Another American summer

I saw that the Portland black-bloc crowd was out vandalizing a police precinct again last week, in protest of a police killing of a Black woman in Illinois. My initial reaction was my usual one, mild disgust: Portland far-lefties will not be out-rioted. If there's injustice anywhere in the world, that's the cue to start lighting the dumpster fires in Portland.

Nine people were arrested outside of North Precinct. I doubt that any of them will be prosecuted.

It wasn't until over the weekend that I looked a little further into what the fuss was about. But now that I see it, I'm utterly appalled, and you know what? The kids are right to be out there screaming about it. What was it that we boomers used to tell ourselves? Think globally, act locally? Or in this case, graffiti locally.

The deputy who killed Sonya Massey – murdered her in her own kitchen after she had called the police for help – had no business wearing a badge of any kind, at least not that night. From the body cam video of the incident – taken from the camera of another officer, because the shooter, Sean Grayson, had his turned off – it's pretty clear that Grayson was unfit to be on duty. From what I can see on the screen, he belongs in either a prison or a mental hospital for a long, long time.

The authorities are all saying the right things to try to calm the situation down. That includes Portland's mayor and police chief, not to mention the President of the United States. And the killer cop has been promptly charged with murder. 

But will that be the end of it? How far will the Portland protest crowd take this one? They made their scene at the police station last week, a handful of people were running around down by the elk statue stump on Friday night, the police said that protest activity was affecting intake at the county jail late Saturday night, and there was some sort of candlelight vigil going on in Irving Park last night, maybe having to do with the Massey killing. I'd be surprised if this round of outrage is over.

I do not begrudge the young people some acting-up. The problem is, in Portland, the crazies who just want to break stuff don't need much of an excuse, and if the protests continue, the destructive types are going to crawl out of the woodwork and escalate things. My fingers are crossed hoping that one way or another, that doesn't happen.