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Riot response hampered by police reform<\/h2>\n
Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith<\/a>, spokeswoman for the National Police Association, noted that the law enforcement agencies serving the Portland area were once nationally recognized as leading crowd-control experts, primarily because Portland has been dealing with antifa’s forces for decades. Portland, a hotbed of antifa activity, is home to Rose City Antifa<\/a>, the oldest-known antifa chapter in America.<\/p>\n
HOW THE ANTIFA MOVEMENT HAS METASTASIZED<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
However, that generation of officers has since left Portland’s police force, Smith said. <\/p>\n
“Cops who just wanted to do their job have aged out,” Smith told the Washington Examiner<\/em>. “They have gotten out, bailed out, you might say.”<\/p>\n
A decadeslong “slog” through different policies, procedures, and legislative changes drastically limited Portland police’s response capabilities, said Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association, represents all sworn officers below the rank of lieutenant within PPB.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Washington Examiner<\/em>, Schmautz cited a slew of policing challenges that arose out of the 2020 racial justice riots in particular.<\/p>\n
For instance, the Oregon legislature lessened the crime<\/a> of interfering with law enforcement. Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR), then-speaker of the Oregon House, had introduced and ultimately helped pass H.B. 3164<\/a>, a bill prohibiting police officers from filing interference with an officer<\/a> charges if the suspect “passively resists”<\/a> police orders.<\/p>\n
TOP AIDE TO OREGON GOVERNOR WAS ARRESTED AT 2020 ANTIFA RIOT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
Anti-police efforts also placed significant restrictions on PPB’s use-of-force practices<\/a>, such as the deployment of tear gas and rubber bullets, non-lethal dispersal tools that provide a safe standoff distance between encroaching protesters and the police line.<\/p>\n
“That led to us having to be far more hands-on,” Schmautz said. “When police are hands-on with people, the risk of injury goes up, and the optics of using batons on citizens, the videos never look very good.”<\/p>\n
Police and federal officers throw gas canisters<\/a> to disperse protesters near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ethan Swope)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Most devastating was the city slashing PPB’s budget by about $15 million<\/a> in “equitable reallocations” due to the defund the police<\/a> movement. “Our staffing just got destroyed,” Schmautz said. Portland police staffing levels currently stand at about 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, less than half of the suggested average.<\/p>\n
Sustained civil unrest continues to strain city resources.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, PPB faced criticism for not being present enough when there were 110 service calls across the city. “So that was 110 Portlanders who were experiencing some kind of crime or emergency,” Schmautz explained. “Their response was delayed by hours and hours and hours because we’re dealing with this unrest.”<\/p>\n
DOZENS OF 911 CALLS PLACED ON HOLD AS PORTLAND POLICE WORK TO CONTROL RIOTERS CHANTING, ‘KILL A COP, SAVE A LIFE’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
“People say that the Portland Police Bureau does not care,” the police union boss added. “We care an awful lot, and we’re trying to police the entire city while also being very understaffed.”<\/p>\n
A leftward lurch in leadership<\/h2>\n
Smith said PPB has become “so extraordinarily woke-ified” by the top brass.<\/p>\n
PPB’s current Chief Bob Day moonlights as a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant. Day runs a private DEI consulting firm called Reluctant Change<\/a>, whose website was recently scrubbed following public backlash.<\/p>\n
Portland’s previous Mayor Ted Wheeler, as acting PPB commissioner, joined protesters<\/a> in 2020, inhaling alongside them a face full of tear gas.<\/p>\n
Smith said political bias can leak downward from leadership to the rank-and-file through the recruitment process, leading to a whole-of-agency shift in culture and priorities.<\/p>\n
A common misconception about police is that all American officers are conservative. “That’s just not true,” Smith, who represents officers nationwide, said. “When you look at a department like the Portland Police Bureau, that’s a very self-selective situation.”<\/p>\n
Smith explained that officers will choose to work for specific agencies based on whether their beliefs align, especially in Democratic-led jurisdictions, where the populace tends to lean left. “So you’re likely to have people on the political Left at an agency like that.”<\/p>\n
Accusations of uneven enforcement<\/h2>\n
PPB personnel stand accused of selectively enforcing the law after conservative influencer Nick Sortor was arrested<\/a> on disorderly conduct charges<\/a> while documenting antifa activity outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> facility in South Portland.<\/p>\n
Sortor says he had his camera broken by antifa militants who then threw multiple punches at him. When he alerted a nearby PPB patrol, officers took Sortor into custody<\/a> “for fighting.”<\/p>\n
In another high-profile altercation attracting attention, The Post Millennial<\/em> reporter Katie Daviscourt was assaulted last week while covering the anti-ICE uprisings in Portland, but the Dialogue Liaison Officer (DLO) on scene did not arrest the suspect.<\/p>\n
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Why didn’t @PortlandPolice<\/a> arrest or detain @KatieDaviscourt<\/a>’s violent assailant? https:\/\/t.co\/LLRnbMkM3h<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/1VpvvJapJ0<\/a><\/p>\n
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n