Oregon’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian, has published a mea culpa over their previous endorsement of defunding the police, after 266 shootings and 25 homicides in the first quarter of 2021. In fact, in a Monday article from the paper’s editorial board, they heaped praise on the city’s gun violence reduction team and defended the mayor’s recent proposal to restart the ‘canceled’ unit after a spate of violence ensued.
“While we supported the move at the time, we – and all Portlanders – should recognize what has also been lost. The gun violence reduction team responded to every shooting, identifying incidents that were connected and helping disrupt potential retaliatory action. Officers had established relationships with many of those considered high-risk for being involved in gun-violence, connecting people with resources in the community as well as communicating with them about ongoing disputes to keep violence down. And as part of their work, they took dozens of guns off the street.”
The paper then slams the city council for ignoring the “reality of the threat” that removing cops from enforcement jobs has had on the city, saying that a proposal by commissioners to hand $3.5 million to unspecified community groups reflects a “startling lack of seriousness, if not outright naivete,” which “fails to show the urgency or understanding of the scope of this crisis.”
“The council’s three newest commissioners told Mayor Ted Wheeler that they oppose the $2 million proposal to revive the gun-violence unit that he developed with members of the Interfaith Peace & Action Collaborative…”
— Ryan Chittum (@ryanchittum) April 4, 2021
As PJMedia‘s Jeff Wreynolds noted last month, after (George) Floyd’s death, the “defund the police” movement sprung up under misplaced motivations of social justice, and many people died unnecessarily. – READ MORE
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