Gun violence rise after police defunding

• The rise of violent crimes in Portland, Oregon is being blamed by residents on police reform.
• This includes Saturday night’s shooting incident, which rained 150 bullets on an apartment complex and injured a woman.
• Residents, along with the police chief, believe that the disbanding of the department’s Gang Enforcement Team was partly responsible for the rise in violence.

The residents of Portland, Oregon are blaming police reform for the rise in violent crimes in the city, including a shooting incident that rained 150 bullets on an apartment complex on Saturday night.

According to the police, the gunfire hit “at least 8 occupied apartments and 7 vehicles (unknown if occupied),” along the 600 block of NE 87th Street. One slug hit a woman in her arm.

The Portland police’s press release stated, “Responding officers applied a tourniquet and she was transported to the hospital by ambulance with what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.” 

“No other injuries have been reported.”

While the incident reportedly occurred during the 65th straight day of Black Lives Matters protests, police did not link the shooting to the protests.

According to a report from The Oregonian, the protests remained relatively peaceful compared to previous clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers.

Meanwhile, residents are blaming a lack of police resources brought about by recent calls to defund law enforcement.

Resident Kemoh Sulimani told Fox, “They had a gang violence task force that are no longer funded, which is unfortunate because as soon as that defunding happened all of this really peaked up.”

Aragon Marks, a resident of the apartment complex, told Fox, “This is America and it’s a war zone with 150 shots in an apartment complex close to a Christian university. How can we explain that?”

A rise in violent crime has been observed in Portland recently. The number of shootings increased to 167 over the past three months from 96 over the same period in 2019. There were 67 violent crimes in July compared to 28 over the same month last year, KATU-TV reported.

Cops also reportedly took longer to get to a crime scene — response times took less than seven minutes last year compared to nearly 15 minutes in July.

Police Chief Chuck Lovell agreed that the disbanding of the department’s Gang Enforcement Team was partly responsible for the rise in violence. He argued that the rise in violence has forced them to move detectives from an “already diminished patrol” unit.

The said unit was disbanded after a city audit found that it disproportionately targeted Black people — in 2018, 59 percent of its engagement involved Black residents compared to 24 percent for white residents.

Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who pushed for disbanding the gang unit, said she disagreed that the recent increase in violence was caused by the unit’s dismantling.

Hardesty pointed out, “I don’t think it’s a staffing issue, and no matter how often they say they’re overworked and underpaid, the reality is that Portland police have for a long time decided what they will investigate and what they won’t.”

Source: New York Post