During a portion of an interview with PBS aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of “NewsHour,” Portland Police Bureau Sgt. Jerry Cioeta stated that the city is “just in disarray” as it deals with crime.
“NewsHour” Correspondent Stephanie Sy asked, “Do you think that [Measure] 110 [the initiative decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs] increased demand?”
Cioeta answered, “I think it’s too hard to tell. Because fentanyl hit when 110 hit, when COVID was here, it was the perfect storm for a drug epidemic like we’d never seen before.”
Sy then said, “As part of Measure 110, police are directed to write tickets when they see someone using or possessing drugs. The ticket includes a phone number to get a substance use health assessment, but, in practice, most tickets are ignored, and only a few dozen people have completed the assessment.”
She then played footage of the police finding a man with “an outstanding warrant for a weapons offense” and possible robbery tools in his backpack, who was “taken to a county jail, only to be denied booking and released because of an abscess in his mouth.” Only to, “Just three days later,” be “charged with stabbing two black teenagers in a racially-motivated attack.”
Sy then played footage of Cioeta saying, “We have a city that is just in disarray. And we have businesses that are trying to come back from all of this.”
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