Two of President Trump’s tweets have done more to awaken Oregon Gov. Kate Brown than the three-monthslong, nightly assaults on her state’s largest city.
“Let me be clear,” she tweeted after offering an initial response to the president. “It’s time for the violence and vandalism to end so Portland can focus on the important work to be done to achieve real change for racial justice. Those who have committed acts of violence will be held accountable.” It was her strongest rebuke of the criminality yet.
Trump tweeted at Brown on Tuesday and urged her to deploy the National Guard to Portland to get a grip on the disorder. “Come back into the real world!” he said. “The Federal Government is ready to end this problem immediately upon your request.”
The proposition of a federal presence in her state was the trigger for Brown. The only period of time during which she has raised her voice about Portland was when federal law enforcement officers were there to protect the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse. Once they left, so did she.
Brown’s initial response to Trump, which preceded her aforementioned rebuke, demonstrates her political modus operandi. “Oregon isn’t interested in a role in your political theater, @realDonaldTrump,” she wrote. “The @OregonGuard is focused on fighting wildfires, distributing PPE & helping with unemployment calls. I’d love to discuss what we actually need: financial resources, N-95 masks & testing supplies.”
Notably, her rebuke of criminality was quick to follow, probably because she or her aides recognized the clear message her initial words gave off, which was that ending assaults, vandalism, arson, and property damage aren’t “what we actually need.”
Oregon’s elected officials have had a difficult time since late May, when all of this started. The relative ideological proximity of Portland’s rioters to its racial justice protest movement has crippled elected officials. Many of the messages sprayed on buildings have been congruent with predominant social justice messaging: abolish the police, you (the police) started this, and the rest. Officials’ sympathies for the racial justice movement have emasculated them against responding to that movement’s destructive outgrowth.
Overnight on Sunday, two police precinct awnings were set on fire. On Monday, it was the Portland Police Association, again. Similar activity continued on Tuesday, all this as the crowds threw projectiles at officers and shined lasers in their eyes.
Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has also been missing in action at times, do not want to see the city destroyed. Yet it is hard enough for them to draw lines between good and bad that more often than not, they have simply remained silent. That is why Portland remains under siege.
