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Home » Portland’s entire Rapid Response Team quits

Portland’s entire Rapid Response Team quits

The New Neo Posted on by

Well, why not? Why ever not?

Portland’s entire Rapid Response Team, cops who volunteer for riot control duty, voted unanimously to resign on Wednesday, effectively leaving the city in the hands of antifa. The riot cops’ decision follows the criminal indictment of one of their own for assault, stemming from a riot in August 2020, a police source told The Post Millennial.

On the night of August 18, 2020, antifa skirts threw a Molotov cocktail firebomb into the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department Headquarters as the Rapid Response Team struggled to contain the riot. Rapid Response Officer Budworth hit a rioter from behind with a baton, as seen in a video with no context whatsoever.

Portland DA Mike Schmidt stated that “no legal justification existed for Officer Budworth’s deployment of force.” The person Budworth hit – a woman – is described in that link as an “activist photographer” – in other words, someone allied with the rioters who was taking photos and/or videos of the proceedings.

More here:

It marks the first time a Portland police officer has faced prosecution stemming from striking or firing at someone during a protest and only the second time in county history a police officer has been indicted for such physical use of force on duty.

The indictment charges Corey A. Budworth, who joined the Police Bureau six years ago, with fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

It accuses him of “unlawfully, knowingly and recklessly causing physical injury” to Teri Jacobs on Aug. 18. Jacobs alleges Budworth “bashed her in the face” with his baton after he had already knocked her to the ground, according to court records…

The police union, though, characterized the prosecution as politically driven and said Budworth’s baton strike to a woman’s head was “accidental,” not criminal.

Why this officer? Why now? Apparently our very own DOJ got involved:

U.S. Department of Justice lawyers and a city-hired compliance officer had highlighted the police strike in reports critical of the bureau’s review of officers’ use of force during nightly demonstrations.

Now that the riot team is gone – Portland and Mike Schmidt and the DOJ won’t have them to kick around anymore – what will happen during the next riot? No one knows:

“Now that the riot team is no more, we have no clue what’s going to happen. We don’t have enough patrol officers to be pulled from the road to handle huge crowds,” a Portland police officer told The Post Millennial. “We are only backups with no gear like the riot team has.”

Schmidt may be hard on the cops, but he went easy on the rioters:

In October 2020, Schmidt dropped over 540 riot-related cases in the “interest of justice.” He essentially implemented catch-and-release for the rioting, pink-haired antifa lady-boys. The Biden apparatchiks dropped almost 50% of all federal charges, as well. And what do you know, appeasing the beast has led to more violence, more assaults on police, and massive property damage.

As for DA Mike Schmidt, it’s exactly as you might have suspected:

Schmidt represents a progressive view towards prosecutions and criminal justice reform, preferring alternatives to prison, against trial as an adult for juveniles, for police accountability, against mandatory sentencing, and against the death penalty. Since a DA has the power to decide who to prosecute, his stance can influence local and statewide cases to counter what has been described the “irrationality of our system” of biased prosecution using data-driven outcomes.

Days after the election results, on June 16, 2020, Rod Underhill resigned his position immediately, to the surprise of Schmidt…

The Portland Mercury noted that Underhill’s resignation was less than a week after the resignation of Portland Police Chief Jami Resch.

With Underhill’s encouragement, Governor Kate Brown appointed Schmidt to fill the seat on July 7, 2020. The following day, the president of Multnomah County Prosecuting Attorneys Association resigned in protest.

Shortly after Schmidt took office last August, this occurred [emphasis mine]:

…Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association wrote an open letter to Mayor/police commissioner Ted Wheeler and Schmidt, calling their “operational direction” insane, describing examples of violence, and telling Wheeler to “Step up and do your job”. Directing comments at Schmidt, he called police accountability “a thinly veiled threat to indict police officers“, and again telling him to “Step up and do your job”.

Does Turner get “I told you so” bragging rights?

[NOTE: I thought perhaps Schmidt was Soros-backed, but so far I can’t find any evidence of that, at least not to any great extent.]

Comments

Portland’s entire Rapid Response Team quits — 44 Comments

  1. The list of cities nearly destroyed by a rogues’ gallery of criminally incompetent (D) mayors is long and sad indeed, including Portland, Seattle, Chicago (run by the grotesquely maleficent Lightfoot), Atlanta, and New York, the new mayor of which, in a few months’ time, may hardly be better than the loathsome Comrade Wilhelm. It is, of course, noteworthy that none of these “progressive” politicians would ever dream of relinquishing his or her own security.

