Yesterday Chicago Police Superintendent complained that the families of murder victims were the ones who deserved the police resources that Jussie Smollett wasted. And yesterday in Portland, we saw the Mayor and Chief of Police working overtime to try and pander to Leftists triggered by Patriot Prayer, instead of focusing on providing important services to real crime victims and maintaining public order. I attended the listening session and made the following remarks. Given the chaotic meeting, the words were largely wasted, but locally reported as support of the police.  

I stand here before you representing a minority, the 14% of the voters in this City who are members of the Republican Party. And I am here to say we do not feel safe here in Portland.

When our Party’s participation in public events on the streets of Portland was shut down by threats from the Left, we heard nothing from the City. It’s not just that there was no investigation of the death threats; the City even refused to disclose all the threats against us.

We have watched a group on the streets of Portland trying to promote patriotism and prayer, and we see them demonized by this City, and consistently the subject of violent counterdemonstrations.

Because we stand for law and order, we’re not going to defend anybody’s right to punch someone in the face. Or anybody’s right to rip off somebody’s mask. But when we see crowds of Leftists, wearing masks and trying to terrorize largely peaceful protestors, many of whom believe the same things we do, we don’t feel safe. We see a City totally excusing Leftist violence, and acting as if 100% of the blame lies on the other side.

When we read those e-mails with Officer Niiya, we see a leader who was cooperating with the police to share his plans to help maintain public order and an Officer that was working to build trust. And we see that the Left refused to cooperate to make the streets safer.

Finally, we also see the City trying to smear our beliefs as white supremacy. Most Republicans believe this can be the greatest country on earth if we defend our borders and our Constitution, and put our country’s interests first. 

We don’t feel safe when the City plans to hire extreme Left organizations as political instructors for police, when they say these beliefs are “dog whistles” for racism and fascism. That’s Leftist propaganda, and we don’t feel safe when the City is hiring propagandists to teach police.

So if you want a solution to this, stop all the politics and get back to enforcing the law.  When groups of masked thugs show up to shut down someone's peaceful demonstration, that's a crime.  Just enforce the law.