Portlandia celebrates Killer Cop Week

Just for the sake of completeness, a few words about last night in downtown Portland. Yes, there was another riot. Given that it has been Killer Cop Week in America®, violence in Portlandia was pretty much inevitable. But the Portland cops added fuel to the fire, literally, by shooting and killing a mentally ill white guy in Lents Park in southeast Portland yesterday morning.

The police didn't even have the crime scene tape up in Lents when a couple of dozen black-clad avengers descended on the park, cursing the cops out and throwing things at them. The violence and counter-violence flares up mighty quickly these days. Then it took more than four hours to get the dead man's body out of the park and off to the morgue, which prolonged the ugly standoff.

The police officer who killed the man is an eight-year veteran of the force, but apparently the officer doesn't have a name. I'm sure they'll interview the cop promptly within the next two weeks, immediately after the agreed-to story has been rehearsed enough times.

What about the mental health crisis team that's supposed to intervene, without armed police officers getting involved? Turns out, the shrinks don't go if the 911 call says the deranged person has a weapon. The police say they found a replica gun near the deceased guy's spot in the park.

All afternoon long, the police bureau was warning that there was going to be big trouble downtown last night. But they let it happen anyway. There were two groups. The first, which seemed like a mainstream Black Lives Matter crowd, marched across the Hawthorne Bridge. I don't know where they wound up. 

The other group included the anarchist lunatics who break everything up. Sure enough, they smashed a lot of storefront windows, burned Port-a-Potties and dumpsters, did some looting, set the front of the Apple Store on fire, and returned to the Oregon Historical Society to damage its entry way, as they did last fall, this time spray painting "No More History."

"No More History"? That is right up there with the "End Civ" that's popping up in public spaces around town. "End Civ." Wow.

The hipster media types are now blandly referring to these hooligans as "abolitionists," as if they're Harriet Tubman or something. That is a dangerous thing for the reporters and editors to do. What these folks want to "abolish" is all of society, in which they obviously don't fit too well.

I think the vast majority of the population believes that a criminal justice system is necessary for a community to function. But there are a few hundred people in town who apparently think we should try to go without criminal law for a while and see what happens. And the politicians seem fool enough to go along with the experiment. More park rangers!

At one point, gunfire was reported at the shindig downtown, but apparently no one was hit. It's more than a little scary. And it's only mid-April. Riot season can go well into November.

At last report, the cops had managed to arrest a big four people in the last night's rampage. The arrestees will probably all be released within a few hours. Our Boy Wonder d.a. probably won't prosecute them. "It's only property damage." Yet the damage done last night has to be six figures. And there have been dozens of nights like this in the last year.

I'll bet the Apple Store closes permanently. This is why we can't have nice things.

The official version is here. It includes the usual whining by our feckless constabulary.

At about 10:49 p.m., there were 79 holding police calls for service in the City of Portland, including priority welfare check calls, at least three calls of shots, a priority hit and run, and three burglaries. Two burglaries have been holding for over 13 hours. Police resources were stretched across the City to manage the calls for emergency calls for service and the riot. 

I don't know why they keep putting that stuff in. I guess it's to drum up support for more money and more overtime. Good luck with that in Portlandia. 

To top it all off, the police chief, Chuck Lovell, is on vacation until a week from Monday. I wish he would find a fax machine somewhere at the resort and send in his resignation. He has failed miserably in every respect.

As for the mayor, Dud Wheeler, he was around, accomplishing nothing, as usual. Probably trolled Café Nell.