The anti-cop hypocrisy of Portland's pols

This week brought news that Portland City Commissioner (as 
councilmembers are known) Jo Ann Hardesty called the cops over 
an argument with a Lyft driver days before the city council was 
scheduled to vote on her proposal to slash millions from the 
police budget.

The hypocrisy is glaring, but the bigger lesson is about the 
damage an activist political class can do to cities all over 
America if they follow in Portland’s foolish footsteps.

Hardesty has been a vocal advocate of Black Lives Matter and 
defunding the ­police. During a ride home, she allegedly 
belittled and berated her driver over a partially open window, a 
COVID-19 recommendation from the ride-sharing service itself. 
After the driver had enough of the abuse and canceled the ride, 
Hardesty refused to get out and called 911.

Portland politics have become the subject of national scrutiny 
by both the media and President Trump following more than 120 
days of riots this year. While much attention has ­focused on 
the city’s feckless mayor, Ted Wheeler, others on the council 
have equally enabled a rapid descent into disorder.

Since Hardesty was elected to the council in 2018, her staunch 
hostility to police has earned her the approval of Black Lives 
Matter and ­antifa activists in Portland. Ordinary Portlanders 
have paid the price for that approval.

Days after her abuse of emergency services, the council took up 
Hardesy’s proposal to slash $18 million from the police budget. 
Already in June, she had spearheaded a successful effort to cut 
$15 million. Her newest proposal narrowly failed, however. Dan 
Ryan, the commissioner who was the swing vote, had his home 
vandalized that night by a mob of antifa militants.

Portlanders have suffered immensely this year from the 
grandstanding of left-wing politicians who run the city. Mayor 
Wheeler oversaw six months of anti-police riots that have turned 
downtown into an empty shell of itself. When the federal 
government sent in reinforcements in July to protect a federal 
courthouse under siege, the city council passed a resolution 
banning Portland Police from communicating with federal agencies.

Hardesty’s initial police-defunding package has had deadly 
consequences. As part of the cuts, police units that investigate 
gun ­violence, work in schools and patrol the transit system 
were disbanded. The result? In just the first month, shootings 
increased by almost 200 percent compared to the previous year. 
In the months since, homicides and shootings have continued to 
soar.

Hardesty also gives cover to riots and rioters with baseless 
conspiracy theories that white supremacists are behind the 
city’s violence.

“When we allow white nationalists and white supremacists to 
infiltrate our peaceful protest,” she said, “and then create the 
kind of chaos and damage in our community, we must make that 
stop.” Anyone who has covered the Portland riots, as I have, 
knows that they are the work of hard-left activists, many of 
whom are now known to federal authorities — not white 
supremacists.

In July, she even demanded to be made ­police commissioner and 
claimed that cops were starting fires to blame protesters. “I 
­believe Portland Police is lying about the damage — or starting 
the fires themselves — so that they have justification for 
attacking community members,” she said. Hardesty was forced to 
walk back her comments following a request by police chief Chuck 
Lovell that she produce evidence.

And last month — five months into the near-daily riots — 
Hardesty flat-out denied that riots have even been occurring. “I 
won’t buy into that narrative,” she said during a news 
conference.

Portlanders sent a message on Election Day: They are beginning 
to sour on the city’s far-left “governing: clique. Sarah 
Iannarone, the “antifa candidate,” lost to ­incumbent Wheeler 
despite polling ahead of him, and far-left Commissioner Chloe 
Eudaly lost her re-election bid.

Meanwhile, though, the police department continues to lose 
officers to resignations and early retirements, and antifa is 
still rioting. Hardesty isn’t up for re-election until 2022, and 
she has vowed to continue her efforts to defund police. The hard 
left, once in power, doesn’t give up: Let that be a warning to 
other cities.

Twitter: @MrAndyNgo

https://nypost.com/2020/11/12/the-anti-cop-hypocrisy-of-
portlands-pols/