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‘No Consequences:’ Residents Reveal How Portland Has Become Plagued By Crime, Filth And Fear

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Residents of Portland, Oregon, blamed the city’s Democratic leadership for rampant crime and poor living conditions in a series of interviews with Daily Mail.

The residents described widespread open drug use, homeless encampments and fear of crime, and some said they would stop voting for Democrats, according to Daily Mail. The declining quality of life, which some residents blame on Democratic policies, may be pushing a rightward political shift in Oregon’s largest city.

Portland took a sharp downward turn in 2020 as the city shut down and its leaders lifted drug restrictions, according to James Posey, whom the Daily Mail describes as a black community leader. He doesn’t plan to vote for a Republican, but he also told the outlet he couldn’t vote for Democrats again in the upcoming election.

An emergency declaration is a powerful tool we need to help homeless Oregonians.

We should’ve done this a long time ago, but my Democrat opponents have failed to come through for Oregon families.

It’s time for a new direction. #orpol pic.twitter.com/Tdw0acrwj0

— Christine Drazan (@ChristineDrazan) August 9, 2022

“Why did we decide to do this? This has become a Mecca for people who want to live like this,” he told the outlet. ‘They want to bill themselves as progressive. They want to see themselves as out in front of all the racism … But at the end of the day, we’ve seen this whole state with a precipitous decline in the quality of life.”

Loretta Guzman, a 52-year-old Portland business owner had grown tired of crime and organized a “Coffee with a Cop” event so that locals could bring their concerns to police officers; her coffee shop was vandalized soon after she began advertising the event, according to the Daily Mail. A former supporter of then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, she no longer feels she belongs to any particular political camp due to her experience with crime.

“Some are scared. Some are mad or sad, some feel helpless,” she told the outlet. “Some feel like they have no voice. Nobody’s listening to them. They’re tired, they’re ready for change.”

‘There’s no consequences. Those who do go to jail, they get right back out,” she said. “They’re free to sit on the street and shoot right up up right. They’re free to stand there. Right there and smoke right in front of you.”

The November Oregon gubernatorial race is unusually tight, and the state may get its first Republican governor since 1982. Republican gubernatorial candidate and former member of the state House of Representatives Christine Drazan had a two point gain on former Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Tina Kotek in a recent Emerson College poll; Drazan’s campaign has focused heavily on crime and homelessness.

The Portland city government did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.