Portland's police union head, Sergeant Aaron Schmautz, said that he is open to working with the federal government to help stem the city's growing crime problem on Thursday.
“Let’s present what resources we have to bring to bear to accomplish that task,” Schmautz, the president of the Portland Police Association, said. “And if it’s not sufficient, then we need help. And so, you know, again, I don’t want to be drawn into a hard yes or no. What I want is for us all to identify the problem and work together as a whole of government to solve the problem.”
President Donald Trump announced recently that he wants to send in the Oregon National Guard, in an effort to protect ICE agents, facilities, and to reduce the city's crime rate. Portland, he said, is under attack by Antifa, a U.S.-designated domestic terrorist group.
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
The nightly 'protests' the city has seen involved attacks on federal agents, people firing bottle rockets, direct attacks on facilities, ICE vehicles, and high-powered lasers being shone in the eyes of law enforcement.
“There is a lot, I mean, of just open, very, very anti-police rhetoric in our city council meetings,” Schmautz told Fox News Digital. “We are still working our way out of a significant, you know, burst, or an expansion in our crime profile. I mean, we have, you know, our homicides went up, times five from 2020 to 2023, and we’re kind of slowly receding, although we’ve had nine last month."
I am extraordinarily sympathetic to how concerned and afraid federal officers – I mean, there was a shooting in Dallas at an ICE facility. There are federal officers being hit by cars. And, you know, in a world where we have different perspectives about politics, it’s one thing to have policy discussions and everything else. But no one should be OK with violence directed at anyone.
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