declared by Governor Brown, whose restrictions are mostly ignored by the small group of hell-raisers who spend most of their time on the street. Incarcerating too many leads to overcrowding and virus-spread. Overcrowding is against court orders to limit the number of people that can be in one cell.
Customers and clients seldom venture into the city to do business or dine or attend a show. The city is struggling to regain it’s footing.
We have a new slate of city commissioners ready to tackle the problems, and I am beginning to have a glimmer of hope. Possibly the city, at long last, has come to a stark awareness that what is happening now has absolutely nothing to do with peaceful protesting.
5 comments:
Why?
It doesn't take much research to learn that Portland's chill reputation is a fig leaf on some pretty ugly realities regarding race that in part explain why it's the canary in the coal mine for civil unrest and the exposure of systemic inequities that are at the root of the protests.
One reason is the confrontations from counter protestors that come from outside the city looking for trouble. Another was the ham fisted federal response that most agree was politically motivated and inflamed the situation.
A few "bad actors" don't bring a city to its knees. There's a lot more to it. Oregon's "red state/blue state" instability, exacerbated by Trumpism, is its dirty little secret now in full display.
I'm not in any way condoning or justifying the looting and vandalism, but it's happening everywhere to some degree. "Hooligans" are made, not born, and if they are growing in number we had better look deeper for answers and do some soul-searching as well.
Regressives are now openly advocating an authoritarian police state, which would be an economic and social disaster, after decades of undermining the institutions that make this country admirable in its openness to opportunity and advancement regardless of one's origins.
Giving him way more credit than he may actually deserve, Portland mayor Ted Wheeler had his hands tied before the election. He was running against far-left crackpot, Sarah Iannarone, an antifa sympathizer who was photographed wearing a skirt with pictures of Mao Tse-Tung and Che Guevara on it. If Wheeler had acted strongly against the violent protesters before the election, he would have lost the support of many Portland liberals and might have lost the election.
My liberal friends who live in Portland made the best of a very bad set of choices by voting for Wheeler.
Even if Wheeler wants to do something effective against the violent protesters now, he will have to overcome resistance from left-wingers like Commissioner Joanne Hardesty and District Attorney Mike Schmidt. Schmidt has refused to prosecute many of the protesters charged with crimes by the police.
As we saw recently with the “red house“ situation, antifa has perfected tactics that the police can only overcome through tactics of their own that Portland liberals would find unacceptable. This will probably continue until crime goes so far out of control that it becomes even more intolerable to Portland liberals than the police tactics that will be required to bring crime back under control.
It reminds me of New York City in the 1990s, when crime went so far out of control that even the liberals of New York City found it necessary to elect conservative Republican Rudy Giuliani to reimpose law and order. But if that could happen in New York City, I have some hope that it can also happen in Portland, if not via Ted Wheeler then through some future, more conservative mayor.
I offer no opinion about the solution to Portland's issues, but Let's stop peddling the fiction that Giuliani's leadership played a central role in bringing down violent crime. (However, give the corporate media credit for selling that narrative.) From Mother Jones in November 2020, there's a chart that won't print here, but a brief excerpt of the prose:
"...crime was dropping during Dinkins’ entire term as mayor, well before Giuliani won the 1993 mayoral election. Violent crime was already down by more than 20 percent from its peak by the time Giuliani took office, and the subsequent decline merely continued that trend."
Records show Peter Sage donated $250 to Wheeler's 2016 campaign, following a trip Wheeler made to Medford that year.
Mother Jones is not exactly an unbiased source. Here’s a more detailed and accurate history of Giuliani’s role in the reduction of crime in NYC in the 1990s.
link
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