Trump’s Lies About Portland: An Excuse to Create a Police State

I don’t know Portland well, but I’ve visited there twice, the most recent visit just a few months ago. I stayed in a hotel along the Willamette River maybe three-quarters of a mile south of downtown. On a tasty Saturday afternoon, I walked along the river through a lovely riverfront park, cut over to Chapman Square, walked up past the Pioneer Place shopping center, and then zipped a few blocks north to the amazing Powell’s bookstore. I ate lunch in a charming little middle Eastern restaurant not far from Powell’s, walked part of the way back, got a little tired, and ordered up an Uber.

What did I see? Not very much. Downtown was pretty deserted. To the extent that there was activity, mostly around Powell’s, it was very urban-normal: groups of Millennial friends lingering, a couple of street guitarists busking. Did I ever sense the vaguest whiff of trouble? Not in the slightest. There was a small pro-Palestinian demonstration going on in Chapman Square. I took the heedless risk of walking within about 10 feet of these unwashed ruffians, but lo and behold no one so much as sneezed on me.

Oh, and that one block to which The Washington Post refers? Well, according to Google maps, the Portland ICE facility is a little more than a mile south of my hotel—which, remember, was south of downtown to begin with—and it’s wedged between the river and Interstate 5. Pretty cut off, in other words. There’s a small residential neighborhood there, but for the vast majority of the people, you have to want to go there—and go out of your way to do so. To put it in, say, New York terms, its location is roughly equivalent to a place like the East 20s over by FDR Drive: A place where, yes, a few people live, but no one else ever goes. I lived in New York for 20 years and don’t think I ever went there once.