Portland’s Mayor Wheeler Seeks Funding For Police–Months After City Counsel Defunded Police Bureau

By

The uber-liberal mayor of Portland is seeking $2 million in emergency funding for more police on the streets to prevent more people from dying in shootings following a dramatic spike in shootings and homicides in the city.

The Portland City Council cut $15 million from the Portland Police Budget and abolished a group of officers called the Gun Violence Reduction Team, last June, but after the city’s 20th homicide this year, Mayor Ted Wheeler decided enough is enough.

The rising gun violence affects mainly “young Black and brown people,” the Oregonian reported. The “one-time funding” will allow more police to patrol on city streets.

The mayor made the announcement alongside religious and community leaders, who urged city officials to take immediate action to prevent more people from dying in shootings, particularly young Black and brown people who have been disproportionately affected by the violence.

The interfaith group called for bringing back a dedicated uniformed police patrol team that would “act on criminal intelligence” to try to intercept and seize guns, work to prevent shootings and retaliatory violence in the city. The group also would respond to shootings, do follow-up investigations and engage with people who are at risk of gun violence, according to the group’s letter submitted to the mayor and city commissioners.

The interfaith group also seeks five more detectives to investigate gun violence, more money for the recently formed six-officer on-call team that responds to shootings around the clock and a new independent community committee to gather data on the officers’ stops and arrests and the effectiveness of their work.

The new police patrol group will differ from the former police Gun Violence Reduction Team in that a new “community oversight committee” will oversee “arrests,  stops, and outcomes and help establish parameters for the police enforcement,” according to Wheeler.

The mayor’s proposal flies in the face of the city’s activist community, as they ramp up anti-police rioting to correspond with jury selection in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis cop charged in the death of career criminal George Floyd.

Dozens of antifa and Black Lives Matter agitators descended upon Portland’s Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse Thursday night, setting fire to the building while people were inside, as federal officers responded with tear gas and flash-bang grenades, the New York Post reported. The protection fence surrounding the courthouse was taken down Thursday for the first time since last summer, KGW reported.

The agitators immediately attacked following the removal of the fence, according to journalist Andy Ngo. They returned at night to continue the assault.

 

 

 

The agitators also stormed several banks on Thursday, according to Ngo.

One rioter who was arrested after punching an officer in the face, he was immediately released on own recognizance after paying no bail, and was arrested again Thursday night.

 

Hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, meanwhile, are still in prison on charges, in some cases, as minor as trespassing.

Portland’s violent domestic terrorists, on the other hand plan to continue storming the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse throughout this weekend. Because they can.

 

See all articles