To be a bit more clear, Portland, Oregon isn’t saying that people are free to camp on the city’s sidewalks whenever they like. They just can’t legally do it during daytime hours from eight in the morning until eight in the evening. People can still sleep on the sidewalks at night except for in a few specific areas under a newly revised city ban. Previously, it was illegal to camp on the sidewalks at any hour. Critics of the change are pointing out that none of this matters because nobody was enforcing the law before and they’re unlikely to be able to enforce it now.  (Free Beacon)

The Portland, Ore., City Council voted Wednesday to ban camping on city property during the daytime, revising previous laws that had prohibited camping at all times in order to comply with state legislation set to go into effect next month.

The ordinance prohibits camping on public property, including parks and sidewalks, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m, and bans blocking access to private businesses and private property. It also prohibits camping near schools, parks, and officially sanctioned homeless shelters at all times. If someone violates this ordinance three times, they could be forced to pay a $100 fine or face prison time for up to 30 days.

Portland’s homeless population has nearly doubled since the pandemic. The sidewalks are littered with drug addicts and all of the attendant crime that homelessness and drug activity bring with them. It’s not safe to walk the city streets at night. And now the sidewalks will be largely impassable after dark since people will be able to set up temporary tents and enclosures with impunity.

It’s not as if the police can really do anything about it. There are simply too many people to deal with and only so many cells in the jails. How would they determine which dozen people to pick up and haul away while leaving hundreds more behind to do as they please? Under the current law, people who violate the ordinance can be hit with a $100 fine and face thirty days in jail. How many of these drug addicts do you suppose have an extra $100 on them at any given time? And as I said, you can only put up so many people in the jails for a month.

Portland is a magnet for all of this activity because of the permissive policies they keep passing and the relatively mild weather they experience for most of the year. I would go so far as to suggest that the lack of any vigorous law enforcement response to the BLM riots during the Summer of Love in 2020 sent a signal to those looking to take advantage. And all of the city’s “justice reform” measures reinforced that message. Do whatever you like and nobody will stop you.

The results were as predictable as they were obvious. Shoplifting has increased tenfold in only a few years. Mayor Ted Wheeler is pushing ten million dollars worth of marijuana reform initiatives. That’s more than twice the police budget, so you know where his priorities are. But this is apparently what the voters of Portland want. Wheeler was reelected in 2020 after the city was already going up in flames from the riots. A campaign to recall him fizzled and died. So if this is how Portland’s residents want to live, let them. Just stop sending them federal money, please. There are other places that are still trying to fight back against the madness and fix problems. They could use the cash a lot more.