The city of Portland, Oregon, is located in Multnomah County; in the 2020 elections, Joe Biden carried the county by a huge margin, 367,249 (79.21%) to 82,995 (17.90%). I would say that it’s reasonable to describe Portland as a very liberal city.

How, then, in this bastion of leftward politics, can it be that while only 6% of Portlanders are black, black drivers account for 18% of traffic stops?

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell

Police in Oregon’s largest city are being advised to no longer pursue low-level traffic infractions — including expired plates and broken headlights — unless related to an immediate safety threat, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Tuesday.

In addition, if police do stop a driver they must receive recorded consent before searching the vehicle and clearly inform the person they have the right to refuse.

Wheeler said both changes are an attempt to refocus on immediate threats and are also occurring in response to data showing a a disproportionate impact on Black drivers for traffic stops and vehicle searches. While 6% of Portlanders are Black, he said they account for 18% of traffic stops in the city.

“The goal of these two changes is to make our safety safer and more equitable,” Wheeler said.

Portland is not the first large city to make such a move regarding traffic stops. Oakland, California, has had a similar police for the last several years.

The obvious question is: are Portland’s police officers racists, just looking to pull over cars driven by black people, or, is it possible, just possible, that black Portlanders actually commit traffic offenses at a greater rate?

Oh, wait, I’m sorry: it’s raaaaacist to even ask such a question!

After several paragraphs about the traffic stops, the Associated Press article got into what I saw as the meat of it:

Last summer, while officers’ priorities were shifted to protests, Portland was also experiencing its deadliest year in more than a quarter-century.

Gun violence has spilled over into this year, with at least 42 homicides so far. If nothing changes, Portland will surpass its all-time record for homicides of 70 set in 1987, when the city was in the midst of a gang siege.

Police estimate half of Portland’s more than 500 shootings this year, which have injured more than 140 people, are gang-related. In May, Wheeler warned that perpetrators are being told by gangs to shoot someone within 30 days or be shot and that people are traveling from other states to engage in violence in the Rose City.

The police are short on resources, in part due to the city slashing its budget by $27 million last year, and the department is 150 officers under its authorized strength.

Through the end of May, Portland saw 38 homicides, an average of one every four days. At the current pace, the city is on pace for 92 murders this year. With a city population of 662,549, that would give the city a murder rate of 13.89 per 100,000 population. Yeah, Philadelphia, St Louis and Chicago laugh at that puny rate, but it’s still damned high. How, in this very liberal city, where the policies of the left hold sway as much as possible, can we explain this? After all, the left have assured us that if we just do things their way, all will be sweetness and light?