Riots have been almost completely ongoing in the city of Portland, Oregon since late May’s high-profile incident where George Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police, sparked widespread national unrest.
While cities like New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Louisville, Seattle, and others have seen ebbs and flows of widespread rioting and looting, far-left agitators in Portland have been at it nearly every single night for over three months.
They’ve tried multiple times to burn down the federal courthouse as well as police buildings in addition to ongoing skirmishes with police that seem to be the obvious result of coordinated efforts on the part of the rioters to provoke a response from law enforcement for the sake of claiming to be victims.
Why do rioters continue to show up, undeterred, to clash with law enforcement, you might ask?
Well, as we’ve always pointed to, there are multiple things that are failing starting with an ineffective plan by police that would make these rioters recalculate their decision to want to come back night after night. And then it is of course due to city leaders who all but openly encourage continued violence.
The Oregonian reports that, out of the nearly 1,000 protest and riot-related arrests made in the city since the beginning of the unrest, nearly 70% of charges have been dropped by prosecutors.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office released a new statistical dashboard on Wednesday profiling data on “protest-related cases referred to his office by law enforcement for prosecutorial review and potential issuing.”
974 cases were referred to the DA’s office by the Portland Police Department for prosecution between the dates of May 29 and October 5, 666 of which were rejected.
This means that 68% of all the cases referred by police were just flat-out dropped by the Multnomah DA, according to the dashboard, “rejected in the interest of justice.”
State prosecutors do have wide discretion on whether to file actual criminal charges but that number in and of itself doesn’t pass the smell test. That is a huge imbalance that requires a closer look and some answers from District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
Speaking at a Fraternal Order of Police conference last year, US Attorney General William Barr said that, “the emergence in some of our largest cities of district attorneys that style themselves as ‘social justice’ reformers, who spend their time undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook and refusing to enforce the law,” is “demoralizing to law enforcement and dangerous to public safety
When a progressive tells you they’re doing something “in the interest of justice,” you can probably bet it’s going to be the opposite of actual justice.
This isn’t justice, it’s political activism. It has no place in decision making about enforcing the rule of law.
Like, you know, burning down small businesses, attacking public buildings, and intimidating random members of the public is “justice” for the myth of rampant police brutality, somehow.
“This is a major step forward for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office,” the statement from District Attorney Mike Schmidt read.
Tell that to all the business owners cleaning up the rubble that used to be their businesses, DA Schmidt. Black Lives Matter and Antifa might see it as forward but I don’t think law-abiding people would agree.
Schmidt, as The Blaze revealed, has the stamp of approval of the far-left progressive Real Justice PAC, who profiles his radical platform, which includes ending cash bail and support for legislation that would focus on the “intersection of behavioral health and the criminal legal system,” a hint at the sort of crazy ideas Joe Biden has for the future of policing.
“Transparency in the work we do is a keystone to my administration. Moving this data online for the community to easily use will have a significant impact on understanding cases that arise from mass demonstrations. I promised during my campaign that I take a smarter approach to justice. That work continues with the launch of this dashboard. I am committed to launching future dashboards and other public-facing programs that will support data-driven and transparent decision making.”
Oh there is no lack of transparency about the damage you are causing to the residents of Multnomah County and to the rule of law Mr. Schmidt.
In fact It is very clear.
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