The Portland Police Association (PPA) has issued another dire plea to Mayor Ted Wheeler and the new district attorney to change their “insane” riot policies and enforce the rule of law or else “Portland is lost.”
A “disgusted” PPA President Daryl Turner excoriated the mayor and newly installed District Attorney Mike Schmidt, demanding rioters be prosecuted and police be allowed to protect the rest of the citizenry saying, “Portland has had enough.”
He accused the two “failing” elected leaders of backing “insane” policies of letting rioters destroy, burn, hurt, and vandalize “almost to the point of no return.”
Twice in the last two days, these rioters have accomplished their mission: chaos and destruction. That is because the Police Bureau’s operational direction from the Police Commissioner and City Council is to let the violence escalate almost to the point of no return, and only then can the Police Bureau intervene. That is insane. Police should have the latitude to prevent crime, not watch it happen and only intervene after the fact.
It does not stop there. Although the Police Bureau has made 21 arrests in those two days, I have no doubt that those arrested will get away with their crimes without any consequence or accountability from the District Attorney’s Office.
As Police Commissioner and District Attorney, your primary jobs are public safety, not politics. You are failing.
For more than 70 nights, the city has been under a siege by antifa and Black Lives Matter anarchists and communists attempting to burn buildings, vandalize private and public property, and threaten the lives of Portlanders....
