Last Friday night, a doctor named Mary was walking down the street in southwest Portland when she became the victim of a random attack. Without warning or any prior interaction, a man threw a metal water bottle at her, striking her in the head hard enough to knock her unconscious. A friend who runs a podcast called Rational in Portland posted some photos and an interview with Mary.

“There was no noise. There was no yelling. There was no altercation. There was nothing,” Mary said of the moments prior to the attack. She doesn’t remember getting hit, just waking up on the ground with blood on her face. Fortunately, she wasn’t alone. She had been walking with a man who she said was 6’7″ tall. After the attack, he turned and yelled at the man who threw the bottle and the attacker ran away. But until that moment the man was still advancing. Mary believes that if she’d been alone that night, the attack might have been much worse.

When she was conscious again, Mary pulled out her phone and called 911. But she was confused and thought maybe the attack was still happening. Her male friend stepped in and told the dispatcher what had happened and they promised to send help. Twenty minutes later, no one had showed up. No police. No ambulance. Nothing. Here are the photos posted on X along with a bit of the podcast interview.

https://t.co/IW5nmYbhmh pic.twitter.com/iyDuahZNT0

— Rational in Portland (@rationalinpdx) August 2, 2023

Looking back, Mary seems stuck on the fact that if she’d been alone this would have been much worse, partly because she’s convinced no one would have stopped to help her. People in Portland are so used to seeing drugged out or otherwise unconscious bodies on the sidewalk that she would have looked like just another homeless addict. “I feel very, very sure that if this had turned into a rape that it would have just been allowed to happen,” she said.

Since the attack, Mary, who has been around hospital-type trauma situations for decades, finds herself jumpy when something unexpected happens. She’s not sure how long she’ll feel that way or if she’ll get over it. Trying to sum up her feelings, she said, “When you have random acts of physical assault that can happen at any time to anyone you are now not safe in this city. You are not protecting the safety of our citizens. What are we protecting now, is what I need to know.” She added, “What is the end point of this?

That’s a great question and in Portland the answer is that no one really seems to know. The city just drifts toward greater levels of chaos and the residents keep signaling by their votes and their approval that they still want more progressive governance.

Finally, as for the fact that no police or ambulance ever showed up, there’s an ongoing problem in Portland with slow response times from police and ambulances. Recently a man attacked and nearly killed a U.S. Marshals Service deputy on the street in broad daylight. When 911 was called there was no ambulance available to take the victim to the hospital so he was driven by fellow officers instead. This situation, no available ambulances, is now common in Portland:

Ambulances in Multnomah County were unavailable to immediately respond to more than 6,300 emergency calls between January 17 and June 8, according to Bureau of Emergency Communications data.

The data reflects a surge in “Level Zero” incidents — code for when dispatchers have zero available ambulances that they can assign to respond to a 911 call.

To sum this all up, Portland has become a place where women are randomly attacked on the street by deranged men. Because street chaos is so common it’s likely victims of such attacks won’t be recognized as victims. If they call for help, police and an ambulance may never show up. Does this sound like a good place to live to you?

If you’re interested in hearing the full interview with Mary it’s here. If you stick to the end there’s a good discussion of defund the police and other progressive priorities in Portland.