Surprising Polls: Near-Majority Of Portlanders Favor Police Efforts Against Riots, Disapprove Of Mayor

Oregon is a deep-blue state largely because of the deep-blue city of Portland, where their motto is literally “Keep Portland weird,” demonstrating how morally bankrupt many in that city are. Which is why it’s so surprising to see the poll numbers that we see come out of that city and state altogether (though the rest of the state, being more agricultural, is understandably more conservative).
 
According to DHM Research, in a poll taken between September 3rd and the 8th, 42% of respondents believed that police should use more force against the rioters, with 18% feeling the current force is satisfactory.
 
This is surprisingly high, considering that the Leftist media has made it their mission to demonize the police as much as humanly possible, taking important context out of situations to make them look bad, naturally leading to incidents like the L.A. officers who were shot in cold blood (thankfully, expected to survive their injuries) and with BLM bastards gathering around the LA hospital the officers were taken to chanting “We hope they die.”
 
Despite the media’s best efforts to get officers maligned and killed (yes, I have no qualms about pointing out that the media has blood on their hands for every single officer who is killed as a result of their evil misreporting of events), the polls show that these efforts are not really paying off whatsoever for the Left (and thank God for that).
 
Even more surprising than the number of respondents who believe the Portland PD should use more force is the number of respondents who disapproved of the protests: 66% (and before you comment, there is a reason I called it “protests” instead of riots this time, which you will see momentarily). According to the poll: “Voters ages 18-29 are the only group to approve of the protests, with 62% saying that they approve compared to 33% who disapprove.”
 
That particular part is not quite as surprising, considering voters in that age group usually make up the body of the protesters and rioters. The rioters aren’t the ones who own any of these businesses or work in any of these areas, if at all. They are also among the youngest people, who have been recently, or in the process of being, indoctrinated into the communist, Marxist beliefs that the schools and universities spread. Of course they approve of these protests: they believe the lies fed to them about what they represent.
 
They buy into the idea that America is illegitimate and racist by its very founding and that these protests are Civil Rights-esque in trying to establish equality and other things which are already present.
 
But while the number of young people supporting the protests is not surprising, the number of people who disapprove of it overall is. Again, a full two-thirds of respondents disapproved of the protests. And it’s not like the respondents were all that far from the riots. DHM Research reported that “Nearly half of the participants said they lived in either Multnomah, Clackamas or Washington counties,” all of which are near or around Portland, with Multnomah and Washington counties being the closest.
 
A quarter of the respondents said they lived in Willamette Valley, which is also pretty close to Portland. So these are, for the most part, people who are near or around the sites of the riots. Given their close proximity, it shouldn’t be such a surprise that they would disapprove of the riots happening, but you never know with people in Portland (then again, having lived in Washington county, even while it’s pretty close to downtown Portland, there is a considerable difference between Portland and the smaller cities and counties surrounding it. You aren’t so likely to see a transgender homeless man with green hair and tattoos outside of downtown).
 
Point is, these are people who are right there and who are directly affected by the riots, the police response and the mayor and governor’s response to the situation.
 
Speaking of whom, let’s look over their approval ratings, shall we? The DHM Research poll also conducted a job approval poll for Governor Kate Brown and found that only 10% of respondents approve of her response to the protests. Still, Governor Brown’s approval rating was still slightly better than Mayor Ted Wheeler’s, whose approval rating was just 8%. Meanwhile, 46% of Oregon voters approved of the Portland PD response to the riots and 45% disapproved.
 
What’s more, according to DHM Research: “At the end of the survey, we asked voters what word is a more accurate description of the events in Portland: 55% said riot and 37% said protest.”
 
Keep these numbers in mind as I show you a different recent poll. According to Oregon Live, “a separate survey of 435 Portland voters published Tuesday showed Wheeler drew an unfavorable rating of 63%, around three-quarters of respondents said they supported the Black Lives Matter movement and close to 70% said they supported the Portland protests.”
 
