AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
It’s not getting much attention outside of local media, but violent crime in Portland, Oregon has been soaring upwards for months now, with no sign of any improvement in the number of shootings and homicides in the city. Even so, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is proposing several million dollars be cut from the Portland Police Bureau’s budget, and other city officials are touting unarmed park rangers and other non-law enforcement strategies in an attempt to address violent crime without necessarily putting violent criminals behind bars.
One of the latest efforts? A billboard campaign that seeks to tie-in the more than 370 shooting incidents in the city this year to “white supremacy.”