Portland, Oregon’s police force has been anemic since the 2020 racial unrest that led to riots, which partly explains why hoodlums are now running amok — even deploying a flamethrower — as they takeover entire streets in The City of Roses.
Hundreds of individuals took over a Portland intersection at Northeast 72nd and Sandy on Sunday evening for 90 minutes. At least one individual had a flamethrower, and three people were shot, with one person killed.
One neighbor told KOIN 6 News that she witnessed as many as 500 people in the street as mayhem erupted.
“There were cars parked on the median,” the eye-witnessed recalled. “The entire intersection was completely taken over.”
A video of the chaos can be seen here:
Thugs in Portland took over busy intersections in Portland, screeching tires, burning rubber, and even involving a flamethrower. pic.twitter.com/BJs4Equ35C
— MRCTV (@mrctv) August 31, 2022
A group of 100 individuals also held a candlelight vigil for Cameron Tyler, who was shot and killed during the street takeover by an unknown assailant.
According to Portland’s Police Bureau, authorities are investigating the homicide.
Another neighbor explained that the area is home to many young and old people, thus making the incident even more concerning.
“I’m particularly concerned because there’s lots of children in the neighborhood, lots of elders in the neighborhood. Because there’s a median, folks are walking around,” one witness said.
Yet, that same neighbor doesn’t want to see these individuals thrown into the criminal justice system.
“I don’t want these kids arrested,” the unidentified individual told KOIN 6. “I want there to be alternatives that seem better than doing donuts in the middle of the street.”
Even if Portland police wanted to arrest the thugs involved, the department was simply stretched thin on Sunday due to several emergencies throughout the city, according to the local CBS affiliate.
The Associated Press reported that since 2020, Portland’s police force has lost 237 sworn officers. The city defunded the department in 2020 at the request of Black Lives Matter only to refund the police force after crime rates skyrocketed in 2021.
In early August, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell expressed concern for the city’s future, given the inability to attract new officers.
“For me, I wonder, what the profession is going to be 20 years from now if we’re having these challenges on a nationwide scale,” Lovell told the press. “Are we going to be able to recruit enough people to serve our cities?”
It would appear Portland doesn’t even have enough people to serve its city now.
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The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.