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This newspaper goes to press before election results arrive, so you, dear reader living 24 hours in the future, know a great deal more than we do. How is it there? Has anyone smashed any windows? Did the president send tanks down Broadway? Have the macaques escaped from the Oregon National Primate Research Center, and do the people they bite look normal? Anyway, back here in this simpler time, we asked candidates for City Council how they wanted police to respond to riots if Donald Trump won the presidency again. We’ve been publishing the answers in print editions since July, and compiled them online last weekend. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Mike B, via wweek.com: “A sad commentary on the state of Portland politics. The politicians are more afraid of the leftist radicals who take to the streets than they are of the normies and the business community who suffer from the organized street violence. Or maybe they are afraid of the power brokers who provide backing for those street radicals? Hard to know, maybe both?
“I appreciate WW reminding me about the PDX anti-Trump riots, I kind of forgot about them and only remembered the larger George Floyd riots. That surprises me because my most ironclad rule of life is ‘Never Underestimate the Power of Trump Derangement Syndrome.’
“If Portland can’t shake its reputation as The Riot (not Rip) City, our hoped for economic recovery is going to be delayed and more people are going to move out of the area.”
Public Record and Data Archives, via Twitter: “WW asked Eli Arnold how the Portland Police Bureau should handle unrest but didn’t bother to point out that he already answered that question. He was a member of the Rapid Response Team that brutalized Portland night after night with little to no accountability.”
ajoinportland, via Twitter: “If history is any indication, they’ll tear-gas and attack innocent protesters while getting super chummy with their Proud Boy pals.”
7 Dirty Words, via wweek.com: “I held my nose and filled in the bubble next to Kamala Harris, but only because the alternative was even more distasteful. It’s stunning that in a country of several hundred million people, these are our two choices for president...
“That said, there are a lot of naive people running for city clowncil. Not just the denial and inability to look outside of their bubble and see what’s happening nationally, but completely missing the point that if the election goes the way its currently looking to go, worrying about how Portland police respond to riots doesn’t matter much.
“Candace Avalos, Jamie Dunphy, Tiffany Koyama, Moses Ross, Sarah Silkie...that’s not the leadership I’d want in a situation where Harris loses and Portland riots. Sarah wants to be out there with the rioters just like Ted was. Portland will need adults in the room, people capable of deescalation and professionalism.”
CosmosMom, via Twitter: “By actually arresting the right-wing gangs instead of protecting them.”
CALL A RIOT A RIOT
It was interesting to note the responses to your query about how police should intervene during riots. The first thing that strikes me is the refusal to refer to them as riots or those participating as rioters. That’s problem number one. The second is the presentation that the police are responsible for the criminal behavior. That’s problem number two. Finally, there’s the narrative that this is Trump and the Proud Boys driven. That’s problem number three.
Working backwards, Portland had a reputation for riots by groups on the left, that are only ever referred to as protests/protesters, dating back to when Trump was the darling of the Democrats, lest we forget, and no one had ever even heard of groups like the Proud Boys. The first Bush administration used to refer to Portland as “Little Beirut.”
Second, the notion police just come rushing in to love fests with people sitting around singing Kumbaya and start ruffing people up provoking them to violence may fly in some quarters but the rest of the planet gets that’s not what they saw playing out live on their TV screens (and when I say “the planet” I refer to the reputation we’ve earned far beyond U.S. borders). That our elected officials see it that way, and always do, is why you can’t recruit enough people to fill increasing police vacancies. There’s a big difference between ensuring our police departments handle situations appropriately and a coordinated assault on anyone who stands in the way of what this or that group has decided is the America they want.
Finally, and for the record, I refuse to vote for anyone or any party that supports violence as a means of political gain (which both major parties clearly do), to keep legitimizing riots and rioters by refusing to call it what it is continues to encourage the behavior and Portland will continue to be stuck dealing with this long after they have Donald Trump to blame it on.
Marty McMahon
Troutdale
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: P.O. Box 10770, Portland, OR 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com