Interesting numbers all around. First, of course, there is the 63% disapproval of Wheeler, which is not quite as surprising when you recognize that his approval rating (for the response) is just 8%. Unsurprisingly, people don’t like the uber-Leftist mayor who at every given chance attacks DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, his agency and President Trump, blaming them for the violence which has been present for years due to the rise of Antifa in that city. Remember, riots and Antifa violence have been going on in Portland for far longer than the George Floyd riots.
 
Well, I say it’s unsurprising largely because it really shouldn’t be a surprising thing. If any mayor in just about any other town or city had the problems Portland has and acted in the way Wheeler has, they would receive a lot of scorn and scrutiny and bad poll numbers as a result. But I usually don’t expect such things to happen in deep-blue cities like Portland, Seattle, L.A., NYC, etc.
 
But let’s move on to the other two numbers that that particular poll shared: the roughly three-quarters of people who support the Black Lives Matter movement and the 70% who support the protests.
 
First, a distinction must be made regarding BLM. It makes sense to support the black lives matter movement because black lives do, indeed, matter, as do all lives. The “Black Lives Matter” organization, however, which I have begun simply calling “BLM” because I don’t believe they care about black lives and think that “Burn, Loot, Murder” is what they really stand for, given that is basically all they do with approval from local chapter leadership, is not something that ought to be supported, respected or at all thought of positively. BLM, like Antifa, is nothing more than the Left’s modern KKK. They are a military branch of the American Left and their job is to cause strife, division and destruction.
 
Black lives don’t matter to BLM because protecting black lives is not their goal. However, when one is asked “do you support the black lives matter movement”, usually, one will say that they do because they believe that black lives matter, which they do because ALL lives matter. The issue is that when someone is verbally asked if they support such a movement, one type of person will say they support it because they think black lives matter as do all lives (such as myself) while another person will say they support it because they support the Burn, Loot, Murder organization and what it’s trying to do.
 
So I wouldn’t put too much stake into 75% support for the Black Lives Matter movement because it could encompass different people with different beliefs answering it with different stigmas in mind.
 
However, that 70% support for the protests is puzzling because of the other poll from DHM Research. To remind you, DHM Research found that 66% of respondents disapproved of the protests. How then, could 70% support the protests and 66% disapprove of them?
 
And this is why I called them “protests” earlier as opposed to “riots”. Keep in mind the following two things:

   1. The DHM Research poll asked what people thought these things should be called and 55% said they are riots while 37% called them protests.

    2. The other poll cited by Oregon Live (conducted by FM3 Research) had a sample size of 435 Portland voters, which isn’t a whole lot.  

The way in which one asks the question is also important. I doubt FM3 Research called them “riots” when asking if they supported the protests, not to mention that one could assume what is meant by “do you support the protests” to be something like “do you support the message of the protesters” as opposed to the methods.
 
Another key aspect is that those voters might not be seeing much news about the riots or think that they are awfully infrequent, largely depending on where they live in Portland.
 
My larger point being that there is a perfectly logical explanation as to why two polls show such contrasting results regarding one particular problem.
 
To the people in the DHM Research survey, a majority of them view these things as riots. To those in the FM3 survey, they likely do not, or interpret support of the protests as supporting the message rather than the actions or methods of those involved.
 
But regardless of these irregularities in polling, the rest of the numbers show just how bad of a misstep the Left took in inciting, supporting and defending riots. A crazy concept, I know, but destruction, violence, discord and instability are not things most people support or believe there should be more of.
 
Even in deep-blue Portland, we see a far-Leftist mayor and governor deep underwater in terms of their response to this and they could pay politically, at least eventually. That’s not to say I expect Oregon to turn red, much like I don’t expect California to turn red or New York to do the same, but it’s clear that the Left is, indeed, pushing the middle to the right.
 
In this day and age, not supporting riots, violence, death and (unrelated but still relevant) child sexual exploitation is a right-wing concept rather than a bipartisan one.
 
The Left severely overplayed their hand following the death of George Floyd. I hope they pay dearly for it.
 
Proverbs 21:15
“When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”