Right now, there’s no place in the country I’m happier not being than Portland.

Considering this is the same nation that houses Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Saint Louis, that’s saying something.

However, in most of those cities, if someone tries to hurt the police, they will be arrested, prosecuted, and possibly convicted in a court of law. Due process will be carried out, but an effort will be made to right the wrong of someone trying to injure a law enforcement officer.

In Portland, though, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Scores of the 500 people who were arrested during the nearly 75 days of violent Portland riots will have their charges dropped by the new Black Lives Matter-approved district attorney.

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced that his default position is not to prosecute and that most crimes by rioters will be forgiven and forgotten.

That list of crimes includes interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct, and rioting.

-interfering with a police officer
-disorderly conduct
-criminal trespass
-harassment
-escape in the 3rd degree
-riot (somtimes in some circumstances)

Attacks on police officers and resisting arrest will be scrutinized based on whether – and we’re not making this up – police caused rioters to react because they used tear gas or other crowd-control measures causing rioters to “instinctively lash out.”

Sweet dancing baby Elvis on a cold-fusion-powered surfboard, really?

Schmidt is actually taking the “look what you made me do” defense seriously?

After all, this is precisely what he’s arguing. He’s claiming that police using well-proven crowd-control techniques on rioters somehow makes it their fault if those rioters hurt them.

I’d ask if he was kidding me with this crap, but this is Portland. No, people there actually mean this kind of nonsense. They actually seem to believe that anything they do to the police is justified.

And what’s worse is that the people of Portland seem to want this kind of thing.

While I don’t think police should have carte blanche to do whatever they want free from repercussions, the use of tear gas and these other crowd control measures have long been established policy for trying to break up things like riots. Now, they’re basically being told that if a “protestor” physically assaults them and causes injury, the DA’s office won’t do a damn thing.

So what are they suppose to use, harsh language?

Schmidt is also not prosecuting people for curfew violations, either.

In other words, Portland is pretty much lawless right now because the DA is more concerned with appealing to the mob than doing his damn job. It’s absolutely pathetic.

It’s also a case of all but begging for Portland to burn.

The rioters will likely feel more emboldened and continue their antics until things get even more out of control. Don’t be surprised to see Portland do a reenactment of the city of Atlanta following General Sherman’s visit there. After all, if no one is going to stop them now, why should they believe anyone will try and stop them later?

If and when that happens, the last people Schmidt needs to look to for blame is the Portland Police Department.