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Utopia Talk / Politics / Meanwhile, in Democratic America
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:13:34
Portland city commissioner who called the cops on her Lyft driver in argument about open windows says she made the 911 call as she fears 'white supremacists'

By Frances Mulraney

02:51 EST 15 Nov 2020 , updated 03:36 EST 15 Nov 2020

A Portland City Commissioner who called the cops on her Lyft driver earlier this month, despite her push for cuts to the city's police department, claims that she acted because of her fear of 'white supremacists'.

Jo Ann Hardesty was harshly criticized for calling in officers after previously stating that most 911 calls are unnecessary, and her being one of the city's main advocates of a $18million cut to the police department.

Yet during a city council meeting on Thursday, Hardesty branded the incident as 'another example of being black in America'.

She said that she was put in a position where she had 'to be the one to look out for my personal safety'.

The run in with Lyft driver, Richmond Frost, happened on November 1 when Hardesty was allegedly angered after he refused to roll the windows up, despite it being recommended policy from the company to keep them down due to the coronavirus.

It followed annoyance over a mix-up about where she was being picked up, all culminating in the driver cancelling the ride and dropping Hardesty at a gas station saying she could find another car.

Hardesty refused to leave the vehicle and called the cops, telling them that she would not leave until the driver had found her another ride.

Frost also made a 911 call and officers were forced to arrive at the gas station shortly before 10pm, in spite of the fact that Hardesty has argued that many 911 calls are unnecessary and a police response often not needed, according to the Portland Tribune.

The commissioner acquired another car home with half an hour of her first ride being canceled.

'This is another example of being black in America and being put in a position where I have to be the one to look out for my personal safety,' Hardesty claimed during Thursday's meeting, as she addressed the media attention the incident had received.

'I didn't expect the Lyft driver to do it, certainly didn't expect the police to do it. It was my responsibility to make sure I got home safe,' Hardesty added.

When you're living in a city where white supremacists are proudly riding around in their big trucks with their flags and you're a black person and somebody wants to put [you] on the side of the road at night. Not gonna happen.'

Hardesty, who heads up Portland's 911 system, had been picked up from ilani Casino in Washington when the series of disagreements began

Frost, 63, pulled into a gas station and told Hardesty to leave but she refused as 'it was cold and she was a woman and alone', according to Fox News.

Audio of both the 911 calls were published by Oregon Live, revealing their versions of events.

'Well, I've got a Lyft driver that decided he would just drop me off at a filling station. Well, I'm not getting out of the car, in the dark, at a filling station, not happening. All because I asked him to put the window up. I'm not leaving,' Hardesty told the 911 operator.

'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.'

She is told by the dispatcher that 'technically it's his property and there's no crimes involved'.

'Only you can order another ride,' the dispatcher said, according to KOIN 6. 'I can have an officer come out but they're not going to be able to make him stay there.'

He can't go anywhere because I'm not moving until another car comes,' Hardesty insists and the dispatcher says they will send an officer.

In Frost's call, made three minutes after Hardesty, he is heard saying: 'I've got a customer that I canceled the ride. I'm a rideshare driver and I canceled the ride, and I've taken her off the freeway to this filling station so that she can order another ride.

'I canceled the ride so she's no longer involved or engaged with me. She's refusing to get out of my car,' he added, explaining that she was in the back seat and he was in the front.

When asked if she could have any weapons on her, he replied: 'I doubt it'.

Hardesty said that she made the call because she felt unsafe in the situation and accused Front of being 'so blatantly rude from the beginning'.

'I don't call 911 lightly, but I certainly am not going to do anything that would put my personal safety at risk,' she told the Portland Tribune.

'I knew that having him call the police would but me in danger. And that's why I proactively called 911.

'It's a lot harder when you are Black or brown in America to make that decision ... But I ultimately had very limited options,' she added.

Frost also admitted that there was tension from the start and told the Portland Tribune that he wasn't sure if maybe Hardesty had a bad day gambling.

'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.'

He added that he felt the call 'was so unnecessary … To argue and belittle and to treat me the way I felt she treated me was completely unnecessary.'

Frost also argued that the gas station was well lit, that she was safe and that he had explained to her that he couldn't call a Lyft for her.

