A police crackdown was executed on a Glenfair Neighborhood encampment, leading to several arrests and offers of social services to the inhabitants, following a spate of violence that had wracked the Portland community.
On Tuesday, February 13th, a multi-agency team, including East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team, SERT, and Crisis Negotiation Team, descended upon the trouble-ridden encampment spanning two vacant lots at 46 Northeast 148th Avenue and 23 Northeast 151st Avenue, this area gained notoriety for open drug use, assaults and two shootings in January, with dozens of shots fired on one occasion and a man seriously wounded in another yet Portland Police intervened providing life-saving first aid before his transportation to the hospital, according to Portland Police Bureau’s official news release.
In collaboration with the Multnomah County District Attorney's office, a search warrant was obtained and served, resulting in the processing of 30 individuals on site with trespass notices and the apprehension of twelve on various charges, from first-degree robbery to second-degree criminal trespass—those unable to evade the arriving police forces.
Despite the initial success, over twenty individuals vacated the premises as law enforcement arrived, the property owners are devising plans to develop housing on the site; they are in the permitting process with the city looming not as a final solution, but as a step in ongoing communal efforts to address security and safety concerns within the neighborhood, indicated by subsequent patrols and further arrests by the East Precinct.
