Mayor Sam Adams went public today with his push to crack down on gang violence in the wake of last weekend's fatal shooting downtown.
He attended this morning's meeting of the Gang Violence Task Force in North Portland, where he announced the return of the city's long-disbanded Youth Gun Anti-Violence Task Force—a team of officers devoted to sussing out the source of guns that find their way to young people. Also at that meeting, Chief Mike Reese said patrols would be stepped up this weekend.
Then, just a few minutes ago, Adams put out a lengthy statement finally detailing some of his quieter efforts to tackle the problem this week, including closed-door meetings with African-American community leaders. The Mercury was the first to report on Adams' hush-hush efforts, and his details square with what we found out: basically that any anti-gang effort will include both immediate and ongoing strategies. (We did just now learn, however, that there were two meetings, and not just one.)
Curiously missing was any detailed mention of the mayor's gun laws. Unveiled in August, and expected by the end of September in final form, they are still being vetted, as the Mercury reported Monday, and will now wait for the end of October.
Keep reading for the full text of Adams' statement. It's a bit more than a few paragraphs.