Mikey gives a speech


Here was a surreal moment the other day. Multnomah County's boy wonder district attorney, Mike Schmidt, called a press conference at which he, the local cops, and Mayor Dud Wheeler all got up and reassured the public that yes, they are actually still enforcing the laws.

This announcement was necessary because it's pretty obvious to anyone with even one good eye that Portland has become an utterly lawless place. Murder, gunfire (including outside schools during the school day), stabbings, car theft, burglary, shoplifting, it's all completely out of control. Not to mention garbage, graffiti, boarded-up broken windows, and other filth everywhere you turn; mentally ill people roaming the streets screaming; and drug dealing out in the open, in broad daylight, with no one in a uniform so much as batting an eye.

So who are you going to believe, Schmidt or your lying eyes?

Unlike previous press conferences held by Portland metro leaders to address the rise in violent crime, Wednesday's briefing did not feature the announcement of some specific initiative meant to bring new strategies to bear on gun violence, for instance.

Instead, as Schmidt later admitted, the primary purpose was to impress on the public that prosecutors, police and local government officials are working closely to bring criminals to justice — pushing back against an image of the criminal justice system in Multnomah County as dysfunctional.

“As we grapple with a surge in violent crime… collaboration is happening at every level,” Schmidt said.

Collaboration at what, he didn't say. Probably their pensions.

Puh-leez, dude. We voted for you once, but never, ever again. You need Indeed.

Comments

  1. You voted for him?

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  2. I’ll contribute and campaign for his opponent next time

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  3. I walked west on Burnside yesterday from Powell’s. At one point a crazed man (on drugs or mentally I’ll or both, I don’t know) shouted at me and tried to block my progression (I just walked around him, not too hard in his condition), then I passed a bus shelter in front of the Firefighters Park with two young druggies trying to light a glass pipe. Then, further west I passed an old man whose “stuff” littered the Burnside sidewalk. He had a BBQ grill going and was tearing up an old magazine to feed to his fire. This was all in addition to the now normal garbage, boarded up windows and graffiti everywhere. No wonder there’s more and more retail space coming for lease. I’ve lived near for 20 years and am sad to say, this city is done. Add all this to the now highest income tax in the US, I don’t see a future for Portland. Ted, Mikey, Charlie Hales and Deborah are all to blame the collapse of a major city. What a life accomplishment.

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  4. Some of the Portland tax base has already quit their business or left Portland. Some businesses that are still here are actively looking elsewhere.

    I did some business in Detroit in the 60’s and 70’s I how the story goes

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    Replies
    1. We took our two businesses and left in 2021. No more taxes from us.

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  5. Imagine if the police responded as fast as the county emptied my savings account for the final property tax payment.

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  6. Some Oregonians are thinking of ways to barricade Potland!

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  7. And it’s not just the streets. The public boat docks at River Place and on the Eastside Esplanade are crowded with derelict boats, tents, drug paraphernalia and garbage. They are dangerous and not useable.

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  8. Sorry Jack, but when you vote for this guy with experience prosecuting misdemeanors and then working for some nonprofit over the 12 year veteran federal prosecutor, you can’t complain that the DA is now too soft on crime. What the hell did you think was going to happen?

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    Replies
    1. The racist cops needed to be told that the Mike Schrunk era of covering for them was over. I hoped that something better would emerge, but alas, we got a clown show. Portland deserves better than a racist police force. Unfortunately, no police force at all is not better.

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    2. What's worse, the skyrocketing gun violence and death among blacks now or the "racist cops" who actually enforced crime prior to this DA? You've always lived in a nice neighborhood where you biggest fear was an apartment bunker down the street not having enough parking as opposed to living on the east side and getting shot on your daily trip to the bus stop. The problem with Portland is that assuaging your white guilt is actually harming the people you want to think you're protecting.

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  9. As an administrator, Mikey is in deep snow that is over his head. His public efforts to distract attention away from himself and onto systems is insulting.

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  10. He doesn't need Indeed. That just means he'll prance away to another job in another city and repeat the cycle. (I'm becoming an advocate of Universal Basic Income, but for executives: rather than have them fall upward, I'd much rather pay a bit more in taxes to keep them in the occasional line of coke and a new RealDoll every year, rather than have them keep causing damage of ten to a thousand times the cost of keeping them off the job market forever.)

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