- Illustration: Evan Geltosky
COPS SAY Portland's gang epidemic is the worst it's been in modern times, and that they've got the numbers to back it up.
According to the Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) official statistics, May set a new record for monthly gang attacks—25. As of June 19, police had logged 76 gang-related violent crimes in 2015, putting the city on track to have its bloodiest gang year in more than a decade.
"We're seeing numbers we're all worried about," Lieutenant Mike Krantz, who runs the bureau's Gang Enforcement Team, told the city's Community Peace Collaborative on Friday, June 19.
If that sounds familiar, it's because the narrative—complete with convenient historical charts police pass out every couple of weeks—is red meat to Portland media outlets, and pops up every year. The coverage is no longer reserved for the hectic summer months. In early March, KPTV was already decrying hundreds of shots as "gang members sprayed bullets into cars, windows, and homes."
More recently, national outlets have looked into high-profile shootings here. "Is Portland's gang problem getting worse?" Vice asked in March. (The Mercury, too, has covered the cops' reports of gang-related assaults in recent years.)
This furor is potent. Mayor Charlie Hales is spending $2 million in the next year to give Portland teens free access to community centers, in hopes it will steer them away from trouble. The police bureau actually floated the idea of shrinking its Gang Enforcement Team in this year's budget discussions, but instead recently shifted six officers to the unit.
But while there's no question that the city's seen alarming violence recently—including shots fired at crowded events like NE Alberta's Last Thursday street fair or the waterfront Cinco de Mayo festival—there's also skepticism that the statistics are all easily explained as the work of criminal gangs.
The word "gang" is "a catch-all for any shooting where you think the suspect is black," says Jo Ann Hardesty, president of the city's NAACP chapter. "What you're saying is every black kid who dresses weird is in a gang."
