We keep returning to Portland — from a safe distance.
Why?
Because rioters keep rioting there.
And because the people tasked to protect lawful order keep making nicey-nice with the thugs.
But maybe not anymore.
Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, is apparently finally fed up, thanks to the most recent mass mayhem, conducted to ring in the New Year.
What’s motivating the newfound concern for innocent victims? More than any epiphany about the proper responsibilities of government, it may be the average age and modal hue of the current batch of rioters — as well as Wheeler’s awareness that Joe Biden sort of won the election, so haven’t the rioters already got what they wanted?
“Why would a group of largely white, young and some middle-age men destroy the livelihood of others who are struggling to get by?” Mayor Wheeler asks.
Rhetorically.
You’ve had months, Mr. Mayor, to mull the motives of such persons as they ravage Portland. But I will assume you are sincere. So I will tell you.
Pull out your notebook. The “why” is: bad ideas plus bad character. They feed on each other. Gain insight into Marx, Marcuse, et al., on the one hand, and, on the other, thugs happy to rationalize their sprees. Then you will understand.
Yes, it’s time indeed to stop your “good-faith efforts at de-escalation”; it’s high time to use “additional tools,” like physical force, to stop the criminals who are committing their crimes right in front of you.
Oh, and by the way: it’s your job.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “Finally Fed Up”
While he’s wrestling with existential angst and singing Kum Ba Ya, the perpetually angry folk, likely damaged by the absence of an adequate socializing father figure, are having a nightly wilding party and taking their anger out on those who want to function with their neighbors. The Mayor’s problem with boundaries is rightly being met with contempt, and not just locally. But the locals pay the price. His policy of leadership vacuum damages not just those whose livelihoods are destroyed, but also even the perpetrators who have suffered an instructive lack of consequences to give them any constructive direction in their lives.
I actually live in Portland now, and allow me to remind you that Mayor was just re-elected, avoiding a runoff by decimal dust. His apparent spinal insertion might be related…
Has anyone noticed that many of the properties torched are in “Opportunity Zones’?
Some big corporations are going to go in there and pick up properties for pennies on the dollar.
Planned that way? hmmm