If recent happenings out in the liberal bastion of western Oregon are any indication, Americans are continuing to become more fed up with soft-on-crime prosecutors allowing crime to run rampant.
Last week, voters in Portland voted Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, a Soros-backed liberal, out of office, replacing him with challenger Nathan Vasquez.
“It is looking as if I will not be serving another four years as Multnomah County District Attorney,” Schmidt said in a statement as soon as media projections of the election were released. “I have called Nathan Vasquez to congratulate him on his victory.”
Apparently, Schmidt’s soft-on-crime policies were too soft for even Portland, one of the most liberal cities in the country. Schmidt was elected back in 2020 and immediately ended cash bail, reduced prosecution of misdemeanors and ignored pleas to clear the city’s infamous homeless encampments.
As the National Review recently pointed out, the results were “utterly predictable.”
“Portland’s murder rate rose precipitously in 2021 and 2022—and it remains higher than it was prior to Schmidt’s arrival,” the media outlet reported. “Rather than responding to the reduced use of cash bail by staying on the straight and narrow and then gratefully showing up in court, the number of people who committed crimes while awaiting trial increased. In the meantime, Portland’s pretty downtown became known nationally for homelessness, petty crime, open-air drug deals and the slow response time of the police.”
In dumping Schmidt, Portland residents were simply reflecting the views of most Americans when it comes to prosecuting criminals to keep law-abiding citizens safer. If you need proof, look no further than a Gallup Poll from last November.
According to that poll, 58% of Americans think the U.S. criminal justice system is not tough enough in its handling of crime. That marked a sharp reversal from the prior reading in 2020, when a record-low 41% said the same.
A 17% percent change in response to any poll question over only three years is quite remarkable. So, what happened?
As prosecutors in many big cities did away with or minimized cash bail and instituted other soft-on-crime policies, the Biden Administration concentrated on trying to infringe on the rights of lawful gun owners rather than doing anything that would actually make Americans safer. And American citizens of all political persuasions aren’t taking that well.
In the Gallup survey mentioned previously, three-quarters of Republicans thought the criminal justice system was not tough enough, 16% said it was about right and 7% believed it was too tough. Democrats were more divided in their views, with a 42% plurality saying it was not tough enough, 35% about right and 20% too tough.
Back in Portland, new District Attorney Vasquez’s victory came at a time when progressive DAs and candidates in liberal bastions throughout the country have faced setbacks.
“The voters have made it clear that they are ready to take our county in a new and safer direction,” Vasquez said in a social media post after the election. “I am committed to ending open air drug dealing and drug use while helping connect individuals to treatment, to rebuilding the broken relationships between the DA’s office and the community, and to ensuring that victims are the number one priority of my office.”
Those are all things that former DA Schmidt should have been doing all along.
As a long-term Portland resident, I can confirm just how ineffectual soon-to-be ex-DA Schmidt has been in regard to the city’s exploding bum population, drug problems, violent crime rate and depressing squalor.
But he is not the only one: a succession of weak-gutted mayors, Pollyanna-like city council folks, and a coalition of whiny, fruit-loop citizens have also played their parts in the catastrophe. Hopefully, incoming DA Vasquez will begin enforcing the law and help Portland clean up its act.
If the Portland Police (PPB) have a DA that will prosecute criminals*, the PPB will start actively enforcing the law and begin arresting those criminals*.
(* = alleged)
Gee my son lives out there and he is blaming all the “Boomers”.
Yeah ,I know, my fault, I told him to get a college education.
“But he is not the only one: a succession of weak-gutted mayors, Pollyanna-like city council folks, and a coalition of whiny, fruit-loop citizens have also played their parts in the catastrophe.”
That’s just it, he’s one guy, the others out there will fight him tooth and nail. Overcoming that depth of ‘institutional inertia’ will take years, and I doubt it will ever really change…
I’m a Portlander too, and I agree. These people were elected. We have to blame the same voters for voting these people in.
I also live in Oregonistan though farther south in Douglas County. Sadly I predict “meet the new boss, same as the old boss. “
he’s a product of UC Davis who’s fed from the public trough for over 25 years, so your prolly right jboy
I wondered the same. His wiki page says he was a Republican until 2017 when he became an Independent. Politicians often change to independent status when they can’t get elected as their preferred party. Republicans at the DA level usually believe in law and order, so this guy might be quite different from a Soros-sponsored Dem.
