3 ms·
"That worked great"- what's "that", here? It sounds like you're implying that he tried to listen to protestors and address their grievances, and so was driven o
by XMPPwocky 6y ago
"That worked great"- what's "that", here? It sounds like you're implying that he tried to listen to protestors and address their grievances, and so was driven out of his home- is that roughly what you meant?
If so, what are some of the ways he tried to address those grievances?
This is not the same thing as me saying "that is good and I'm glad it happened", to be clear! Just ... if he didn't actually do what the parent post suggested, I don't see how that response is relevant.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoFor example, he banned tear gas and chokeholds, redirected substantial funding (I think close to 10 million?) from the police budget to community initiatives, removed police officers from city schools, and eliminated specific police teams like the gun violence squad which activists believed had a culture of racial discrimination.
- lovehashbrowns 6y agoThis seems like a fair summary of how Ted Wheeler and Portland/Oregon's government is handling demands: https://www.opb.org/article/2020/08/01/portland-protest-end-police-reform-reimagine-oregon/ https://www.opb.org/article/2020/08/01/portland-protest-end-... The main criticism is that it is not enough or not fast enough. The bigger frustration is the fear that current policy changes are only to appease and not to fix the root issues. For example, Wheeler only recently banned the use of tear gas: https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/news/2020/9/10/mayor-wheeler-directive-use-cs-gas https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/news/2020/9/10/mayor-wheele... (note the date--6 days ago). Another example, funding cuts were not seen as enough: https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-police-budget-15-million-defund-cannabis-council-vote/ https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-police-budget-15-m... The most comprehensive list of demands, including updates to their status, can be seen here: https://www.reimagineoregon.org/policydemands https://www.reimagineoregon.org/policydemands
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoI'm just not sure that "demands" is the right framing here. This site is outlining a large series of policy initiatives, ranging from police reforms to housing and transportation policy to specific legislative process details. Such complicated changes need to be subject to civic debate, and compromises might have to be made to account for factors the organizers didn't think of or other groups with similarly strong beliefs.
- lovehashbrowns 6y agoYou are correct that these policies are all subject to debate and compromise, but I think "demands" is the perfect way to frame these things. The small picture of these protests is that an unarmed black man died while handcuffed, on his stomach, pleading for his life, with a police officer's knee to the back of his neck. The bigger picture is that systemic racism has been an ongoing issue for decades (but since the country's founding, actually). Oregon itself has quite the history with systemic racism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Oregon So the frustration isn't necessarily that policies are subject to debate or that compromises have to be made; the frustration lies in elected officials that help maintain a level of systemic racism via inaction and non-enforcement. Hence, the particularly aggressive use of "demands" which is also framed around ongoing protests in Portland and elsewhere. This, I think, is far more clear in the use of the phrase "defund the police." A lot of people have issue with this phrase because they think it means entirely eliminating the police force. And yes, some percentage of those who say "defund the police" do mean completely eliminating the police force, but the majority actually mean "divert significant funding from the police department to social programs and health workers." However, there are two issues with that; 1, it's not very succint. 2, it does not adequately express the frustration people have with police.
- XMPPwocky 6y agoThanks for the answer!
- refurb 6y agoHe went to one of the protests to listen to their grievances and ended up getting heckled. Fast forward a few weeks, they started protesting in front of his condo building - shining lasers in the windows, trashing the lobby and shooting fireworks. The mayor said he will be moving out.