Portland already on-track to surpass last year's record-breaking murder total, up 10% from last year

Portland is already on track to surpass last year’s record-breaking homicide rate with murders up 10 percent as the progressive policies of America’s most woke city struggle to curtail violent crime.

The liberal Pacific Northwest bastion topped off February with 22 murders so far this year – up from the 19 in 2021 – and is on track to hit around 130 by December, according to the Oregonian. 

The city, which slashed its police budget in the wake of protests over George Floyd’s murder, set a record last year with 92 homicides – the highest since there were 70 homicides in 1987. 

The Portland Police Bureau suffered through a rash of retirements and resignations after Portland politicians embraced calls to defund the police. A total of $15million was initially chopped from the city’s budget, with progressive Portland prosecutors also blamed for the spiraling crime for refusing to charge 70 percent of people arrested by the city’s police.

The record violence comes despite the police department introducing a new Focused Intervention Team that hit the streets in January. The team is designed to address gun violence and the proliferation of the deadly weapons in a city where around 75 percent of victims are killed through gun violence. 

Portland has already had 22 murders since the start of 2022, up from the 19 in the same period last year and is predicted to have up to around 130 by the end of December. If it reaches 126, 2022 will surpass the record-breaking 2021, which had 92 murders – breaking the 34-year record of 70 murders in 1987

The unit was initially met with backlash, as some believed the police were reviving the Gun Violence Reduction team, which was accused of racial profiling, but Police Chief Chuck Lovell assured the public the team would focus on guns, not gangs. 

The police department has also partnered with community outreach programs to fight the violence, including a Crisis Response Team – a group of trainee individuals that respond to critical incident calls involving death or other traumatic events, among others to ‘organize resources and to focus on chronic offenders and locations to address neighborhood concerns.’

‘What we want to see is that people start getting the resources that they need, so they’re not turning to violence. And then hopefully, we’ll start to see not only our homicide, but also our shooting numbers, go down,’ Assistant Police Chief Jami Resch told the Oregonian. 

Other groups include Girl Strength – a self-defense class for girls 10 to 14, the African American Advisory Council and the American Muslim Police Advisory Committee. 

‘We’re trying to take a holistic approach, knowing that we can’t just have a law enforcement, punitive answer,’ Resch said. 

The holistic approach has yet to yield results. 

In addition to the surging murder rate, the city has also seen a significant number of shootings in the first two months of the year, totaling 264, up from the 190 during the same time last year. Gun-related injuries are also up – 68 compared to 64. 

The Portland Police Bureau also reported that out of the 22 murders this year, all but one have been gun-related. Portland’s 21st murder happened in Dawson Park during the daytime, a third murder there in the last 15 months.

The Portland Police Bureau has partnered with outreach programs to hopefully lower the risk of crime in the city, which rose dramatically after the death of George Floyd. The city saw a 250 per cent increase in murders within the first six months of Floyd’s death and shootings rose almost 175 per cent

Portland saw a dramatic increase in shootings and murders after Floyd’s death. The city saw a 250 percent increase in murders within the first six months of Floyd’s death and shootings rose almost 175 per cent. 

In 2019, there were only 36 murders throughout Portland, but that increased to 57 in 2020 and 92 in 2021 – breaking the historical record. 

Violent crime has risen across the board throughout the Rose City, with assaults, kidnappings and rape all seeing sharp increases. 

The total number of crimes rose from 9,600 in 2020 to 10,200 in 2021, an almost six percent increase.