Robot cops, anti-crime lights fail to thwart Portland crime

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Rob, the police robot, and anti-crime decorative tree lighting fail to stop crime in Portland.

Because Portland defunded police and cut 100 officers from their staff, many local businesses hired robot security as a way to fight the crime wave that followed.

For instance, Rob the police robot was hired to protect the US. Bank building (Big Pink).  Yet, crime persisted, forcing US Bank to abandon the building bearing its name. Also, Multnomah County installed anti-crime decorative tree lights at the drug-infested County Library to ward off drug users.   The anti-crime lights didn’t work either.

This follows previous failed attempts in the past to fight crime using non-security methods, such as blaring classical music at light-rail stops to ward off crime.

Another way to fight crime is to announce 90-day emergencies.

Earlier this year, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek announced a 90-Day State of Emergency over Fentanyl — which included targeting certain Portland downtown areas near I-405 that were overrun with drug dealers and crime that were exploiting the nearby bottle redemption centers. Drug addicts would collect a few bottles and redeem them to buy cheap drugs (for mere dollars) and then overdose right at the bottle redemption center.

Governor Kotek’s much publicized emergency order closed the redemption centers. Once the 90-day emergency ended, everything went back to normal.

The Taxpayers Association of Oregon twice drove by and took a photo of outside of one of those notorious bottle redemption centers at the center of the controversy and Kotek’s emergency order. The situation is just as bad as it was before the emergency.

(KGW 12/12/23,KPTV 4/25/24)