After a Year of Protests, Portland Is Ready to Move On. But Where? The demonstrations that swept the country after George Floyd’s death lived on for much of the year in Portland, a city now engaged in finger-pointing and a debate over what comes next. Protesters gathered behind a wall of shields and umbrellas in Portland, Ore., in April.Credit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times June 9, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET PORTLAND, Ore. — Defund the police? City leaders in Portland tried it. A unit in the fire and rescue bureau, one of the first of its kind in a major city, began this year taking some 911 calls about people in crisis, especially those who are homeless.