Raging mob damages Hawthorne businesses
We had another "night of rage" Wednesday night here in Portland. Another anarchist mob roamed around smashing windows and spray painting inanities in a business district. This time it was along eight blocks on Hawthorne Boulevard. At least 10 businesses were hit. Apparently they started at New Seasons and worked their way west.
The cops eventually caught up to some of the crowd and arrested three adults and a juvenile. They also cited a person for having a semi-automatic handgun. The police version is here.
The latest attack comes five nights after a similar trashing of the Hollywood business district.
If I were the mayor (and thank God I'm not), I'd be on the phone with the district attorney first thing this morning and demanding that an example be made of the three terrorists who were picked up. This is no longer some spontaneous act, if it ever was. It is organized crime.
My second call would be to the police chief. Whatever it takes – undercover work, high-visibility patrols in retail areas, whatever – this has to stop. Immediately.
Portland is dying at the hands of a few dozen misguided people. The situation has been way out of control for too long. If the mayor and the chief can't restore order, they really do need to find other work. And Mr. New York Times Darling D.A. had better get off his high horse, too.
Where will the terrorists strike next? Division Street? Northeast Broadway? And when do they start in on homes?
Well said
ReplyDeleteFrom the Oregonian: "Officers said they found damage to at least 10 businesses on Hawthorne between Southeast 33rd and Southeast 41st Avenue. They estimated several thousand dollars’ worth of damage."
ReplyDeleteSeveral thousand dollars worth? Are you kidding? I bet it was a couple of grand just to fix New Seasons. One of the main automatic doors was shattered too, and then there's the paint removal and the cleanup crews. Then you throw in the other 9 businesses that were damaged and it's damn sure going to be more than several thousand dollars.
It did get me wondering who would pay for it after the insurance is factored in? It's not likely these businesses were made whole so what do they do? Pass the costs on to the customers? Are we now paying a protest tax?
Incidentally, my wife and I wanted to approach this Thanksgiving for what it was: part of history that will be included in books about the Great Pandemic of 2020. You really can't avoid having these times touch up on you. Not this year.
After hearing a restaurant owner pleading for takeout orders on the local news, we decided to get Thai takeout from a place we had never been to: New Thai Blues at 41st and Division. We got it Wednesday and ate it on the Thanksgiving and it was a total winner. Make sure you get the peanut sauce. Awesome.
That left dessert so Wednesday morning I ventured out to get a half pumpkin pie, whip cream and soy eggnog. Because it's me there was going to be some kind of shopping screw-up and in this case I accidentally got a vegan pumpkin pie. Any true pastry lovers out there know that vegan pastry is a work in progress. They are not there yet, and may never get there. But it was good enough and unavoidable. I am not a shopper.
The reason I bring this up is because I bought the dessert at the exact same New Seasons that got hit later that night. I walked through the main doors in the Oregonian picture mere hours before they were destroyed. That's the thing about 2020 and history in general. You can't go too far without it rubbing up on you.
Well I hate to come off as some right-wing old man pumped up full of white privilege, but anyone who voted for the side that stays largely silent about the “peaceful protests” has no reason to complain.
ReplyDeleteThis crap should had been shut down six months ago but instead of doing what you would think would be reasonable, most of the liberal leaders both locally and nationally either played these down, egged them on, or just plain ignored them.
“This crap” is different in Portland. Our persistent anarchist cult is using the legit Black Lives movement as an excuse to bust stuff up. At some point, we crossed a line. But that point was at or before the museum riot. It’s time to wind it down. The damage is spiraling down into a critical state.
DeleteHere's a followup from the New Seasons. The store basically said screw it and boarded up all the windows so now we have a little touch of downtown on Hawthorne Street.
DeleteIncidentally we corrected the half pie on Thanksgiving that turned out to be vegan by getting a half pie today of the regular pumpkin pie. I figured if we don't get the right kind of pie for the remaining whipped cream then the terrorists win.
Well it is obvious that it needs to stop but they just don’t have the will to do it. They must know who the same hundred or more people are who doing the damage, but for whatever reason they punt. Just two years ago or less Portland was booming and it is seemed that the sky was the limit. Whether you think of that as good or bad the point now is moot as it now will take years to recover the loss of any reputation so people come back. I don’t know how the businesses do it.......that they are not storming City Hall and making ultimatums shows to me that they know it is a losing cause and are probably looking for the exits.
DeleteI have to agree with Luke. I would have thought that the Portland Business Alliance would have been pounding on City Hall doors late last spring to put a top to this nonsense. I know I won't e going downtown anytime soon because it's just too heartbreaking to see what it has become. I think it's only a matter of time before most, if not retailer and other businesses the downtown core, pull the plug and move out to the burbs. All that will be left are government workers and vagrants camped on sidewalks and in parks.
DeleteI think Luke is being generous if he thing that Portland can come back in a few years. In the future Portland will make downtown Detroit look like a hopping place.
Downtown Detroit is pretty great. You should check it out when the plague ebbs sufficiently
DeleteIf and when the Covid and the riots end, the fact will remain that Portland has become a tax hell. No one will come here with a business. Can the locals cobble an economy together? Doubtful.
ReplyDelete