A real estate developer in crime-addled Portland has sworn off his hometown altogether, after walking into his office this weekend to find bullet holes in one of his windows – just inches away from where he would normally sit.
Promptly sharing the unsettling discovery to social media, 44-year-old Dustin Michael Miller decried city officials for The City of Roses’ current state, which he said has only worsened in recent years after efforts to defund the police and the introduction of progressive bail laws.
Panning over to the bullet riddled window directly next to his desk, Miller remarked on how he would likely have been stuck if he had been working when the shots rang out Friday night.
The clip quickly went viral, with Miller later appearing for a televised interview to further voice his distaste with the city’s DA and other lawmakers, who he says are to blame for his beloved city’s current crime woes with their laxe policies.
Speaking to Fox & Friends First’s Todd Piro and Ashley Strohmier Monday morning, the fed-up realter – who moved into the office on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd less than a year ago – said the development was the final straw in his increasingly rocky relationship with the Dem-run city.
Scroll down for video:
Sharing the discovery to social media, 44-year-old Dustin Michael Miller decried city officials for The City of Roses’ current state, which he said has only worsened in recent years after efforts to defund the police and the introduction of progressive bail laws
Panning over to the bullet riddled window directly behind his head next to his desk, Miller said he would likely have been stuck if he had been working when the shots rang out Friday night
‘It’s scary,’ Miller told the anchors of how he now feels about living in Portland, and how he was left at a loss after coming across the bullet-riddled window Saturday when he came in for work.
‘Coming to work and finding bullet holes in your office,’ remarked the real estate professional, who commutes three miles from the nearby suburb of Happy Valley where he lives with his wife and two kids.
‘It’s somewhere where you sit all day, and they’re literally right behind my head.’
Less than 48 hours prior, the dad-of-two took to Instagram to share video of the bullet-riddled window, in which he expressed how off-put he was following the discovery.
‘Alright Portland, I’m done with you,’ he says in the short clip, filmed early Saturday when he arrived at the office in the city’s center, where crime and homelessness has been particularly rife.
‘This has got to stop,’ he added, showing how the window that now sports three 9mm size bullet holes was located directly behind where his head would have been if he had been sitting at his desk.
Miller made the discovery Saturday he arrived at the office on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, which is set in the city’s urban center, where crime has been particularly rife
Portland’s continued crime woes have caused public safety officials in different parts of Oregon to decry the city’s state, with crime still up mostly across the board since hitting record highs during the pandemic
‘I work right here a lot during the day,’ the realtor remarked. ‘If I was here [the bullets would] be in the back of my head right now.’
During his appearance on Fox, the appalled Portlander expressed similar sentiments, calling on city officials such as Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt to right the wrongs they have made in recent years that has seen the city once touted for its coastal valleys and delicate pinot noir grape transform into a den of debauchery.
‘It’s got to stop. Our city is out of control. It is unrecognizable,’ said Miller, adding: ‘I’ve lived here my whole life, and it’s just deteriorated over the last five years.’
The real estate professionals qualms are not uncommon, as several other citizens have voiced similar frustrations over rising crime and homeless rates across a city that in the past has been hailed for its trendy art and food scenes.
Miller said the development was the final straw in his increasingly rocky relationship with the Dem-run city, which over the past several years has seen a surge in homelessness and crime
The city is also in the midst of a homeless crisis that has confounded local officials, with several stores forced to permanently shutter due to break-ins now common due to rampant crime, making the businesses no longer financially viable
Hundreds of tent cities have popped up on the sidewalks in the city, where addicts often sit to take a hit and ‘zombie’ out in full view of families and children passing by
Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles
Now overrun by drug addicts and hundreds of homeless encampments, the Democrat-run city has one of the most deserted downtowns in the United States – a far cry from its glory days as a progressive, artsy haven on the cusp of the Canadian border.
That deterioration has seen a swath of businesses this year to announce plans to pack up and move shop out of the city, with big box chain Walmart being the most recent to do so, citing poor financial performance from its two remaining Portland stores.
Set to close before the month is out, the stores’ closures came after its CEO Doug McMillon warned of a historic rise in thefts at stores across the US, which he said has been most pronounced in progressive-led cities such as Portland.
Nike, whose HQ is in nearby Beaverton, similarly chose to close a long-standing community store for weeks last month because shoplifting was so out of control, with several other businesses in the city’s Downtown – which has been overrun with tent encampments since the pandemic – also following suit.
During his TV appearance Monday morning, Miller said that he too is adamant in his decision to vacate the city dubbed the ‘crown jewel of the West Coast’ – where he said ‘it’s not uncommon to see homeless people running around the city with axes and machetes.’
He added of officials such as Schmidt’s failure to address the ongoing disaster: ‘It’s just a common thing that nobody does anything. You call the police, and it’s very rare that they show up.’