  2. I regret to say that due to long and abiding respect for this page and its author I cannot say in no uncertain terms exactly what I would wish for Schmidt, Wheeler, and Brown and all who work and support them. Hence I only note this small drop in the vast ocean of outrage and pass on.

    I think I’ll listen to some Bee Gees and then transition to Mark Knopfler singing:
    “I keep my weather eye on the horizon.
    My back to the wall.
    I want to see who’s coming through the door
    That’s all.”

  3. Multnomah County is about to get it good and hard. That’s what happens when the majority is frivolous. IIRC, requests for back up were made a year ago to the Washington and Clackamas County Sheriff’s departments which were refused, the reasoning being that they weren’t going to waste time or risk injury contending with and arresting people that the DA would then refuse to prosecute.

  4. The entire Portland Police Dept. should resign en masse.

    In the aftermath, when innocents are raped and/or murdered, friends and relatives should hold Wheeler, Schmidt, Portland Council members, Commisioners and Dept. heads personally responsible.

    Gov. Brown is complicit as well.

    Rule of Law has been jettisoned by Multnomah county officials. That only leaves one remaining avenue open for justice to be served.

    “So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire, by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.” George Orwell

  6. Personal perspective. One granddaughter recently graduated from a University near Portland. The other just finished graduate school at U of Washington. They love Portland and Seattle. Their attitude toward the chaos and mayhem is that it is just in a small part of the city.
    I suspect that is the general attitude. If it doesn’t affect you directly, it won’t hurt you. Until it does.

  7. I’d say that the conservative half of the country has largely recovered from the two full body slams of Biden’s election and 1/6, plus of course the protracted Covid lockdowns.

    My bet is that as the Covid restrictions fade, there will be much more resistance and backlash to Democratic overreach.

  8. It sucks that a bunch of people will end up suffering for this but what other way could it possibly work out?

    What’s most amazing about it all is that while the really, REALLY rich do have a certain amount of protection from the inevitable result of this nonsense, what enables it is the support of middle and upper-middle class folks who remain very much at risk.

    And even the really rich aren’t completely safe. For example, corporate America is going to spend the next 40 years dealing with a workforce full of the hypersensitive little darlings they helped create. How many billions of dollars in lost revenue and added expense is that going to be?

    Mike

  9. “If it doesn’t affect you directly, it won’t hurt you. Until it does.”

    That’s pretty clearly the attitude in Chicago, where most of the appalling violence is confined to a certain part of the city containing a certain part of the population. But even if the violence can be contained, the incompetence and moral idiocy that fostered it will inevitably wind up doing great harm to the rest of society.

    Mike

  10. It will always be the early ’60s. Left-wing protestors including rioters will always be peaceful civil rights demonstrators. Police forces will always be led by Bull Connor and staffed with brutal Klan sympathizers who like to crack heads. The federal government will always find it necessary to step in to protect the peaceful civil rights demonstrators.

    It will be this way until law enforcement is fully in the hands of the left. Then, as we got a taste of after January 6, law and order will become paramount.

  11. “Portland has a riot squad, Who knew?”

    Anyone who watched live feeds or Interweb streamers covering the “mostly peaceful protests” for the last year. Multnomah County has a catch and release DA who does not prosecute Antifa/BLM. Who knew? Anyone who paid attention for the last year. That DA figured out it was safe now to charge a riot squad LEO for doing his job, now that Biden in in charge (in name only). Who will be surprised when the arson and destruction moves out of downtown Portland to all of Portland? Why wouldn’t it?

  12. I know I made this illusion on the Biden-1-6-21 thread but the situation in Portland does have similarities to a late season in the TV show set in Portland, “Grimm.” Heck even one of the Antifa symbols resembles a symbol used by a group in the show that is trying to take over the government.

  13. The 50 RRT members resigned from the team, not the police department. They all still have regular jobs, but won’t put themselves in unsupported danger anymore.

  14. Indigo+Red:

    Correct, and the regular LEOs don’t have the training etc. to serve in such situations is my understanding. So Portland may be left to the tender mercies of Antifa/BLM and other agents of “Justice!”

    Lars Larson interviewed the police union rep speaking for the response team yesterday. There is a podcast version of the program:

    https://www.larslarson.com/lars-larson-podcast/ Select the 6/17/21 episode.

    It is downloadable without cost.

    The mass resignation of the team was discussed as a possible outcome. The police union rep. stated that the Mayor, and upper management of the police department were allowing the DA to get the first LEO scalp.

