Portland’s downtown area, though not without a certain residual hippy charm, increasingly resembles the Dunkirk of May 1940. Standing on top of the city’s Moda Tower at night is to survey the aftermath of a battle, with legions of homeless residents hunched together around braziers or lying on cots displayed in rows on the sidewalk.

It appears as if the police in Portland can’t be bothered to enforce the few remaining laws involving public drug use or fouling the streets.

The rare, startling silence of Anthony Fauci

Trump’s battle for sovereignty

Will the wars in Ukraine and Iran merge?

But the truth is there simply aren’t enough cops to enforce the laws after the city council became one of the first Democratic strongholds to defund the police in the wake of the George Floyd riots in 2020. Now the results of that ideological experiment are in.

Portland’s much shrunken police bureau currently has a total of 328 patrol officers working across three precincts. Surprisingly few for a city of that size, you may think.

But hold on: of those 328, at any given time an unspecified number are either off duty, on leave, out injured or sick, in court, attending mandatory training sessions, or enjoying their guaranteed one hour of “personal wellness” per shift.

By the city’s own estimation, greater Portland has about 59 patrol officers on call........

© The Spectator