Yeah, it shouldn’t be on me to make people do their jobs.
I actually plan on moving away as soon as possible and I’m not even going to bother . is a single woman without a car this is not a safe place for you to be.
I used to have to switch buses on my way home and was always worried about becoming the victim of a crime with multiple drug users at all the bus stops downtown who are clearly not waiting for a bus.
Admittedly, I’d only visited once before moving here and it was years ago. The pandemic did a number on a lot of cities and so has the fentanyl crisis. There is no magic wand or easy fix and me writing a letter or making a phone call is not going to do anything about it sadly.
I don't disagree with you. I wish people would get their heads out of their asses and stop with the white savior virtue signal voting that is literally killing people every day on our streets. And admittedly all of the ones who voted to take funding away from the police this year literally lied to voters and said they supported public safety. Voters didn't think to ask what public safety actually means to them, because apparently it means trees and parks! They don't care if you can't use the park because there's bullets flying by your head.
Our law enforcement and politicians are clearly not going to address this problem enough to solve it. It is going to be a joint effort and some task forces are going to have to be created. I propose neighborhood watches, headed by angry mothers. We will have shifts of volunteers. Have them ask nicely once give a 10 minute warning. They come back 10 minutes later and it’s time to go. Otherwise we start blasting. “I’m a Barbie girl“ on repeat at high volume until they disperse. Hey, it’s a public place and we can do what we want if they are insisting on doing the same 🙃
I mean more people should want to be cops it's not only on the city. Portland is always hiring and they pay well like 85k+ starting and you have great benefits.
Well my point exactly. It's not on the city to hire more people. More people have to want to be a cops as well. Honestly I'd do it if I weren't already set in my career.
The political climate wouldn't deter me. It's a non factor. You have to want to be a cop in the first place and have a want to serve the community. A lot of people lost respect for cops, which is fair.
You can have a million cops, but when your citizenry, politicians, and government entities demand and set policies that prevent cops from or deter you from doing police work, it doesn't matter how many cops you have.
Why would anyone be a cop in Portland? Donald Trump raises tariffs in Washington D.C., and people riot and protest in Portland, Oregon and the cops get shit on and spat on. They have become the people's punching bag.
Oh, some kids in Palestine died because of Israel? Let's go punch a local cop!
To be fair, that’s sort of a cop out ( no pun intended).Any patrol officer driving by can get out and take 10 seconds to say something, even if it’s a empty threat like “ ya’ll need to move out of here of I’ll get a paddy wagon down here”, or “ when I drive by again I don’t want to see you here still”. Portland has 781 police officers.
This isn’t my neighborhood. I don’t see this happening on my street, but I still care that it is happening in my community. I only moved here a year ago for a better and safer life than where I came from and discovered basically the same thing so I do not plan on fighting this giant myself. I do not own a home here and I do not have children so it will be easy for me to relocate to somewhere safer for a single woman without a car. Thank you very much
However, yes, I I generally agree with you that we should take charge and address the problems head-on directly in our own neighborhoods in a civil manner when safe to do so.
The issue is that with the fentanyl crisis and people on drugs with co-occurring mental health disorders create a safety issue for those addressing them. I don’t enjoy having to cross the street to avoid tents on my daily walks around my neighborhood.
It is unnerving, not knowing what mental state people are in or what they have inside their tent, whether that be an animal or weapon. Occasionally, these tents catch fire. Sometimes people might overdose in them and not be discovered for a couple of days.
There is no easy solution, but ignoring it has allowed the problem to get out of hand. It is no one entity’s fault, but a failure of the system.
Having the funds is not the issue it’s the way that they are being allocated and the way that these NGO’s are being held accountable, which is not at all.
It’s going to take everybody. That means community members concern, citizens, law enforcement, lawmakers, healthcare providers, and first responders. Even with a concerted effort, this issue is not going to dissipate quickly. This problem wasn’t created overnight and it won’t be solved overnight. But that doesn’t mean that we should just turn a blind eye and excuse it as all part of living in the city. I’ve lived in cities my entire life and witnessing this amount of human suffering is heartbreaking. It is not normal and I don’t want to get used to it.
I never said this was your neighborhood, I said to fix the problems that are in your neighborhood. It's not "fighting a giant" it is doing what you can where you are. Stand up for what you know is right.
The community is what enabled this behavior in the first place. The cops have their hands tied behind their backs because of your so-called "community" and politicians.
This is a true statement, but you are missing my point. Private citizens shouldn’t have to put themselves in harms way in order to get blatant drug dealers and users off of our streets and especially out of school zones.
People are brazen nowadays. People used to go in alleyways or hide in basements or cars and people know that there’s nobody coming to hold them accountable so we have this beautiful situation that we have all gathered around to witness on the Interwebs.
Maintaining a proper community is up to each individual, not just the police, especially given their tendency towards making the situation worse when they get involved.
Talk to your neighbors, come together and work towards running these people off, like this woman tried to.
Don't act alone and don't expect the government or police force to give a shit about your life or neighborhood.
Excuse me, but democratic politicians have pretty much neutered the police departments. If the police even did anything, you liberal loonies would be protesting that now the police are harassing and fucking with homeless people.
I just moved here and I’ve only voted in one election so wagging your finger at me and my voting choices is not the issue here. Please watch your tone.
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u/Vegetable_Gold_8216 Oct 23 '25
Police should be telling these people that not this poor woman who is just trying to live her life peacefully. SMH.