Jo Ann Hardesty! RESULTS MATTER!
- Opinion Piece ONE in a Series of SIX Political Commentaries by Gonzo Journalist Theresa Griffin Kennedy.
Portland, Oregon. October 27 2021,
A SERIES OF QUESTIONS PORTLANDERS MUST ASK THEMSELVES.
Portlanders need to ask some important questions before they decide to give Jo Ann Hardesty another four years, next election cycle, in which to further devastate the city of Portland with her incompetent leadership, unbalanced emotionalism, divisive language and unfounded accusations against anyone who opposes her.
Because if Jo Ann Hardesty is given another four years to demonstrate her weak leadership, irrationality, abject lack of an adequate educational background (she dropped out of community college after one year) and her bizarre and fixated hatred of police officers — not only police in Portland, but officers anywhere in this country, the Rose City will become a pile of ashes. And all the best aspects of our city will be relegated to the pastoral nostalgia of memories of better days gone by.
It’s hard to keep track of Jo Ann’s numerous inflammatory statements, (much like how it was with Donald Trump during the Trump Years) but I’ll try to track them down to include in my six commentaries which I’ll publish here on Medium.
Jo Ann famously stated that she believed Portland Police officers, (most who were forced to work overtime against their wishes) were out starting fires when evidence has shown that Antifa radicals were starting those fires and causing general mayhem and chaos. Video footage and eye witness reports demonstrate that Antifa and Anarchist radicals were attacking the elderly, murdered a nonviolent Trump supporter in downtown Portland, and stabbed another nonviolent Trump supporter who turned out to be a Black man and resident of Portland.
Hardesty made one inflammatory and false statement when she claimed: “I want people to know I do not believe that there are any protesters in Portland that are starting fires, that are creating chaos. I absolutely believe that it is police action and they sending saboteurs and provocateurs into peaceful crowds so that they can justify their inhumane treatment of people who are standing up for their right.”
She later apologized to PPB, explaining that she was “in the height of my emotions yesterday.”
ARE WE BETTER OFF a year after Defunding the Portland Police Bureau? Or, are we worse off? Be honest, don’t lie to yourself about how you really feel, Dear Reader.
There’s nothing wrong with disapproving of an unstable politician if they fail to keep their promises and actually lead to the steady disintegration of a city. No one will call you a “racist” if you choose not to vote for Jo Ann Hardesty because she’s failed at her position with City Council. Ask the question and be honest. IS PORTLAND BETTER OFF?
And…Do results REALLY matter?
In 2019, there were 389 shootings, which many Portlanders considered too many, then later in 2020 there were 891 shootings. Now, in 2021, there have been over 1,000 shootings to date, with two more months before the end of the year.
Have Ted Wheeler and Jo Ann Hardesty kept their word about crime going down after they decided to Defund the Portland Police Bureau in the middle of a PANDEMIC? Has Portland gotten better at offering a more equitable existence to people of color since the Defunding took place?
Hardesty famously stated in 2020: “It has become clear to me through research and seeing tactics used during the 100+ days of protesting that the Police Bureau utilizes antiquated methods of protest policing.” This from a woman who has one year of college education and does not hold degrees in either Criminology, Police Science or even General Studies.
The sad truth is that Jo Ann Hardesty is not qualified to speak on issues pertaining to law enforcement, public safety, or police science because she lacks the background. She has no foundation of study to know what is “antiqued” and what is not “antiquated.” She has stated that “being a black woman” makes her an expert on these specific areas of study, but clearly, that is not true. One must study those topics seriously, and it helps to do so in a degree program in an institution of higher learning. That is what is required to become adept at understanding the complexities they present and also the “bigger picture” that is a part of a deeper understanding — how dynamics impact other dynamics to produce a whole picture of an issue or dilemma.
Is Hardesty’s decades long resentment and hostility toward police to be taken seriously or tolerated as an expression of her outrage at institutionalized racism? Should Portlanders take her seriously when she has encouraged people not to call the police for help, after she called 911 on a taxi driver for a trivial reason? When the taxi driver refused to roll up the windows of his vehicle on a cold night when she happened to be under dressed, because he was observing Covid-19 restrictions, as imposed by the WHO?