  15. As was pointed out, the cops resigned from the riot squad, not the Portland Police Bureau. Those guys must have racked up some serious overtime in the last year.

    Police work for mayors and will not cross them. Police can retire after 20 years and then go to work for another agency, and acquire a second pension. Police will not put that at risk by disobeying the mayor,

    Whatever a police officer’s private political thoughts, on duty they are a tool of the mayor.

  16. The Wheeler of Portland (Mayor) is also in charge of the Portland Police Bureau. Convenient.

    The interview concerning the resignation of the Portland Rapid Response Unit (riot squad) is at 56 – 63 minutes of the podcast from 6/17/21. The resignation occurred at 12:00 (AM) on 6/17/21. I haven’t fully listened to the 6/16/21 podcast yet to see if that was the Lars Larson podcast that discussed the potential for resignation.

  17. Mac’s comment (above) lends itself to a syllabic instance of the “found” poem genre (the tempo of this one puts me somewhat in mind of “1926,” by Weldon Kees); at 14 lines (with these breaks, of course), it also works out to be a loose sonnet):

    It will always be the early ’60s.
    Left-wing protestors including rioters
    will always be peaceful civil rights
    demonstrators. Police forces will
    always be led by Bull Connor and staffed
    with brutal Klan sympathizers who like
    to crack heads. The federal government
    will always find it necessary to
    step in to protect the peaceful civil
    rights demonstrators. It will be this way
    until law enforcement is fully in
    the hands of the left. Then, as we got a
    taste of after January 6, law
    and order will become paramount.

  19. The Lars Larson podcast form 6/16/21 46-57 minutes provides background on the resignation of the Rapid Response Unit and the interview with the union rep.

    Well if Antifa/BLM get their druthers Portland will become the largest autonomous zone. Community “Justice!” needs no police and no incarceration! Reparations (aka crime) for BIPOC especially LGBTQ+ (xyz123) BIPOC will become widespread!

  20. I sit here with my laptop on my knees, over which I can, with a slight shifting of my gaze, look out the window of my sunroom and see my backyard and beyond. Trees, blue sky, birds. Peace and tranquility reign supreme in my world. I know there is another world out there, one filled with violent people, but they are far removed and not a threat to my tranquility. In fact, peace and harmony dominate in my neighborhood and the larger domain in which I travel freely and without fear. Of course, I, and all my neighbors are white, church-going, working, taxpaying family types who are also armed and ready to do appropriate business with anyone who might seek to disturb our idyllic existence. For my part, I don’t care what the fools who live in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, at al. do about their situation. It seems to me that a majority of the people who live in those cities do so voluntarily; there are as yet no constraints against relocating in America, cross town or cross country. I do sincerely, however, pray they do not come anywhere near me, for then I would have to do what is necessary to protect my world and all that’s good in it.

  22. @Huxley:

    Feel free to make some coin by auctioning off your other two guesses as Tokenised Art Offerings. You won’t be needing them.

  23. I dont blame the riot control group one bit.

    I am approaching my 30th year in law enforcement. And its time to bow out. I have actually been open with my bosses about the fact I am looking and my plans to leave. So first they dont feel any pressure to ask me to get out. I clearly see the writing on the wall. And second they have lost any impetus to try to sway me over to the new ways of thinking overtaking policing. As their efforts will go to naught.

    Over my time I can tell you there have been many improvements. When I started they had just ended being able to shoot at fleeing felons. And things were more often settled by agreements on the street than going to court. Which has had a mixed result. The fact everything is on video means simple things like “dump out the beer and we will drive you home” simply dont happen anymore for liability reasons. So there are many new first time offenders.

    Also officers are far less heavy handed. Which for most is a good thing as people are treated more fairly. Unfortunately there here is a small subset of offenders who are only stopped or scared by physical violence. And this group has been emboldened by the current climate to resist arrest at every turn. This is partially why it has become an epidemic. As they know there is a very loud section of the public who will scream at ANY force used to subdue a suspect. And use the video to push their agenda. The Makayla Bryant incident is a perfect example. There is hardly a clearer view of a justified use of force to defend others I could have ever seen. Yet weeks went by with many trying to create something out of it. Until it was so clear the incident has quietly evaporated.

    I think many people could withstand this also. If not for their “allies” within the departments and government agencies. In just the last few months it has become nearly intolerable. Incredible levels of micromanaging and policy changes. Sometimes changed,changed back,modified, and the quietly ignored all in a week. And the new endless amount of “classes” on race and sexual identity. Which are not only poorly done. But actually ask you to do things that would clearly get you sued or fired should you follow their advice. (One particular demand was to make a list of people with different races and sexual identities to talk with them later) I can only imagine what would have happened to anyone stupid enough to do so. Then caught with such a list.

