The Nation - News from July 13, 1989

Faced with an escalating gang and drug problem in Portland, Oregon Gov. Neil E. Goldschmidt agreed to deploy three dozen National Guard troops to support law enforcement efforts to crack down on the city’s estimated 1,000 gang members. The guardsmen will be used in a support role, and will not be assigned to street patrols. They will handle routine administrative duties such as paper work and prisoner transport, allowing police to spend more time on patrol in the city’s beleaguered northeast sector. Portland Mayor Bud Clark asked for state help after the rival Crips and Bloods street gangs moved from Los Angeles to Portland and took over a large segment of the city’s drug trade. In the last year there have been numerous drive-by shootings, with the violence claiming at least five lives.