The Protests in Portland started on the night of May 28th in response to the death of George Floyd. The main thing protestors wanted? Justice for George. The second thing? Defunding the Portland Police department, an Organization with a terribly racist record and a bloated budget. 

For many years the Police Union has advocated for laws that protect our cops from being punished, resulting in a force that isn’t afraid to shoot first and ask questions later. This has caused many unnecessary deaths in Portland over the years, and their attitude has been on clear display over the past few months as protestors meet nightly in front of the downtown justice building. 

Throughout months of protesting, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has insisted that our Police are fine and he has no intention of defunding or disbanding the them. In fact he seemed to be okay with them shooting rubber bullets and gassing the protestors. While there was some looting and property damage during the first few days of the protests, everything since then has been mostly peaceful surrounding of the Downtown Justice Center, taking over about a two block area. Wheeler only recently changed his tune after being gassed himself by Federal Agents sent by our president to try and break up the protests, a group that seems more interested in escalating conflict than quelling it. 

While the protests still rage on, it is important to note that the city council did reduce the police bureau’s budget on June 17th. It is not the $50 million that activists are insisting on, but it was reduced by $15 million, replacing the the plans in place that were in place to ncrease it by $3 million. With any hope this will be the begining of a lot of change for Portland. 

- Nick Boxwell

Sources: 

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/06/cut-50-million-in-portland-police-funding-among-publics-budget-demands-to-city-officials.html

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/06/cut-50-million-in-portland-police-funding-among-publics-budget-demands-to-city-officials.html

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-apologizes-for-indiscriminate-police-use-of-tear-gas-on-nonviolent-demonstrators.html

https://www.newsweek.com/navy-veteran-beaten-portland-protests-1519010?fbclid=IwAR1MVWPVUuzUNYtjbXwsDsArLOSBYHMKquU8m_hgfHbe9QjPIzh-ZXY_alE

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/defunding-portland-police-city-council-budget-15-million-cuts/283-239c5e3a-cfed-4dce-8775-d2c52a9df9aa