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by Alex Zielinski
[What follows is part five of a five-part series on the progress Portland has made on police reform over the past year. Read the rest here. eds] The movement that kicked local police reform efforts into gear last May is far from over. For many activists who invested months into organizing in 2020, the past year’s wins aren’t satisfactory. “We’re not even remotely close to where we should be,” said Darren Golden, a former member of the activist organization Rose City Justice, which led many of the early summer marches. “But that’s expected. I think a lot of people believe that it is easy to change the system of policing, and you can just tear it down. It’s not that easy that investment takes time. If you remove a support system and don’t support the system you removed, it’s going to fall. And the people that are hurt most are the ones that need the most help.”
[What follows is part two of a five-part series on the progress Portland has made on police reform over the past year. Read the rest here.—eds] The beginning of last year’s protests coincided with City Council’s deliberations on the city budget, a vote that determines Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) funding for the year. Of the nearly 800 people who signed up to testify on the city budget in June 2020, the majority of them echoed.