Commissioner Dan Ryan supports slow, ‘methodical’ expansion of Portland Street Response program
Updated May 06, 2021;
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Portland Commissioner Dan Ryan said Thursday he wants to slowly expand the city’s experimental new program to dispatch a non-police response to people experiencing homelessness or a mental health crisis.
That position, which Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Mingus Mapps also support, effectively thwarts Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s attempt to immediately provide funding to expand the program known as Portland Street Response six-fold. Hardesty oversees the Portland fire bureau, which operates the program.
“We all want a citywide first responder program to meet the needs of our houseless neighbors experiencing mental health crises,” Ryan told The Oregonian/OregonLive in a statement.
City budget goes from rags to riches May 05 2021
The City Council is already scheduled to spending hundreds of millions of additional dollars after the next budget is approved on May 13.
The Portland City Council is scheduled to adopt some version of Mayor Ted Wheeler s proposed $5.7 billion budget for the next fiscal year on May 13.
However, the council will continue spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new and expanded services into 2022. It is already set to spend an additional $80 million as soon as July 1.
The largesse is a dramatic turnaround from a budget that had been expected to see significant cuts, just a few months ago.
dskolnick@tribtoday.com
Staff photo / David Skolnick
Tom Rinehart, manager of Precision Shooting in Austintown, holds a Ruger AR-556 rifle at his store.
Tom Rinehart, manager of Precision Shooting, an Austintown gun store, says President Joe Biden’s gun-control executive orders are an “overreach” by the government and won’t stop violence.
“The bad guy doesn’t buy a gun at a gun store,” he said. “You could put all sorts of restrictions in place, but it still isn’t going to stop the guy bound and determined to commit a crime.”
Biden issued executive orders Thursday that include requiring “ghost guns,” which are homemade guns built from a kit, to be treated as firearms that mandate serial numbers and background checks on buyers.
Tom Rinehart, manager of Precision Shooting in Austintown, holds a Ruger AR-556 rifle at his store. Rinehart opposes President Joe Bidenâs executive orders regarding gun control. âThe bad guy doesnât buy a gun at a gun store,â he said.
Staff photo / David Skolnick Tom Rinehart, manager of Precision Shooting, an Austintown gun store, says President Joe Biden’s gun-control executive orders are an “overreach” by the government and won’t stop violence.
“The bad guy doesn’t buy a gun at a gun store,” he said. “You could put all sorts of restrictions in place, but it still isn’t going to stop the guy bound and determined to commit a crime.”
Prosecutors around Ohio and the Fraternal Order of Police are not too happy about a controversial law that changes Ohio’s “stand your ground” policy.
Signed by Gov. Mike DeWine at the beginning of the year, it expands the use of firearms in self-defense anywhere someone has the right to be and not just in one’s home or vehicle.
Senate Bill 175 expanded the criteria for when a person can use a firearm in self-defense without retreating. The prior stand-your-ground law involved threats in a home or vehicle.
Whether a person could retreat from the situation can no longer be a legal determination of whether force could be used to prevent injury or loss, or risk to life.