Portland Police Forced To Beg For Help From Community As Violence Gets Out Of Control

The Portland Police Bureau has been left with no choice but to beg for help from the community in stopping the out of control violence after a recent spike in crime.

Portland Descends Into Chaos

There have been at least 850 shootings in Portland, Oregon as of December 24, according to Fox News, with 59 of them happening in December alone.

“As of Christmas Eve, this year’s shootings had surpassed last year’s by more than 116%, with 393 shootings reported in all of 2019, statistics show,” Fox reported. “At least 53 murders have been reported in Portland as of Dec. 24 — the highest yearly total the city has seen in nearly 30 years.”

Police Beg Community For Help

Earlier this month, Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell resorted to begging for help from the community, saying that it was time for us to lock arms and “do everything we can together to break the cycle of violence.”

“Gun violence has plagued our city at twice the rate of last year,” he said. “On average, someone is shot in Portland roughly every two days.”

“We’ve come together to mask up, to stay home to keep others safe. We have come together to do our best to stop the spread of a deadly disease,” he continued. “Violence is also a disease that kills and our community is suffering the consequences. We cannot lose sight of the fact these are human beings who have died.”

Chief Lovell talks about increased gun violence. pic.twitter.com/EQSCSd0IGp

— Chief Chuck Lovell (@ChiefCLovell) December 16, 2020

Portland Police Bureau Lieutenant Greg Pashley told KGW-TV that there have been at least 225 victims of gun violence in Portland in 2020 alone.

“The number of bullets that must have been flying around our neighborhoods, city streets, sidewalks — it’s awful,” he said.

Chaos Started With Death Of George Floyd

Chaos has reigned supreme in Portland ever since the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota back in May.

Police in Portland have been forced to ask the community for help in the wake of their gun violence reduction team being disbanded over the summer due to activists and gun control activists said that the bureau was guilty of racism in “stopping people of color disproportionately to others.”

Pashley went on to say that “[s]ocial services, government organizations, non-government organizations, church based [organizations]” are of utmost importance “so that people feel as if they have support and options other than to act out violently.”

This piece was written by James Samson on December 30, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.