“I WAS HERE 14 years ago, and it’s still happening,” said Perlia Bell, flanked by a small group of women who have lost loved ones to gang violence, on a sunny Thursday morning in North Portland’s Peninsula Park.
Bell’s daughter, Asia, was gunned down at her nearby home in 2002. Now, Bell was speaking alongside members of her anti-violence organization, Enough Is Enough, about the Portland of 2016. “It’s real personal to me that we’re still here and it’s still happening.”
It is still happening, perhaps more than at any other time in recent history. With at least 47 attacks and 15 people shot so far this year, the city’s on pace to surpass 2015’s record-setting violence attributed to Portland gangs. And authorities believe it will only get worse as the weather warms and the cycle of retaliation for these shootings continues.