The mayor of Portland, Oregon, has submitted a request for $2 million in funding for the police months after the city slashed the budget in a move he advocated for.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, asked the Portland City Council for the additional funds, citing a surge in gun violence throughout the city, according to the Oregonian.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has requested $2 million in emergency funding for police following a continued spike in shootings & homicides. Last year, the city defunded millions from police & abolished the gun violence reduction team in response to BLM. https://t.co/GVs59VBMCD
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) March 12, 2021
The city has had 208 shootings so far this year to go along with 20 homicides, compared to only one homicide at the same point last year.
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The mayor and the Portland City Council slashed police funding last year in response to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“The cutbacks created a vacuum that undermined public safety and the very communities whose voices the Council — and our community — seek to amplify,” J. W. Matt Hennessee, the leader of the Inter-Faith Peace & Action Collaborative, said in a letter to the Oregonian.
Local pastor Ed Williams agreed with Hennessee, saying, “There is just too much blood on the streets. We have got to be determined, we have got to be fed up about [the violence] and to want to do something about it. I see this issue in front of us as an opportunity to come together.”
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On Thursday, a federal courthouse was burned and American flags were torched as leftist antifa agitators stormed through Portland, clashing with police.
The violent riots have become commonplace in the city and occurred on 100 consecutive nights at one point last year.
