Thomas Jefferson quilled, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” That is the unfortunate reality of a democracy; especially one dominated by the mushy-brained who believe government should and can effect social reforms, and those who have a moral crusade to wage.
Portland is horrible in this regard. What was once understood to be a personal civic duty galvanized by a common ideal that Oregon was special (i.e., exceptional) has devolved to an insipid (no doubt caused by Californian in-migration) belief that we can solve every problem legislatively. As a result we got Jo Ann Hardesty.
A good socialist, she cannot manage money – not even her own – and has thousands in personal debt that brought her to court. Scofflaw! Any surprise that someone who is incapable of managing her personal finances would be even more incompetent with other people’s money? Her misguided understanding of “public” funds is limited to failed concepts like income distribution (income isn’t distributed, it’s earned) and the belief taxation is for the benefit of the public. The problem with other people’s money is that eventually you run out of it.
But she is a crusader who stops crime with traffic cones.
Fucking idiot. Doesn’t have a clue how to manage money, any shock that she doesn’t understand statistics or appreciate logical causality? Certainly not when it goes against her prejudices, which include a facile anti-police narrative. Her position is just shy of ACAB.
What plausibly could have resulted in the reduction in violence she cited?
Could police have something to do with the reduction in shootings? The Portland Police Bureau thinks so. A bureau spokesperson told KGW officers saturated the area around Mt. Scott Park in late 2021 and it led to a 76% decrease in shootings.
Diverging narratives – which is the more plausible explanation?
Thomas Sowell notes that “much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area—crime, education, housing, race relations—the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation” (Intellectuals and Society, 2010). The latest empirical echo of that warning comes from Acquisti and Tucker’s (2022) National Bureau of Economic Research working paper Guns, Privacy, and Crime, which found that when a Memphis newspaper published a searchable database of handgun permit holders in 2008, an act of supposed “transparency,” burglary rates rose in neighborhoods with fewer permits and fell where armed citizens were more common. Once again, the policy that sounded good produced the reverse of its intended effect.
The New York Times published >this< article on the increase in mass shootings and the dramatic uptick in violence. The underlying causes for violence are multivariant and entwined in the psychology of the individual, but it is obvious that there is a growing sense of social discord and distrust. The police have taken the ugly brunt of the generalized lost faith of those who do not understand the role of the sheepdog.
Downtown Portland was once a place other cities aspired to emulate. It was vibrant, safe, and economically prosperous. Not now.
You get the government you deserve. I wish Hardesty were the only dolt in office. Alas we have nincompoops from the Governor all the way down.
I wonder if the sanctimonious progressives are happy with the outcome.
And if >this< passes, I am outa here!
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Update: Hardesty lost. But the eviction tax is going to the ballot.
Update: Fortunately the eviction tax didn’t pass.
Protective Arts 