Danger zone

It's no secret that it's been a rough era for public safety in Portland. The last few days have shown how dangerous everyday living here can be.

A librarian at the library branch on Southeast Chavez in the Sunnyside neighborhood died Saturday night after a drunk driver plowed into her while she waited for the bus to go home from work to her two young children. An eywitness, a guy whom I happen to know and trust, complains that he called 911, but nobody answered.

It took 20 minutes for emergency services to arrive, Kanter said. He said his call to 911 wasn’t being answered, so he hung up to get help another way. A fire vehicle was passing by and stopped at the scene, and the firefighters called for assistance, Kanter said. Medical help arrived shortly after, followed by police.

“If she had survived the hit, which I really doubt, she would’ve had no chance,” Kanter said. “The lack of response is inexcusable.”

Meanwhile, the street takeover mobs were out in force in northeast Portland on both Saturday and Sunday nights. In addition to racing and shooting guns off indiscriminately – we heard gunfire here at quarter to three Monday morning – they took over and thoroughly looted a convenience store on Prescott Street. The owner called the cops, but they pointedly told him they would not be responding.

"They took all the beer out and ran to the other side and then they [came] to the cash register and bothered my cashier. [One of the looters] had a gun and said [to my cashier], 'If you stop me I will shoot you,'" said the owner of the targeted 7-Eleven, asked to remain anonymous for the safety of his family. 

He told KGW he called Portland police and told them about the looting, but was told they couldn’t do a thing. 

"[They said,] 'I can’t help you out because there is too [big of a] crowd outside, I can't do anything. If they [break] the vendor windows, then I’m coming, then the cops will come,'" the owner of the 7-Eleven told KGW, recalling the response to his call. "And I said, 'Oh, you guys will wait for someone to kill us and then you guys will come?' And they said, 'I’m sorry, I can’t help you,' and they hung up the phone."

The Mayor's office told KGW that Portland police are beefing up their traffic division again, post-pandemic, and have started performing stings at street takeovers, resulting in arrests.

Last year when the takeover dudes were at one of the same locations as one of this weekend's mob scenes, a person trying to take video of the goings-on on his phone was seriously beaten. No one was ever held accountable.

The stories go on. An innocent bystander was shot and seriously wounded at the Mississippi Street Fair in north Portland Saturday night. Another person was stabbed during the incident. Everyone ran for their lives and the event was called off early. No one has been arrested, of course.

This is a lack of basic Civilization 101, folks. In Portland, despite being taxed until we're black and blue, we don't have a functioning public safety system. It's appalling.