Open air drug market includes open air gun market. There is a reason these politicians moniker/adjective is ‘Dim’.
Didn’t Vasquez know? The job of a DA is not to prosecute street criminals. The DA’s job is to grandstand for political gain by prosecuting leading political figures for non-crimes.
Well said.
It appears as though the position of DA is a stepping stone to the being a mayor, state governor, and then president.
Or even more powerful as a BATFE director.
” I answer only to the President.”
And then Porky Pig pops through and Looney Tunes play
“Th Th Th That’s all folks!”
I don’t live in Portland but I live in Oregon.
Both Vasquez and Schmidt have eagerly guzzled the gun control Cool Aid. Both brag about prosecuting members of the Proud Boys but neither has condemned much less prosecuted BLM and ANTIFA who have actually committed murder and other serious crimes.
As for the Portland Police, with few exceptions, they too have guzzled the anti gun Cool Aid. Most Portland cops have been conditioned by the propaganda about “assault rifles” that they are suffering from a Freudian phobia of being outgunned by the criminals. Portland cops are far more likely to be killed by other Portland cops or by themselves than by criminals.
Among the carnage is a Portland cop who was shot by another Portland cop who mistook him for a three point or better bull elk. I always thought that you were expected to be careful to bag an animal of the right gender as well as the proper species.
Another Portland cop who died by gun fire committed suicide after shooting his wife in the back four times with his service pistol. This orphaned her newborn baby. Rumor has it that the cop was distraught because it was humiliating obvious that he wasn’t the father.
Yet another Portland cop wounded his wife in an obscenely brutal manner when he allegedly neglected to unload his 12 gauge shotgun before utilizing it as a bedroom toy. The responding officers made no arrest because they “saw no evidence of domestic violence.”. The DA concurred with this assessment. My helpful suggestion that the Portland Police implement a program to distribute Kevlar condoms to their officers so that they can practice safe shotgun sex was not appropriated.
A Multnomah County Deputy (which is essentially a Portland cop) shot his wife along with three of her friends at a lounge. He killed three of the women. He then killed himself.
Portland cops are trigger happy as a result. Aside from shooting their wives and themselves, Portland cops are renowned for high volume magazine dumps and shooting potential perpetrators in the back. It would appear that their firearms instructor is Uncle Fester. Portland cops also shoot crime victims. The most famous example is Nathan Thomas who was being held at knife point by a burglar. Although the two cops were at point blank range, they executed one of their famous magazine dumps.
Rather than worry about who the District Attorney of Multnomah County is, citizens of Oregon should pray for a nuclear 9-11 with Portland as ground zero.
Soft-on-crime Prosecutors have contributed significantly to the decline of urban areas like Portland, Oregon and that is a tragedy.
The much larger tragedy is WHY the soft-on-crime Prosecutors intentionally went soft on crime. Why? They intentionally ran their jurisdictions into the ground in the hope that the voting populace would then welcome a “new and better” government–with vastly increased taxes and government power and vastly reduced liberty for the masses of course.
Just saw a fakebook friend is moving TO Portland from nearby Vancouver, Washington. He cited crime(!) as the reason but I know he wants to move closer to his elderly mom. Never did get that gat I told him to get🙄😧
Nobody wanted to be assassinated for selling him one I betcha
All with the support of the majority Portland’s voters and not just him, but also the city counsel and mayor.
Legal dope is okay if the dope sniffers would work to get it.
But No.
What a disappointment, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt hadn’t been given a chance to make a real difference, he needed another four years to make a lasting change in Portland.
Portlanders talk a big game but didn’t stay in for the end.
Oh my, some Oretards put down their Kool-Aid and woke up. I’ll wait to see what happens. I still won’t go into that city unless I have to. It’s sad that Seccussion movement will not include Washington County.
It’s a start.
But until we become willing to allow those who will not feed themselves to starve to death, until we can steel ourselves to watching drug abusers die from overdoses without intervening, until we can let those who will not be bothered to make arrangements to shelter themselves to freeze to death – in brief, unless we can STOP saving the failed from themselves, they will be among us.
All the laws in the world cannot change that.
FJB
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