Kristof: Mr. President, just leave Portland alone
PORTLAND Ore Portland is burning to the ground President Donald Trump warns and he has helpfully explained that it is a war-ravaged hellscape where even the mayor and governor are petrified for their lives Trump purports to be trying to rescue us Oregonians by dispatching National Guard troops to use full force if necessary against the enemy from within So what explains the gulf between Trump s rhetoric and the reality Why did a Trump-appointed U S District Court judge Karin Immergut pause the deployment of troops to Portland and conclude The president s determination was exclusively untethered to the facts Related Articles Lopez Farmageddon can t be solved with a bailout alone Drucker U S politicians need to stop being so online Walters California s long-running saga over local tax measures might return to the ballot Chabria They cuffed and tackled Sen Alex Padilla But he sees a bigger situation ahead Opinion Immigration enforcement shouldn t be an entry-level job Oregon functionaries have argued in that court event and publicly that Trump appeared to have been misled by Fox News Portland is unbelievable what s going on Trump advised reporters Sept recounting scenes of chaos and destruction That was not on my list Portland but when I watched television last night this has been going on The previous evening Fox News had aired a segment portraying Portland as out of control and included video from actual riots in after the George Floyd killing There have been various clashes this summer especially in June but nothing like the rioting of and more in the last few days the situation has mostly been calm In late September protests were small and uneventful resource was low and people were sitting in lawn chairs law enforcement reports disclosed Let s acknowledge that Portland has notable challenges It s not burning to the ground but homelessness addiction and crime are serious problems and office vacancy rates are high and rising The homicide rate in Portland last year was more than twice that of New York or Boston but less than half that of Atlanta or Indianapolis and homicides in Portland so far this year are down If Trump longed to help Portland deal with its challenges there are numerous solutions he could do so with the million that was the estimated cost of his deployment of the Oregon National Guard He could help with restoration for substance use with crisis housing with teaching But the worry here in Portland is that troops won t address any of the city s actual challenges and will instead provoke unrest At once after his announcement larger numbers of protesters began turning out And a Portland police official noted in July that federal officers have been instigating and causing selected of the disturbances In Trump outmaneuvered Portlanders As the Floyd protests were waning he sent in federal law enforcement officers provoking leftist protesters who responded with riots that did nothing for racial justice but damaged the local business activity and bolstered the national Republican narrative of standing up for law and order In retrospect the city was so caught up in outrage at Trump that it didn t focus enough on self-care Oregonians don t want to fall into that trap again and it s frustrating to hear a beautiful and placid city like Portland for all its problems falsely described as a war zone presumably to distract voters from Jeffrey Epstein and economic weakness One meme calls Portland the Epstein Distraction City If you re not going to help us Mr President just leave us alone Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times columnist