Yet Hardesty countered that the station was about to close, which was confirmed to KINO 6 by an employee, which would mean the lights were about to be turned off.

'I didn't know how long I would have to wait,' she said. 'There was no way I was going to get out on the side of the road, in the dark, because some driver has an attitude, and decided I should just get out and just whatever happens, happens.'

Hardesty had a new ride by 10.14pm but immediately made a complaint to Lyft.

'I requested a ride, the driver came to the wrong pick up location, He then blamed me. I asked him to roll the window up on my side and he started to yell, 'I can't because the regulations require each window to be cracked' (which isn't true),' said the complaint, which was released by her office.

'He then pulls over in the dark on the side of a gas station and told me he was cancelling the ride. I had no interest in being left on the side of the road by an angry driver. He threatens to call the police. I called the police & another car.

'Both arrived at the same time. It is totally inappropriate to expect a woman to get out of a vehicle in the dead of night because any angry person demands it.

'This is a safety issue for your customer. Your driver was in no danger.'

Lyft responded by stating that the driver had acted in accordance to their policy.

'The feedback alleged that you refused to exit the driver's vehicle after they requested you do so. As a reminder, drivers are free to end a ride for any reason as long as the drop off is in a safe location,' it said.

'Safety is our top priority. We take these matters very seriously. We encourage everyone using Lyft to be respectful of others. This helps maintain a safe and inclusive community.

'Please know that future reports of this nature may lead to additional action being taken on your account.'

The reports of Hardesty's 911 emerged just days after she called on elected leaders in Portland to 'move past the fear and stretch ourselves to take the action that is demanded' regarding a new police budget.

She has been pushing to 'reallocate $18 million from the Portland Police Bureau to reinvest in community, COVID-19 relief, and police alternatives', but the amendment was not passed by the Portland City Council last week.

In a lengthy statement posted to Twitter when the amendment failed to be passed, she said: 'What we have right now does not work. You cannot look me in the eye and tell me that a Bureau responding violently to protesters every night works for us. Or that over 50% of all the bureaus arrestees are houseless individuals works for us.

'Or that a Bureau shown to stop black drivers twice as much as white drivers works for us. Or a Bureau that has accumulated over $6,000,000 in overtime works for us.

'In June we started this journey by reallocating $15 million from the Police Bureau and redirecting those funds towards community investments,' she added.

'We came into this budget with the same goal of investing in our communities and reducing police by providing mutual aid because if Portlanders can't depend on Portland to keep them safe and supported, who can they count on?'

http://www...afraid-white-supremacists.html
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:14:55
To all the Biden supporters out there, I hope you realize that you voted to put these types of people in charge of the executive branch. Well done.
Daemon
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:24:39
"I hope you realize that you voted to put these types of people in charge of the executive branch"

She seems stupid, but worse than Trump?
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:29:22
Trump doesn't think that America is systemically racist and that white people need to pay for the sins of a bunch of people who died 100 years ago.

Trump is chaotic is fuck but my life has been fine under him. I can't say the same about "rules for thee but not for me" SJWs who want to bring anarchy to our cities and have a massive hate boner for whitey.
Habebe
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:30:22
This is Qannon level crazy.
swordtail
Anarchist Prime
Sun Nov 15 09:36:39
http://pbs...MAA45Tq?format=jpg&name=medium
Habebe
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:39:26
These are the people who believed jussie smollet.
Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:43:19
Rugian and other Trump fluffers are afraid.
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:45:03
of people like this being in government? Yes, I am afraid of that.

Telling that you're not.
Dakyron
Member
Sun Nov 15 09:53:08
She should be arrested for misusing 911. And fired.
Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:10:08
Your issue isn't that you dislike the politics and actions of that city commissioner. I actually agree with you on that part.

But the bit where you slip into retarded delusion, well, that's where I disagree with you.
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:14:33
Ah yes, the classic insults without even the semblance of an argument post. Classic WoO.

We've spent the last several months watching American cities be trashed by looters and rioters time and time again. And now we're going to have an executive branch that is sort of on the rioters' side. Good times.
Daemon
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:21:34
"Trump doesn't think that America is systemically racist and that white people need to pay for the sins of a bunch of people who died 100 years ago."