Is that level of hypocrisy not troubling to Portlanders?
But back to the question, do YOU feel safer? Does your FAMILY feel safer? Do you know any of the hundreds of people in Portland who have been shot at or impacted by gun violence? Do they matter to you? Or perhaps they don’t? Because most of them happen to be black?
Black people killed by other Black people… does that matter to you? Or, are you okay with it, because it doesn’t impact YOUR white family, or the one or two Black folks you claim as friends?
Well, as of today, October 27, 2021, with over 1,000 shootings in Portland (since the Defunding took place) and the SEVENTY TWO murders which have occurred in Portland, I don’t think the vast majority of Portlanders feel safer at all.
This number exceeds the recorded highest number ever of 70 homicides in 1987 when the Crips and Bloods gang violence in Portland was at it’s highest. What this also means is that 2021 saw the most Portlanders killed in one year in the entire history of the city of Portland, Oregon.
In the entire history of the city!
Look at the numbers. Look at the statistics, at the shattered lives of the families, mostly Black families who have lost their sons and their daughters to gun violence. Has this defunding helped them?
As a ‘white city’ why are the white leaders so silent about the fact that Black people in Portland are killing each other at such a high rate? Why is Jo Ann Hardesty so silent on the topic? She never speaks of it and never has a kind or compassionate word to say to any of the families of the dead, when a black life is lost yet again in Portland due to Gang violence.
Why is Hardesty so in denial about the origin of most of the gun violence?
Why does Hardesty deny there is a Gang problem in Portland, when DA Mike Schmidt says there is? When both the Portland Police Bureau and the FBI know, from their intelligence reports, that there is a renewed Gang problem in Portland, fueled as it is by the Gang members coming from LA, why does she deny the proverbial Pink Elephant in the room?
And why does she accuse PPB officers of “spreading lies” about her?
If Jo Ann Hardesty says there is no Gang problem, will her statement magically make the harsh reality of that problem just go away? Is she living in denial, or a fantasy world? Does she think that if Trump could do it, so can she? Make wild statements that can be later disproven, but do so anyway, in the hope that she will sway people’s opinion of her, even if only for a short while?
Can we blame all this gun violence on the PANDEMIC? As Jo Ann Hardesty often does? Or is the explosion in gun violence tied to the fact that the criminals of the city, the drug dealers, the pimps and parasitic sex traffickers of women and children were all given a PASS by Ted Wheeler, and Jo Ann Hardesty?
And with the Defunding debacle, and the termination of the Gun Violence Reduction Team, why for the criminals, business is just booming, isn’t it?
Did that pass occur when Jo Ann and Ted, along with others on City Council, (including the functioning illiterate Chloe Eudaly) decided they would be hip, trendy, cool, and do what so many other city council’s were doing to their police departments— crippling their police departments with devastating budget cuts?
What we have all learned, from my perspective, after the major cities that decided to engage in this failed social experiment of going back to the days of the Wild Wild West, is that the town that prospers and does well will always need a sheriff, no matter what.
Is that so hard a concept to understand in 2021?
However, those cities that Defunded their police departments and then experienced unprecedented explosions in violence seemed able to learn from their mistakes. Why can’t Portland leaders do the same? Those other cities, like Minnesota, NY, and Los Angeles, among others, have all returned the funding to their police departments. Why haven't we?
They did the smart thing and GAVE THE MONEY BACK.
When there was proper funding for these police departments again, the numbers of police working went up and guess what? More police on the ground means that people inclined to crime and predation are less inclined to engage in criminal activity, endangering themselves and others.
Portlanders need to ask themselves some important questions before they consider voting for Jo Ann Hardesty again. What they should think about is that she was given more than enough time to make good on her many promises and she has not been able to do that.
What Portlanders need to think about is that Jo Ann Hardesty might be better suited in another line of work and that someone else, who is more qualitied ought to take her place in City Council.
Gender, color, age should not be a concern. What should be the only concern is qualifications, background, credentials and temperament.
There is a new face in town and his name is Vadim Mozyrsky.
Check him out. He is the kind of balanced and rational leader who will make all the difference in Portland. Mozyrsky is the alternative to Hardesty that Portland so desperately needs.
