Victoria Taft for "PJMedia"
'Insane!': Police Warn 'Portland Is Lost' if 'Failing' Mayor and DA Don't Stop Riots
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. See video below of rioters threatening to burn down an occupied apartment building and jumping a police officer.
Their stated aim is to get rid of the police, by any means necessary, and bring down America. This amorphous goal is a perpetual motion riot machine. The riots will continue until … they have no idea. Anyone who gets in their way is labeled a racist or fascist and harmed and canceled.
What Turner asks isn’t hard. He asks Wheeler and Schmidt to do the jobs they swore an oath to do.
I am disgusted that our City has come to this. If it is acceptable for rioters to commit acts of violence against community members and to try and burn down occupied buildings, and if this conduct is allowed to continue, then Portland is lost.
Our communities demand accountability. That includes you two being accountable to the public. Allow our Police Officers to do the job they swore an oath to do, to stop crime and the fear of crime. Use the criminal justice system to hold criminals accountable for their crimes with actual consequences.
Let the Police Chief, his command staff, and the rank-and-file officers do their jobs in protecting the City from the rioters who are bent on destroying our City, burning our police precincts, and assaulting officers or anyone else who gets in their way.
In response to the riots in East Portland the past two nights, the PPA has sent a letter to Mayor Wheeler and District Attorney Schmidt.
In closing:
"I am disgusted that our City has come to this. If it is acceptable for rioters to commit acts of violence against community members and to try and burn down occupied buildings, and if this conduct is allowed to continue, then Portland is lost. Our communities demand accountability. That includes you two being accountable to the public. Allow our Police Officers to do the job they swore an oath to do, to stop crime and the fear of crime. Use the criminal justice system to hold criminals accountable for their crimes with actual consequences. Let the Police Chief, his command staff, and the rank-and-file officers do their jobs in protecting the City from the rioters who are bent on destroying our City, burning our police precincts, and assaulting officers or anyone else who gets in their way. Portland has had enough."
Daryl Turner, President
Portland Police Association
Turner’s fighting an uphill battle. The newly elected district attorney is an avowed social justice warrior who received the backing of Black Lives Matter co-founder Shaun “Talcom X” King’s political action committee, Real Justice PAC, fashioned after George Soros’s district attorney project. Its goals include the ending of cash bail, the opening of prisons, and the defunding of police.
Turner challenged Schmidt to “step up and do your job.”
To District Attorney Schmidt: You ran on a platform of police accountability, which was a thinly veiled threat to indict police officers. What about indicting rioters who loot, burn, destroy, and assault? What about your ethical and moral duties to uphold the law and keep all our citizens safe? The people committing arson and assault are not peaceful protestors; they are criminals. Step up and do your job; hold the rioters accountable. If there is no consequence for crimes from the District Attorney’s office, there is no reason for criminals to stop the chaos.
As PJ Media exclusively reported, Portland Police Bureau cops are on pace to retire at a record rate this year. There is a marked increase in the number of officers who are taking stress disability.
Turner says police officers have suffered indignity after indignity, dodging rocks, IEDs, racist slurs, and threats of rape from rioters. They’ve been barricaded in buildings by rioters trying to set the buildings on fire to incinerate them.
Neither of you seems to care much about the officers.
Turner ends his ICBM-missive with, “Portland has had enough.”
Has Portland had enough? Wheeler is up for re-election in November. He’s running against a woman who is an avowed antifa sympathizer. Some are considering writing-in Turner in the election.
