Antifa violence erupts outside Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland<\/p>\n
The following article contains editorial content written by a retired Chief of Police and current staff writer for Law Enforcement Today<\/strong><\/p>\n Newton\u2019s Third Law says that \u201cfor every action, there\u2019s an equal and opposite reaction.\u201d While Newton\u2019s laws apply primarily to physics, they also apply in other areas.<\/p>\n For example, law enforcement funding and crime.<\/p>\n Welcome to Portland, Oregon which is a real life example of Newton\u2019s Third Law in action, where the city council\u2019s action of defunding police has resulted in a 2000% increase in murders.<\/p>\n According to the Washington Examiner<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>last year Portland, like a number of big cities such as Minneapolis and Seattle to name only a few thought it would be a good idea to \u201cdefund the police.\u201d<\/p>\n This was of course in response to the overdose death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, which was wrongly attributed to police use of force as an autopsy found.<\/p>\n That was the action taken by Portland.<\/p>\n The reaction?<\/p>\n The once-beautiful northwest city is racked with gun violence, and now Mayor Ted Wheeler is being forced to walk back his support from the draconian cuts made to that city\u2019s police budget.<\/p>\n Wheeler recently requested<\/a> an emergency funding initiative of $2 million for the police department, primarily due to the explosion of gun violence in that city.<\/p>\n In 2020 at this point in time, Portland had only experienced one homicide. This year? 20 so far, along with 208 shootings\u2026in under three months, or an average of just under three per day.<\/p>\n Last June, Wheeler supported the Portland City Council\u2019s shortsighted and politically correct decision to cut $15 million<\/a> from the police budget.<\/p>\n One of the victims of that cut was the police unit that investigates gun violence. To the surprise of nobody who possesses more than a few brain cells, that move backfired\u2026bigly.<\/p>\n The immediate result? Portland saw over 100 straight nights<\/a> of \u201cnon-peaceful protests\u201d\u2014riots\u2014last year.<\/p>\n Well, the calendar flipped from 2020 to 2021, Joe Biden found himself somehow getting elected, but one constant remains the same in Portland. Riots. They are back yet again with a vengeance.<\/p>\n Once again, the target<\/a> of Antifa\u2019s and Black Lives Matter activists is the federal courthouse. Unlike the \u201cinsurrection\u201d that took place on January 6, these riots are actually causing enormous amounts of damage to federal property and resulting in scores of injuries to law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n Last July, the federal courthouse was the scene of nightly riots, with some anarchists attempting to torch the building with occupants inside.<\/p>\n Those riots were of course seemingly downplayed by Democrats, who criticized the deployment of federal law enforcement to defend the building and supplement local authorities. For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously referred to them as \u201cstormtroopers.\u201d<\/p>\n Estimates from last June was that the city had suffered<\/a> around $24 million in damage due to the riots, with federal buildings sustaining roughly $2.3 million<\/a> in damage.<\/p>\n Officials in cities such as Portland have quite literally dug their own city\u2019s graves, by giving in to political correctness. It was fairly easy to predict that defunding the police in the midst of ongoing violent riots was a recipe for disaster, and now these cities are paying the price.<\/p>\n