But he believes things that are just as crazy or worse. Like he has won the election. He's a lunatic.


"I can't say the same about "rules for thee but not for me" SJWs who want to bring anarchy to our cities and have a massive hate boner for whitey."

I don't think that Biden is that kind of guy, but time will tell.
Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:22:28
"without even the semblance of an argument post."

Except it's very clear what my argument is. You just don't want to hear it because means you really are a delusional nutter.

That second part of your post is even more retarded. But it's a nice bit of hedging so that you can keep spinning your delusional bullshit and remain in your little bubble of fear.
Habebe
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:26:06
1. I think we can all agree she is paranoid to an unhealthy level.

2. Her politics make her actions ironic. But in all fairness, that isn't unique to her or liberals at all.This is an extreme case. Like white supremacists are going to jump through the windows and get her, in Portland?

3. The level of craziness here is no one that should in charge of a McDonald's let alone a government job.

Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:30:58
Fucking hell Rugian, even Habebe gets it...
Habebe
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:35:29
Bottom line, she owes thw driver for his time. And should be mocked for her political irony and ineptitude.
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:40:09
Habebe is incorrectly inferring that there is a uniqueness to her paranoia. He is wrong there.

How many times over the last year have we heard from politicians and the media that America suffers from an epidemic of black people being murdered by police? If you watched CNN or listened to Democratic leadership all day, you'd think that black men are being genocided in the streets by negro-hating pigs. In reality, the statistics don't bear that claim out; the myth of blacks dying en masse at the hands of cops is a delusion.

So Hababe thinks that she's uniquely unwell in thinking that white supremacists are going to jump her in Portland. But that's just a slightly more extreme manifestation of the "evil white cops are shooting up black people" messagingg that we've been inundated with since the death of Floyd.

This isn't an isolated incident; its an example of mainstream leftist ideology.
Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:45:00
There's a big difference between people like her and the mainstream left ideology. While her position is not unique, being "not unique" does not mean she represents mainstream left ideology. And that's where you slip in delusional retardation.
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:48:41
"Biden says there's "absolutely" systemic racism in law enforcement and beyond"

Maybe I'm wrong here, but isn't Joe Biden some kind of mainstream leftist or something? I forget.
Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:50:24
And now you have more delusional retardation. There's a big difference between believing there is inherent racism in some of our systems and thinking we need to defund police, turn cities over to rioters, etc.

I really feed bad for you. I don't know what happened to you, but you need to seek help. The mental dysfunction you display is troubling and not healthy.
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:53:29
"thinking we need to defund police, turn cities over to rioters, etc."

You mean like what multiple major metropolitan areas run by Democrats have done?

Sorry pal, but the onus is on you to demonstrate how this sentiment is NOT mainstream leftist ideology.
Wrath of Orion
Member
Sun Nov 15 10:58:30
The conflict within the Democratic party is more than enough proof. There's far more relatively moderate people in there than far left progressives. The latter is an exceedingly vocal minority, though.

But yeah, you're not the type of person that will ever change your mind. No matter how much evidence is presented, you'll still continue to be a Trump fluffer that's just plain scared. Best of luck.
Rugian
Member
Sun Nov 15 11:07:27
I'm sorry that facts are inconvenient to you, but then again I've never seen you be accused of living in reality.

Had Democrats come out in force against the rioters, deploying the National Guard and taking a zero policy approach to unrest, your position might have had some credibility. It was perfectly possible to be sympathetic for the protestors while at the same time working to keep the cities safe.

Instead, they decided to throw their lot in with the rioters. So much so that it took the Democratic nominee for Potus months to even slightly condemn them.

You may have the memory of a goldfish, but the actions of Democrats speak for themselves.
Habebe
Member
Sun Nov 15 11:14:06
Rugian, I think that plenty of westcoast style liberals have unreasonable level of fear over white supremacists.

However, I dont think this lady. Represents more than a very small minority at most, no larger than the Q group of republicans.

This may not even be real paranoia, it may be some sort of " Karen" mentality, or a combination. Like those people claiming wearing a mask will suffocate them.

The absurd part is her job.
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