    Add in the near daily accusations of racism from people outside and inside the departments. And the giant blinking neon sign could not be any brighter.

  25. Eventually the good ones will quit.

    Which will leave the thugs.

    Then it will be open season.

    And then, the reckoning will arrive…

  27. Meanwhile, most of your Democrat friends have no idea that there have been riots in Portland. Next to the word “ clueless” should be a picture of a middle of the road Democrat.

  28. DA in Portland (Multnomah County), DA in Los Angeles, DA in St Louis, DA in San Francisco, DA in … is there a problem in policing or in selection and retention of DAs. There is a need for high level ciphering and cogitating to solve this puzzle of criminality, in DAs.

    All Democrat controlled areas IIRC. Correlation?

  30. Mythx:

    Thanks for your comment.

    Any guesstimates on how many police will leave and how hard it will be to replace them? This is one of the dumbest and most dangerous things going on now.
    _________________________________________

    Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics

    (1) Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.

    (2) Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.

    (3) The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
    _________________________________________

    Like the old Murphy’s Law joke — Conquest was an optimist.

  32. @geoffb:

    Could be the Aztecs but wouldn’t discount the Hmong.

    And when the Scandicucks go Off-piste, well it’s best to stay upwind of the woodchipper.

    What happened to the Good Old Rendering Vat? I mean Melting Pot.

  34. And he’s read Moby Dick.

    I seem to be stuck in the Try Works with you for company, Om, but if you’ve picked me to be your Great White Whale, I think it would be more profitable to go finish off your siding project.

  36. So what! They are still employed by the city and didn’t volunteer to teach firearms law to those who will need it.

    Burning out the “White” businesses makes room for the Illegal Immigrants to start up. It is all just battlefield preparation for the Compton Effecdt. Not ” Arthur Holy” but California, where the Illegal community used their gang members to drive the useless “African American” gangs into the suburbs. Compton was ~100% African American, after a few years of “ethnic cleansing”, the city is ~60%+ Hispanic. That gives the Democratic Party more to steal and protects the “White” owners of the property and facilities.

    You are going to love your new neighbors. Enjoy that patio while you can.

  37. If I were defending the cop charged I would refer to the “protest” as an “insurrection “ and the “victim” as an “insurrectionist.”
    Wouldn’t do much good, of course, and the judge would probably prohibit it, but it would give some small satisfaction.

  38. Sometimes the citizenry is justified to “storm the Bastille” and execute those officials who have encouraged and tolerated criminal actions on the innocent.

    One can only hope that ANTIFA and BLM now direct criminal assaults upon those city, county and state officials who have thus far supported them.
    Let’s see how much support these officials provide these thugs when they find their own homes, places of work and possessions burned to the ground and their families , friends, relatives physically assaulted.

    These officials have no problems whatsoever when the victims of the ANTIFA and BLM thugs are not their friends or relatives or family members. It would serve them right that they themselves – and their families, friends, relatives – become the victims.

    What goes around, comes around.

  40. Portland is getting what it thinks it wants…but my take is this: The STUPID is STRONG in Portland, I am sooooooooooo not bummed for it/them.

  41. The riot squad were all paid police officers who volunteered to be part of the squad. They’re still on the force. So what happens now is that instead of asking for volunteers, the police brass will just assign people to the duty. They may not be as trained, but maybe that doesn’t matter very much. So this mass “resignation” doesn’t actually mean very much. It would mean a lot if they had also resigned as police officers, but they didn’t.

  42. Jeff:

    Some don’t agree with your assessment:

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/06/19/portland-mayor-scrambles-as-fallout-from-mass-resignations-of-portland-riot-squad-begins-n1455730

    One who disagrees is the Wheeler of Portland (Mayor and person in charge of the Portland Police Bureau):

    “I have directed the Portland Police Bureau to prepare mobile field forces to respond to any public safety needs, including potential violence related to mass gatherings,” Wheeler said in a statement Thursday. “Also, I have spoken to Governor Brown, and the Oregon State Police is making members of its Mobile Response Team available on standby. We are also coordinating with other regional law enforcement partners.”

    So the Wheeler ask the Oregon State Patrol to take over the functions of the extinct Portland Rapid Response Team but also spoke to Katherine the Grate (Tsarina of Salem, aka the governor).

    They may rename the Oregon State Patrol Mobile Response Team the Tardy Response Team, better late than never, unless you are “late” (RIP).

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