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I agree with the “look over here!” As well as an unawareness, or unwillingness, to examine how the actions of 2020, and their condoning if not heralding, has in part led to the levels of crime it sees today. There must be consequences, whether for the rich kid from Reed or the poor one from Somalia. We cannot have different systems, much as we might believe that somehow will right the wrongs of the past

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Oct 20, 2022Liked by Nancy Rommelmann

You always write skillfully, but you're generally being too kind to these criminals and their futile social experiments. All they effectively do is raise the level of lawlessness, and irritate decent people by accusing them of racism for simply being white. They toss around the word "fascist" with no real sense of history or context. Their street intimidation tactics are the closest thing to fascism in America lately.

It should have been clear that Portland was nuts when Crips gang member Patrick Kimmons shot two others right in front of police, yet was eulogized for months as "family man" when cops had to assume he'd shoot them next. The grim reality of crime is ignored by those who martyr Kimmons, Floyd, et al.

The origin of the CRIPs gang is also ironic, since it started out as a community group with a similar ideology to BLM. These causes invariably solve nothing because they're rooted in the sort of belligerence MLK tried to end in the 60s, knowing it just led to revenge cycles.

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Oct 20, 2022Liked by Nancy Rommelmann

Given all the ink spilled in the article, most of which was not about the so called abductions, where these arrests happened two years ago and we are looking at two incidents, already well known and well publicized, you do question priorities here. From the very sympathetic writing, of course these sound very bad from the one side that is described, without context or challenge.

And maybe these were completely unjustified and unlawful, but the "reporting" here does not inform me or convince me any more than anything I have already heard.

This seems like just the same old distraction being put forward by politically motivated interlocutors who pass for journalists in many quarters, while a complex and ongoing set of issues, including a significant violent crime crisis, seems to be happening in Portland, they want to talk about 2020 and ignore the difficulties of the present.

And some wonder why they are not trusted.

Thank you for going out on a limb, being nuanced, being willing to be wrong and willing to correct the record as necessary. It is an uncommon bravery in the media world it seems, and I am very glad to have found your writing, discussion and also insights on pie!

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Thank you for nuance.

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