By Jordan Epperson
After over a year of near nightly perpetual rioting in the city of Portland, Oregon, the city council unanimously voted to increase to local police budget by $5.2 million. The new budget bump allocates a total of $7 million toward public safety. This comes as a surprise to many as in 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd riots by Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA groups, the city voted to slash the police budget by $15 million as part of the âDefund the Policeâ movement across the United States.
Big League Politics has previously reported numerous times on the destruction and carnage that has been inflicted upon Portland by rioters and Marxist insurgents over the past year and a half. This includes a single riot which inflicted $500,000 in damages where police refused to intervene along with significant and dangerous increases in Portlandâs 911 wait time.
âMany Portlanders no longer feel safe,â Mayor Ted Wheeler urged, âAnd it is our duty, as leaders of this city, to take action and deliver better results within our crisis response system.â
âPortlanders have a right to feel safe. I am committed to investing in programs that improve public safety in an urgent and strategic way, while also supporting reformed policies and practices to rebuild trust and accountability.â assured Wheeler…