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Moderators of the controversial Instagram account “Portland Looks Like Shit” told WW this afternoon that the account was suspended by the social media platform after posting video of a man being murdered on Friday night outside of a 7-Eleven in the Lents neighborhood.
“Instagram has fully suspended our account as of this afternoon as a result of the video from Lents,” the anonymous emailer responded. “We are working to have the account restored.”
The account, which had 87,000 followers, disappeared briefly just hours after it posted the video Monday morning. By 5:40 pm on Monday, the account was back up.
On Tuesday morning, the account had once again vanished.
When asked why moderators posted the video to the account—which shows 30-year-old Johnny Polanco being murdered by a man standing in the 7-Eleven parking lot after appearing to try and break up a fight among three people who all appeared to be women—the emailer wrote: “Because we are in a public safety crisis and the public needs to see the raw truth so they can hold the elected officials accountable for the out of control state our city is currently in.”
For most of its roughly yearlong existence, the account has only posted pictures and videos of homeless camps, homeless people, needles and burning cars. The intensity of the content has escalated since spring, now featuring the video submitters’ commentary in the background, which is often mocking, sarcastic or egging on the subjects of the video (who often appear to be in an altered mental state).
But the video posted Monday morning departed from that expectation. It showed Polanco being shot in the head by a man in the 7-Eleven parking lot after 30 or so seconds of the recorded fight. The camera then panned to Polanco’s body, as blood pooled on the ground around his head.
Within hours of its posting, the video had garnered over 1,000 comments.
Some mocked the death; others chastised the account for not adding a trigger warning. Others condemned the account for posting a murder at all.
One person wrote, “This page is starting to seem more like a place for sick people to get off on violence rather than a chronicle of policy failures.”
The account defends the posting of the graphic video.
“Our mission isn’t focused on homelessness, rather on the public safety crisis we find ourselves in as a result of demonizing the police and failed policy by local elected officials,” the email respondent told WW. “We are working with some businessmen to get billboards and advertisements on social media up and will be exposing more of this public safety crisis that many don’t see.”
Instagram shuts downs accounts for a variety of reasons, including depictions of death and violence.
Update, Wednesday, Aug. 25: Moderators of “Oregon Looks Like Shit”—the account that claims to be the backup account for “Portland Looks Like Shit”—posted on their Instagram story that they were not the ones who emailed WW from the “portlandlookslikeshit” email account—although they concede that Instagram did suspend their account. It’s difficult to say who’s telling the truth, if anyone, because both parties decline to reveal their identity and no one knows who actually runs “Portland Looks Like Shit.” The account remains suspended.