Too broke for public safety, but...

The anarchist occupation of Mississippi Avenue in North Portland is troubling in so many respects, but the part of the story on Tuesday that grabbed me the hardest was this:

An acting North Precinct captain was in charge of the early police operation outside the house. Initially, several squads of Rapid Response Team officers were assigned to the location, but once contractors completed their work, the specialized squads were sent home, partly to avoid overtime spending. A much smaller East Precinct mobile field force relieved them and those officers were overrun by the large crowd.

Wait a minute. We're not going to prevent an armed takeover of private property because we don't have the money in the police budget to pay the cops? Are they kidding?

For years I've been complaining about the foolish wastes of taxpayer money one encounters at every turn in Portland. The list of junk pet projects reads like a phone book. But City Hall doesn't have enough money to quell the riots?

I was almost over my usual blood-boil about this when I opened up the mailbox to find this beauty:

The thing is 10½ by 17 inches, four pages, full color, and its only legitimate purpose is to tell me that there's no garbage pickup on Christmas or New Year's. Which is not news – it's been that way for 40 years, at least.

How much are we spending on people writing the rest of this fluff? Maybe we ought to lay those people off and hire a few more cops to slow down the violent revolution.