Poll of Portland Residents Busts the Left's Narrative About Police
A vast majority of residents living in Portland, Oregon, are opposed to defunding the police while a great many would actually like to see more cops patrolling the street, according to a new poll.
A survey released Friday by The Oregonian found that although Portland is so often synonymous with the “defund the police” movement and radical left-wing groups that are in favor of anarchy, a majority of those who live in and around the city actually have sensible options about policing and public safety.
Between April 30 and May 6, a company called DHM Research asked 600 adults in the area, “Thinking about the city of Portland broadly — not just downtown —do you think that the police presence should increase, stay at current levels, or decrease?”
The response was stunning.
Of those polled living in the Portland metro area, 50 percent of respondents said they feel the police presence should increase, while 24 percent were satisfied with the number of cops on the job.
Of those inside the city of Portland, 42 percent were in favor of adding more officers, while 30 percent said they were satisfied with the current number of officers.
Only 24 percent of Portland residents wanted to see fewer cops, while a mere 15 percent of metro area respondents wanted their streets less safe.
Another interesting question the poll asked was, “Do you approve of how Portland’s mayor and city council have managed protests?”
Seventy-five percent of area respondents expressed their disapproval of the job of local leaders in handling the protests, while 68 percent of city residents disapproved.
One other interesting piece of information from the polling shows that the protests, riots and other non-peaceful gatherings in downtown Portland have harmed the area. Sixty percent of those who said they visited downtown less responded that protests are the reason why they now avoid the area.
Meanwhile, 67 percent who avoid going downtown do so over “concerns about safety.”
Portland is home to lawless city officials, anarchist groups, antifa militants and radical Democrats such as Mayor Ted Wheeler. None of the above have done a good job at pleading their anti-cop case to the public.
In fact, the behavior of all those mentioned likely contributed to an overwhelmingly pro-cop sentiment in the city. So much for the “defund the police” narrative.
Parts of Portland have been burned, looted and besieged for nearly a year. Last summer, one man affiliated with a conservative group was killed in downtown Portland for no apparent reason, other than he was a conservative.
We’ll never know for sure. The alleged killer, a man named Michael Reinoehl, was killed in a shootout after refusing to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service in September in Washington state, where he was wanted for the murder of Patriot Prayer supporter Aaron Danielson.
The suspect had reported links to antifa, and his death did little to dissuade others affiliated with the group from rioting into this year.
Apparently, a majority of Portlanders have had enough of the chaos. The only question is, will the city’s problems finally change voting habits in the troubled Democrat-run city?
The Oregonian poll’s margin of error was +/- 4 percentage points among metro residents and +/- 5.7 percentage points among city residents.
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