Portland Mayor's Attempt To Join Protesters Goes Very Wrong
Democratic Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has been praising protesters day after day following night after night of violence, was booed by the rioters he attempted to join Wednesday night.
WARNING: The videos below contain vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
People have surrounded the mayor, cursing him and calling for resignation. pic.twitter.com/o0s1azbi2R
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 23, 2020
Wheeler was also urged to resign in a slide projected on the side of an embattled downtown building.
Protesters’ demands projected on side of Justice Center as @tedwheeler speaks with demonstrators pic.twitter.com/DXAduiXI5x
— Mike Benner (@MikeBennerKGW) July 23, 2020
He mingled with demonstrators to the point of being tear-gassed along with them, then later left as protesters scuffled with the mayor’s security detail, Fox News reported.
After Wheeler was tucked safely inside a downtown building, protesters threw water bottles and other objects at the door to the building, according to a series of tweets from Mike Baker, a reporter for The New York Times.
Wheeler leaves the scene. Protesters throw water bottles at him and curse him. He manages to get inside a building after a scuffle between protesters and his security detail. pic.twitter.com/eRn2gWlpqm
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 23, 2020
Wheeler, who has characterized sending federal agents to Portland to end more than 50 straight nights of unrest as an occupation, called tear-gassing rioters who have been seeking to burn and damage a federal courthouse an “egregious overreaction on the part of the federal officers. There was nothing that I saw anybody do that warranted this reaction.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler says the tear gas stings. Says egregious overreaction from feds. Calls it urban warfare. pic.twitter.com/hrRICiNGHn
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 23, 2020
“This is flat-out urban warfare and it’s being brought on the people of this country by the president of the United States and it’s got to stop now. This is a threat to our democracy,” he told Baker.
Wheeler told protesters earlier that “what we’re doing tonight is actually the best thing we can do right now,” according to KGW-TV. “Be here, be heard, be unified, and be clear. We didn’t want them, we didn’t ask for them, they’re not trained for what they’re being asked to do. And we want them to leave.”
Police said the Molotov cocktails were thrown at the federal courthouse that has been the target of several nights of violence, KOIN-TV reported.
Rioters also threw fireworks at the courthouse and tried to start fires there, according to police.
Shortly after midnight, police at the scene of the courthouse declared the situation a riot and called upon crowds to disperse.
The violent protests have become devoid of meaning to Marilyn George, an Oregon native living in Oklahoma who still visits the area to see family.
“I am angry about this and no one seems to care, no one seems to be doing anything and, to be quite honest, I don’t remember what started this with the protesters, do they even remember?” George told KPTV. “That is what I would like to know. They have belabored their point, whatever it once was.”
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