West Coast, Messed Coast™—Four Years Later, Portland Finally Admits It Was All a Mistake

Your humble West Coast, Messed Coast™ correspondent has come up for air from Trump trial coverage to remind you that four years ago this weekend, the most radical cities in this neck of the woods decided to commit civilizational suicide. Radicals decided to throw themselves a riot and eat their hosts.

Mission Accomplished

If destroying Portland's downtown, losing a critical number of cops, and letting lawbreakers go was the mission, then Mission Accomplished.

This week, four years after riots for a larcenous, hapless, drug-addicted Minneapolis man who died in police custody caused Portland and other West Coast, Messed Coast™ cities to lose their minds, voters finally admitted they might have been wrong about some things.

George Floyd took a fatal dose of fentanyl and meth and died in police custody, which later would be called murder. Police involved in that outrageous trial should keep demanding a new trial. No matter your thoughts on this matter, the West Coast, Messed Coast™ response to it was to blame all ills on law enforcement. Cops were "defunded," law enforcement programs to stop gangs, guns, and car thefts went void, and elected leaders refused to put criminals in places where criminals go: jail.

Riots were held for more than a year in Portland. Here's only a partial timeline.

In Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., and, to a lesser extent, San Diego, the result has been fewer cops, fewer prosecutions, less security, more crime, open-air drug dealing, more street camping, and drug tourism. It has been a civilizational disgrace.

On Tuesday, Portland voters finally admitted that crime policies of the kind promulgated by their then-newly elected George Soros-chosen district attorney were killing them. Voters got rid of DA Mike Schmidt and voted in another guy who said you don't have to kill the city and county to get law enforcement accountability. Read more at my story: Even Woke Portland Voters Want to Make Crime Illegal Again.

Other shoe drops

In 2020, after George Floyd's death in police custody caused riots, which nearly killed multiple American cities, another man died in police custody not too far away from CHAZ.

Three Tacoma Police Department officers were accused of murdering Manny Ellis. You can read about the case here: Politicians Grumble After Three Cops in Wash. State George Floyd 2.0 Case Are Completely Exonerated.

After the officers were completely exonerated after a no-holds-barred attempt by state prosecutors, run by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, one is suing the hell out of the city and state. Read Tacoma Cop to Sue Woke Prosecutors for Destroying His Life.

Four years later

In Seattle, four years after riots and a complete takeover of part of the city that Antifa and BLM called CHAZ/CHOP, there's still a problem with activists hijacking other people's property.

Independent journalist Jonathan Choe has been reporting on squatters taking over a property in Seattle and now it looks like other perpetrators are getting in on the act. The problem is that the law provides nearly zero ways to stop squatters.

Choe and YouTuber Tyler Oliveira confronted the latest squatter on a $1.3 million property near Seattle. They spoke to past and present owners of the property, who provided documents of ownership and proof of legal fees.

When Choe and Oliveira went to the home, the squatter called the cops. And that's when confusion and hilarity reigned. Oliveira asked the police to confirm who owned the property. When they couldn't, the YouTuber said, "I own the property. Prove I don't."

The accused perp is a well-known YouTuber, King County Fire District commissioner, and home builder. Whoa.

BOMBSHELL ALLEGATIONS: King County Fire District Commissioner Steve Hickey is accused of squatting, fraud, and intimidation by a growing list of victims.
Complicating matters, he's a well known independent journalist with more than a million followers on TikTok and Instagram.… pic.twitter.com/Pk4yV1Q57L
— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) May 22, 2024

Booze for bums

Since the news leaked that San Francisco was giving alcoholics on the street free booze, there's been a collective "wha?" Catherine writes in her piece San Francisco Giving Homeless Vodka, Courtesy of Taxpayers that "The zany program in Democrat-run San Francisco allegedly aims to “curb excessive drinking” among the excessively large homeless population of the city. Oh, we see.

A guy who used to be on the street and who now runs a recovery program, Tom Wolf, said he has questions. He told Fox News, "You really have to ask, where's the recovery in all of this? What is the desired outcome of this program? They say it'll save money, but we just spent 20 million bucks over the last four years. You have to really ask, ‘Is it saving money, and is it making a difference?’"

They call it "harm reduction." It's certainly not less harmful to the addicts or the city taxpayers.

Meanwhile, there are more bums

Cities along the West Coast, Messed Coast™ are chagrined to learn that when they allow people to take drugs on the streets and don't do much, if anything, about public camping, they get more drugs and public camping on the streets.

San Francisco says there are fewer homeless people on the streets, but the people doing the counts actually report, "Total homelessness (combining sheltered and unsheltered people) increased by 7% since 2022 ...a 39% increase since 2019."

San Diego is now reporting more than a three percent increase in homelessness following a "point in time" count taken in January.

Seattle's 2024 "PIT" count is up 23% since 2022. Seattle is also receiving a bunch of Joe Biden's imported homeless people from other countries who came into the U.S. illegally.

Portland's count has increased as well.

She has a question

Homeless helper Kevin Dahlgren spoke with a woman on the streets of Portland who can't believe what a free-for-all it is.

She says there are people in vans (harm-reduction people) who bring "pipes and snorting kits and sh*t. They're making it so much easier and more comfortable for people to [take drugs]...this is big time enabling."

Coming like a freight train

VodkaPundit writes about Gavin Newsom's latest effort to impoverish Californians by requiring electric freight trains. You read that right. Read the rest: Now California Wants to Force You to Ride the Magical Mystery Train.

Smile pretty, Gavin

Gavin Newsom's administration argued in court earlier this month that voters are too dumb to be able to vote on tax increases, which is why he's gone to court to stop the California Taxpayer Protection Initiative from appearing on the November 2024 ballot.

His attorney, Margaret Prinzing, argued in court that “The voters simply don’t have the capacity” to decide taxes.

The California Business Roundtable and other groups got the ball rolling on the initiative and are fighting the governor in court.

One San Jose councilmember told KRON News that the initiative would "interfere with raising proper fees and collect the right revenue" on taxpayers.

That's about as clueless as Supreme Court newbie Ketanji Brown Jackson lamenting that the First Amendment might interfere with the government censoring speech.

Taxpayers can't be trusted to decide tax increases, says Gavin Newsom.

Watch this guy claim that the California Taxpayer Protection Initiative would "interfere" with "raising proper fees" and collecting "the right revenue."

Libs are having a hissy fit.…
— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) May 24, 2024

Carl DeMaio, whose Reform California filed an amicus brief, shook his head. “Governor Gavin Newsom not only created a massive budget deficit, but he has raised taxes so high that he has destroyed jobs and caused millions of middle-class residents to flee the state’s high cost of living," he said.

Greedy politicians never seem to have enough of your money to spend on their priorities.