Downtown agita, part two
By now, you might have heard that there were two separate shooting incidents downtown this weekend. The first incident happened in a parking lot at the corner of SW Yamhill & First early Sunday morning - two people apparently exchanged gunfire; one’s since been arrested, with no injuries reported.
The second incident - just outside Vue at 3rd and Oak early this morning - resulted in one death and one injury, and the resulting investigation managed to shut down a chunk of downtown until mid-day today. Three suspects were apprehended after a early-morning chase across the Broadway Bridge.
And I have to say I’m curious - why isn’t anyone talking about this on local PDX blogs - especially given all the hype the shootings have received thus far? (I’ve done a few scans & come up empty-handed.)
Related posts:
i’ve been waffling as to wether i should post a comment or write an article. i decided on a comment, but reserve the right to re-post.
am i afraid of downtown? initially, i wanted to say no and lash out at the idiot chuckleheads who come downtown, get drunk and fight. reminds me of a country song. i’m not going to do that. instead, i want to bring up some points:
A) we’ve all seen an uptick in “low level” crime in portland. i’ve seen it with open air dealing in the bus mall; stories of theft in the bus mall where no one is arrested and my neighbor was beat up by a known individual and the officer responding stated they don’t arrest for that anymore. is this the cause of the increase in violence? do people realize they can get away with more? i think they might. if we allow the petty stuff to go on, the bigger crime isn’t too far behind.
B) i live in North Portland - yes all you haters, the area of portland where all the crime and shootings are. (sarcasm dripping from those words). actually, wait, there haven’t been any shootingss lately in NoPo. hmmmmm. when i moved in in 1996, there were shootings practically everynight. that summer, 7 people were shot dead in the hood. the police cracked down and things changed. during that time, i spoke with an officer regarding the random shootings that were taking place. his opinion was - you won’t get shot unless you are a target. do you think you are a target?
when i’m downtown, i feel i play it smart. i don’t frequent the types of clubs where people get in fights. i don’t engage drunk people. if something does come up, i walk away. i don’t get into situations where i may become a target for anything.
the answer to the question? Yes, i feel safe in downtown, but the police department needs to shift things or it is going to get worse, not better.
What I found amazing was the fact that the PDX police gang unit is now operating with less than 40% of the staff it had 8 years ago, despite an increase in gang-related activity (this according to an article in today’s O.)
Go by streetcar!
Because I tend to walk my dog late at night and live downtown, I have ended up in the middle of these shootings twice. I never used to be nervous about walking at night (I have a ferocious dog to protect me), but now I’m beginning to give it some thought and modify my schedule accordingly. Over the weekend I decided to walk in the Lloyd area and was a block from where the guys bailed out of their car. I admit to being a bit jumpy.
The thing that is bothering me is that the clubs seem to be taking most of the heat for this. I grew up in LA and am seeing a pattern here that reminds me of those times. I think it is a gang turf-war type thing. No one seems to be talking about that possibility.
I have noticed a tremendous drop in meth-heads in the downtown area over the past year. All you have to do is look around and you can tell the police crackdown has really gotten results. I just wonder if this hasn’t been at the expense of the gang detail.