Argh.  I know, we need security.  I'm one of those crazy people who realize the harsh reality of all this though.  That harsh reality is if you want security, you better damn well make sure you figure out how to secure your own person.  Nobody working for the police, army, national gaurd, Government, arms manufacturer, TriMet, Transit Police, Clean & Safe, or anywhere else will EVER be able to promise you security of any reasonable level.  You are the only person who can promise yourself a reasonable level of security.

TriMet breaks the law every day by forbidding CCW persons to utilize their constitutionally, and court ordered right, to protect themselves and carry if they desire.  I believe it is even against the rules to carry mace, which is of course NOT lethal.  It is even questionable that one can even actually defend themselves with their own limbs on TriMet.  Oregon law makes it even more absurd and stupid by stating one must try escape, evasion, or run away like a coward before defending one self.  Between TriMet's unconstitutional laws and Oregons silly anti-human nature laws of cowardice, I can understand why people clamor for TriMet and the city to fix the crime issue on the transit system.

I'll say it one more time.  TriMet is utilizing the LEAST EFFICIENT SAFETY mechanism available:  police.  Don't get me wrong, I love having police, I like a good, smart, well utilized, and appropriately utilized police force.  I think police should be in the range of 70-120k a year salaried persons.  I think they should have every benefit and feature of the upper income brackets.  But the reliance on the police to provide security at ever corner, at ever chair, at every glance across a station platform is horribly misguided.  It is too costly, not efficeint enough, and technically provides no REAL security.  All it does is offset were the crime goes, just outside the stations were it can't be as easily tampered with or avoided.  It does nothing to actually resolve the real problems underlying the crime issue.

Is The Crime REALLY an Issue?

Then of course, the fact is, Portland is VERY safe compared to most cities of its size.  I'm not even going to do something dumb and compare it some place like New Orleans or Jacksonville, which blow away Portland in crimes of almost every type.  But just compare it to Sacramento, Seattle, or some place like that.  We're safe, we're stupidly safe.  One should be able to live their entire life in Portland and not have a single physical altercation.  Even though they probably will get in a fracas or two in school, but overall Portlander's are NOT in harms way.

Yes we DO need to get some of the vagrants kicked off transit.  Yes we do need to reduce the stupid harassment that some of the patrons of this city experience, but all these stats about new officers, the vastly increased costs, while fares are going up for fuel we're dumping about the same amount into new security that won't do anything to improve actual transit.

Simple facts if you/we/Portland wants some REAL security.

1. Expect no one to provide security for you, learn to avoid issues, or if you have gotten yourself stuck in questionable neighborhoods find out who your allies are, avoid your enemies, don't be a drama queen, and unfortunately - LEARN to defend yourself by whatever means necessary.
2. TriMet shouldn't be dealing with this, it is a POLICE problem.  We don't pay transit taxes out of income for transit police, we pay it for transit.  We place police taxes out of income for police service.  They shouldn't be intermixed.
3. Make sure people stay working, make sure we aren't quelling business with excess and stupid taxes and regulations (Portland has a ton), make sure people maintain their REAL rights, and ESPECIALLY support and back the Constitutional rights of the citizenry.  Outlawing personal defense as a form of problem resolution is insanely stupid.  It goes beyond absurd, because every human being of any means, has a natural instinctual need to defend themselves.  To force alteration of that basic natural instinct is mind boggling.

Broken Window Problems

Also note, by pushing more security and more police all over the place, we move further and further toward LOOKING like a police state.  That causes regular people to have all sorts of issues, from pushing the creative class out of the city, to causing even MORE fear, to removing pedestrian commerce.  If regular people see cops, they immediately avoid that place.  I don't blame them, several years ago it was technically more dangerous to be around a police officer than any other place in Portland, because statistically they were SHOOTING MORE people.  Portland does NOT need this type of presence.  We need police to be there, but in moderation.  We want police to be there, but as part of the community and not as a jack boot force.

So hopefully we can get this growth in police presence back to a reasonable community police force soon and not get to a level of jack boot force appearance.

Done with my rant, I'm just fearing some areas and parts of town start looking like places I wouldn't want to be.  I'll leave this entry with one more short story though.

Police State Portland

One night I walked along with Joleen toward Pioneer Place Mall downtown.  We came to the corner of the Pioneer Courthouse and there sat three police cars in sight.  One on every corner except the south western block corner.  5 police stood with M-16s.  Yes, that is what I said, M-16s.  The automatic assault rifles used for WAR.  Yup, WAR.  Not policing an urban population, but war.  These rifles are used for shooting enemies at around 300 yards easy.  Accurate and very deadly, they are not your simple pistol.  These guns are made to penetrate basic body armor and put down targets fast, easy, and quickly.  There stood 5 officers with these rifles out.  They were slung with safeties on, but they had them anyway.  There were also several officers around on the sidewalks questioning youth at various places.  On another corner there were officers with room clearing shotguns. There was no clear violence taking place, obviously the culprit that caused this FREAKING MASSIVE show of force was gone.

Now I want my police officers to be armed, and I want them armed well, but this was just absurd.  There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that this much firepower was needed to provide some security for whatever just occurred.  Nothing more than the .45s (or Glock 9mms) holstered upon each of those officers hips was required.  They didn't need to have the M-16s out, nor the shotguns.  This wasn't SWAT, this was regular officers.  This overreaction is exactly what I fear will get out of hand if we don't make sure to keep officers involved in the community, and not pushed off into special departments that segment and separate the police from what they're actually here to do, protect and server.

As some fella named Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."  Let's not fall into those that deserve neither nor have neither.  A world like that I can assure, is not one people should live in.