Oops… A child found a loaded gun in a Tillamook movie theater during a junior high school field trip Wednesday morning to see “The Hobbit.” Tillamook Police Chief Terry Wright said it was a small, semi-automatic weapon with a round in the chamber and the safety off. Had the student picked up the weapon and […]
Crime
Posted inNews
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
So said NRA spokestool Wayne LaPierre at a news conference this morning, where he called for an armed police officer in every school. The group’s top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference that “the next Adam Lanza,” the man responsible for last week’s mayhem, is planning an attack on another school. “The […]
Posted inPolitics
New Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Stricter Gun Laws
A new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey conducted on behalf of Daily Kos and SEIU has found strong support for stricter gun laws, spanning partisan and geographic lines. An overwhelming 92 percent of respondents support requiring a criminal background check before all gun purchases, and at least 63 percent support banning the sale of both […]
Posted inCrime
National Review Writer Blames Newtown Massacre on Feminine Passivity
Wow, Charlotte Allen: There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred. In this school of 450 students, a sizeable number of whom were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys (it was a K–6 school), all the personnel — the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, the […]
Posted inCops
After Mercury Request, Drug Impact Area Reports Now Tracking Arrests: More than Half Are Black
Almost a year after the Mercury first sought information on how cops enforce the trespassing exclusions at the heart of Portland’s controversial Illegal Drug Impact Area program, that data—including the racial background and criminal history of those arrested—has finally been included in the city’s official report. According to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, 99 […]
Posted inCrime
An “Important Statement” from the National Rifle Association
Oh, but not TODAY. Or tomorrow. “Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting.” So the “major news conference” from the NRA will be on Friday, “at the appropriate time”—that is, no time actually […]
Posted inPolitics
It Is Our Living Constitution That Gave Us Our Right to a Bushmaster Rifle
Jeffrey Toobin makes a great point: Conservatives often embrace “originalism,” the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a “living” constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the […]
Posted inPolitics
Police Stats Don’t Make Case for Crime Spike at Old Town Tent Refuge
As you might recall, the Portland Business Alliance sent a stern letter to Commissioner Dan Saltzman last week demanding that he dramatically step up efforts to oust Right 2 Dream Too, the successful tent refuge that’s been operating at NW 4th and Burnside since October 2011. The PBA, in making its case, listed two major […]
Posted inCrime
Bushmaster’s Wall Street Owners Now Want to Get Rid of the Company
If you are looking for signs that things have changed since Newtown, here is a big sign: The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday that it would sell its investment in the gunmaker Freedom Group in response to the school shootings last week in Connecticut.Cerberus acquired Bushmaster — the manufacturer of the […]
Posted inTV
How to Talk to Your Children About the Shooting
This page from the Fred Rogers Company, which details how to talk with your kids about terrible events in the news, is making the rounds on Twitter. If you have kids, it’s an important resource. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, […]
Posted inCops
Cops Confront 11-year-old Boy in Robbery—Take Away Cocked, Loaded Gun
As awful goes, if this report the cops just sent out had turned even more awful, the degree of that awfulness would be unfathomably awful. And make no mistake: An 11-year-old getting his hands on a loaded gun and bringing along a 7-year-old to threaten people with it—including, almost, cops—is already awful. Read the thing […]
Posted inCops
Gang Task Force Says Goodbye to Mayor Sam Adams
Mayor Sam Adams’ farewell tour is officially under way. Today’s meeting of the city’s Gang Violence Task Force, held every two weeks for the past two years at the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct, was Adams’ last as mayor—and in a room occasionally brimming with emotion, members took turns talking about how the task force […]