The city commissioner of Portland, Oregon, a staunch supporter of the “Defund the Police” movement who claims that most police calls are unnecessary, recently called 911 herself, to report a harrowing event as it unfolded — she was involved in an argument with a Lyft driver who refused to close his window.
It gets better.
The festivities began after Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty was picked up at a casino by Lyft driver Richmond Frost. Hardesty insisted that Frost put his window up, which he refused to do, in accordance with COVID protocols implemented by Lyft, as reported by Daily Caller. Before it was over, Hardesty called 911 — twice.
Portland City Commissioner Who Wants To Slash Police Budget Calls 911 Over Lyft Ride https://t.co/VUNDIn5YrO
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 11, 2020
‘I proactively called 911’
Hardesty told the Portland Tribune that she “practively called 911” because she feared for her safety.
“I knew that having him call the police (on Hardesty) would put me in danger,” Hardesty said. “And so that’s why I proactively called 911.”
Hardesty said that as soon as she got in the car, Frost complained that she wasn’t at the usual exit for pick-up. “I always get picked up at this door,” she said she responded.
“I’ve had some interesting drivers, but never one who was so blatantly rude from the beginning,” she said.
Frost said he also sensed tension from the start, and said he didn’t know if she had had a bad day gambling, or what. “I spent 40 years in the service business,” he said. “There’s always a few people, you cannot please them no matter what you do.”
Then the dispute came over the windows, which Frost, who is 63, keeps open on the driver side and the passenger side in back.
Frost says he kept the window open just wide enough to fit a pencil, and he was following Lyft recommendations. He said the car was still quite warm, and he’d never had a passenger complain about the windows before. The call, he added, “was so unnecessary … To argue and belittle and to treat me the way I felt she treated me was completely unnecessary.”
Hardesty’s “emergency” calls, which were first obtained by The Oregonian, reveal her continuing to demand that the police department send officers to the pretend-scene — even as the dispatcher tells her no crime had been committed.
“I paid for a ride. He says he canceled it,” Hardesty told the dispatcher, who told her it was the driver’s right to do so. “So I’m going to sit here until he sends me another ride,” she said, with the dispatcher patiently telling her that only she could order one.
“I am not going to allow him to leave me on the side of the road. I paid for a ride and he says he canceled it, so I’m just going to sit here until he sends me another ride,” Hardesty said, adding that she called the cops first because Frost allegedly threatened to call the cops on her for not exiting his vehicle.
“Technically it’s his property,” the dispatcher said. “And you have a civil agreement and there’s no crime involved.”
Setting aside her obvious pleasant disposition (sac), as noted by Andy Ngô, not only has Hardesty called for massive cuts to the Portland Police Department budget, and insisted that 911 calls are unnecessary, she has also demanded to made police commissioner. Good luck with that, Portland city government, if you’re even crazier than we already think you are.
.@JoAnnPDX, a Portland city council member who is pushing to defund @PortlandPolice, demanding to be made police commissioner & said 911 calls are unnecessary, called the cops on her Lyft driver following a dispute about an open window. https://t.co/We7rDM3ARW
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) November 11, 2020
When two police officers finally arrived at the scene, Hardesty got out of the Lyft ride and got into another ride-share car that pulled up at time same time the same time as the officers, according to The Oregonian.
Whew. “Crisis” averted.
If you’re of the mind to listen to nonsense, here ya go.
Setting aside the major league hypocrisy of Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in this specific incident, one needs to look no further than Minneapolis for similar hypocrisy on a grander scale. Following the death in May of George Floyd while in police custody, several officers resigned as continued rioting in the city strained police department resources. Additionally, some officers have since made claims related to experiencing PTSD as a result of the unrest.
Now, as reported by my RedState colleague Alex Parker on Monday, Minneapolis is considered asking nearby police departments for help, as the city’s crime rate continues to soar.
Similarly, as reported by the New York Times in late August, the NYPD was stretched thin as the city’s gun-crime wave continued, unabated.
There’s a lesson to be learned by not only liberal city governments that cower to far-left calls to defund their police departments, but to petty hypocrites like Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The question is, will they ever learn from the stupid games they play?
