When you allow crime to consume your city, the people who pay the most are those who have the least. Portland is seeing that play out in real time.
Anniebug’s Attic Thrift Store in Portland operates as any thrift store does, but with an added feature: The store allows people in need to come in and grab whatever they need, free of charge. According to the store’s owner, it gives clothes, shoes, and coats to people who are struggling and has been doing this since 2015.
But the owner is about to be the former owner, because the store is closing down. Fewer customers are coming into the store now than even during the pandemic because of the city’s out-of-control crime. The associated drop in revenue forced the owner to take side jobs just to keep the store running. Now, he’s made the decision to shut it down, ending the Paying it Forward program along with it.
But hey, at least Portland got its “criminal justice reform!”
That is how it goes when cities decide to treat criminals as victims and treat a crime surge as a minor issue. Businesses begin to close in crime-stricken neighborhoods, which are typically poorer neighborhoods that need them most. When cities let criminals go free in the name of “equity,” the result is a homicide surge that disproportionately affects the same black communities that big city Democrats claim they are looking out for. The consequences may be unintended, but they are also the obvious result of incentivizing criminals to continue criminal behavior.
This is the choice that Democrats in several cities, including Portland, have made. This is not something out of their control, it is simply something they do not have the willpower to confront. While Democrats pretend that they are the party of the poor and the downtrodden, their refusal to address crime will harm the most vulnerable in their cities, as we are seeing play out in Portland.
