Oregon, My Oregon

Lincoln Brown at PJM, 'Your Call Cannot Be Completed as Dialed.' Portland Asks Residents Not to Call 911, we're too busy with ODs 

And then there’s Portland, Oregon. Oh, Portland, Portland, Portland. When was the last time you made the news for anything other than being a lead story in someone’s daily doom scroll? I can’t remember, either. And I doubt things are going to change.

News Nation reports that on Monday, Portland’s safety commissioner, Rene Gonzalez, announced via social media:

Our 911 system is getting hammered this morning with a multiple person incident — multiple overdoses in northwest park blocks. Please do not call 911 except in event of life/death emergency or crime in progress (or chance of apprehending suspect). For non-emergency please use 503-823-3333.

Appearing on the show “On Balance,” Gonzalez told host Leland Vittert that the system was swamped and something had to be done. She said that Measure 110, which decriminalized the possession of drugs and reduced many felonies to misdemeanors, was supposed to provide support services to addicts. However, the effort was curtailed due to the arrival of COVID-19.

But not everyone in Portland is using drugs. The city is home to law-abiding citizens. So why should they not have access to 911 because the system is overloaded with overdoses? Gonzalez told Vittert:

You know, the combination of Measure 110 and the 9th Circuit law on outdoor camping has really tied the city’s hands to address these issues. Frankly, we were probably too tolerant and accepting as a city even without those things on some of these behaviors that really destroy livability for everyone else,” Gonzalez said.

It’s going to take multiple steps (to fix). There’s no two ways about it, and you need all levels of government working in the same direction. We’ve been pushing certain forms of judicial reform for the last decade in the state and in our county. We’re now paying the piper for that. Some well-intentioned things have had some really negative impacts.

Gonzalez admitted that the city needs to focus its efforts on “families and entrepreneurs and those who build organizations in our policy discussions.” He said too much emphasis has been placed on the users and migratory homeless.

 They vote poorly.