PORTLAND, Oregon. (AP) – Elmer Yarborough received a terrible phone call from her sister: She cried saying that two of her nephews may have been shot in broad daylight when they left a bar in Portland, Oregon.
He drove there as fast as he could. A policeman said that one of his nephews was going to the hospital and the other, Tyrell Penney, had not survived.
“My sister, Tyrell’s mother, was on the phone; I just said, ‘He’s gone’. And I just heard the most horrible scream you could imagine, ”said Yarborough.
When Penney was killed last summer, unrest was stirring up liberal Portland, while protesters took to the streets every night to demand racial justice and police expropriation. At the same time, one of the largest white cities in America was experiencing its deadliest year in more than a quarter of a century – a trend observed across the country – with shootings that overwhelmingly affected the black community.
In response to requests for change in policing, the mayor and the City Council cut several police programs from the budget, including one that Yarborough believes could have saved his nephew. A specialized unit focused on curbing armed violence, which has long been criticized for disproportionately targeting people of color, was dissolved a month before Penney, a 27-year-old black man visiting Sacramento, California, was killed on July 25.
Yarborough and a few other families wonder whether the end of the unit is partly responsible for the dramatic increase in shootings in Portland, but officials and experts attribute the increase in armed violence in cities across the country to the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment, economic anxiety. and stress on mental health.
“Without a doubt, I think it is a possibility that my nephew may still be alive if (the Weapon Violence Reduction Team) is not dissolved,” said Yarborough, a crisis response volunteer for Portland police who responds to shootings. to support the victims’ families.
“I can’t say for sure if he would, but what I will say is that if it weren’t for my nephew who was saved, he probably could have saved someone else’s life,” he said.
More people were shot to death last year in Portland – 40 – than the entire homicide count the year before. The number of shootings – 900 – was almost 2.5 times higher than the previous year. The increase has continued this year, with more than 150 shootings, including 45 wounded and 12 killed so far.
The police had warned of the possible repercussions of the end of the unit, pointing out warnings in other cities that made a similar choice.
Portland police quoted former police chief Kelly McMillin of Salinas, California: “I don’t want to be too dramatic, but if you lose the unit that focuses on removing firearms from the hands of violent criminals, people will die. It’s really that simple. “
Stockton, California, began dismantling and withdrawing funds from police units dedicated to armed violence in 2010. In 2011 and 2012, the city’s homicide rates reached record levels. After the city restored the units, homicides declined significantly, according to data reported by the police.
Although policing has been redirected to Portland, experts and officials say these changes are unlikely to have caused spikes in armed violence.
“I believe that if (the Weapon Violence Reduction Team) were (around) today, we would still see a substantial, if not identical, increase in the shootings in Portland,” said Mayor Ted Wheeler in January. “This is clearly part of a broader national trend.”
Wheeler, who is also a police commissioner, announced the deactivation of the unit last June and relocated its 34 officers to patrol. He described this as an opportunity to reimagine policing and redirected $ 7 million in police funds to communities of color.
The push was led by Jo Ann Hardesty, the first black woman elected to the City Council. She cited a 2018 audit showing that almost 60% of the people detained by the armed violence team were black – although they represent less than 6% of the city’s population.
Almost half of the total of 55 homicide victims in 2020 were people of color, many from Portland’s historically black neighborhoods, according to city statistics.
This year, there have already been 17 homicides – a worrying number considering that there was only one homicide in the same period in 2020.
Among the blacks shot to death last year were a 23-year-old Iraqi refugee who stopped to buy an Uber ticket; a 18-year-old high school graduate; and a 53-year-old woman caught in the crossfire of a gang and killed in front of her husband.
The violence left leaders and community members struggling for solutions. Some say the loss of the unit’s experienced detectives has hurt the city, while others are pushing for new approaches.
Last month, the police launched a squad of 15 policemen and six detectives focused on investigations of armed violence. The authorities say it is only part of the solution, as leaders partner with community groups, work to increase transparency and use proactive approaches that do not depend on the tactic of stopping and searching.
That is little consolation for Penney’s three children, the friends he was visiting in Portland or his family, who moved to California when he was a child to avoid the exact reason for his death – armed violence.
Penney’s uncle Yarborough was a member of a gang in the 1990s and was arrested by police on the Portland Armed Violence team. Despite this, he described the unit as the police department’s “CIA” and said that they often stopped the shootings before they happened due to the community’s deep knowledge.
“They built relationships with gang members and knew who the perpetrators were,” said Yarborough. “They … were able to come together to prevent this, or at least refer affected people to programs to help change their lives.”
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