GOP’s rhetoric on urban chaos usually doesn’t match reality

By Michelle R. Smith and Gillian Flaccus | Associated Press At almost every turn at the Republican National Convention, speakers from the president on down portrayed American cities like Portland, Oregon, New York and Chicago as lawless Democratic wastelands that have been overrun with violence, looting and destruction that is forcing residents to flee for safer locales. The reality on the ground is much more nuanced. In downtown Portland this week, tourists from Texas enjoyed gyros at a food ca