New district attorney, tough on crime?

[archmagus]

What do we think of the election of Vasquez? Is this good news for portland being cleaned up?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/0...regon-00159589

[EasyBeezy]

I think it is very good news. The soon to be former DA had decidedly petty criminal friendly policies and a philosophy that the DA's office should be a change agent and not just a collection of prosecutors doing their job. When police arrest people for things like car prowls, drug dealing, disorderly conduct, and vandalism, the DA would usually not file charges. After awhile, the police stopped bothering to enforce the law, since they knew it would never amount to anything. The criminals then understood that they could do what they pleased in public with impunity, which made all of Portland feel unsafe. You can see the effect along Portland's borders with neighboring counties. I live about 1/2 mile south of the border in unincorporated Clackamas County, in a neighborhood with a similar demographic profile to Felony Flats, the neighborhood just north of my neighborhood. The atmosphere on the streets is much different where I live. It's almost like there is an invisible wall that keeps out sketchy people. In reality, the cooks know that Clackamas will come down far harder on them than Multnomah will, so they don't mess around down here as much.

I think Vasquez will be a huge improvement, and his election could go a long way toward restoring Portland.

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by EasyBeezy

I think it is very good news. The soon to be former DA had decidedly petty criminal friendly policies and a philosophy that the DA's office should be a change agent and not just a collection of prosecutors doing their job. When police arrest people for things like car prowls, drug dealing, disorderly conduct, and vandalism, the DA would usually not file charges. After awhile, the police stopped bothering to enforce the law, since they knew it would never amount to anything. The criminals then understood that they could do what they pleased in public with impunity, which made all of Portland feel unsafe. You can see the effect along Portland's borders with neighboring counties. I live about 1/2 mile south of the border in unincorporated Clackamas County, in a neighborhood with a similar demographic profile to Felony Flats, the neighborhood just north of my neighborhood. The atmosphere on the streets is much different where I live. It's almost like there is an invisible wall that keeps out sketchy people. In reality, the cooks know that Clackamas will come down far harder on them than Multnomah will, so they don't mess around down here as much.

I think Vasquez will be a huge improvement, and his election could go a long way toward restoring Portland.

I hope you are right but more than likely this is a temporary scenario. Long term improvements in Portland requires a wholesale change in thinking away from the Progressive mentality. The voters of this city however have shown themselves to be extremely short sighted and weak.


One can almost guarantee that within a year, the Progressive whiners will be back on local media and streets complaining of the police/DA acting in "racist manner against the undeserved members of society who are victims of their own behaviors."


IF the voters of Portland let these charlatans know that their crying no longer works; perhaps there is potential. If not, this will be a temporary reprieve from continued insanity.

[EasyBeezy]

Originally Posted by ccjarider

I hope you are right but more than likely this is a temporary scenario. Long term improvements in Portland requires a wholesale change in thinking away from the Progressive mentality. The voters of this city however have shown themselves to be extremely short sighted and weak.


One can almost guarantee that within a year, the Progressive whiners will be back on local media and streets complaining of the police/DA acting in "racist manner against the undeserved members of society who are victims of their own behaviors."


IF the voters of Portland let these charlatans know that their crying no longer works; perhaps there is potential. If not, this will be a temporary reprieve from continued insanity.

Try to be positive. Portland has always been a liberal city, but it's current issues have only cropped up in the last decade or so. in 2005, Portland was clean, safe, prosperous, and still extremely liberal. And to be fair, I've been to 48 states, and many many places. For the most part, the so called red states are not nice places. Most are a large collection of decrepit small towns with high poverty, high crime, and low wages and educational attainment. You can't convince me otherwise. I've seen it with my own eyes. Of course, none of this is absolutely true. In the end, politics isn't everything and does not trump culture in determining the direction of a society.

[texasdiver]

Portland has always had a seedy side. When I was in college in Portland in the early 1980s E Burnside and Sandy were a disaster zone with hookers everywhere. There were homeless winos and junkies all over Old Town. As I recall, businesses were installing sprinkler drip lines on the sides of their buildings to keep homeless from sleeping on sidewalks in front of their buildings. There was so much crime that vigilantes called the "Guardian Angels" were patrolling downtown and Trimet with their red berets. 82 Ave was a cesspool of hookers and drug dealing. Division St was mostly dive bars and porno shops. Etc. etc. And violent crime was much higher than today.

Portland has fabulous "bones" in terms of architecture, parks, and amenities. And a prime location on the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest and as climate change shifts the center of axis north.

Cleaning up the city will be a big effort. But not remotely out of reach. Anyone who has visited NYC in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and compared it to today will understand what I'm talking about. My sense is that things have already turned the corner since the pandemic. It will certainly help if the city government, county, DA's office, and police are all rowing in the same direction.

The biggest shoe still to drop is the Supreme Court case over homelessness in Grants Pass. If they rule this summer as I suspect they will to allow cities to crack down more on homeless camping in public then cities across the west will start doing so in various ways and the methods that show the best results will quickly be copied and replicated. No matter how liberal Portland might be, I don't think there is much public appetite to continue enabling all this homeless camping if there are newly legal options for addressing it based on the Supreme Court. Not in any city on the west coast for that matter.