Mayor Ted Wheeler may have gotten a taste for what it’s like to be a typical riot-weary Portlander. Recent events may have finally shown the second-term Portland mayor what it’s like living in a city where you can’t depend on defunded cops, make a living in a riot zone, or defend yourself against the violent antifa and BLM mob when you’re attacked.
Wheeler spent all last spring, summer, and fall coddling – and joining – the violent revolutionaries of antifa and BLM attacking the federal courthouse, cops, and capitalism. Businesses that weren’t boarded up or destroyed from months of riots were smothered by Democrat COVID-19 regulators.
People were angry because Wheeler didn’t dare call what the rioters did last summer violence. He attempted to make excuses for it. He claimed the violence was due to systemic racism, instead of what actually inspired it: disregard for the rule of law that these social justice warriors claimed to support. He refused to call the groups by their names because he feared getting canceled.
In an attempt to curry favor with the Left during the summer, the clueless mayor blamed President Trump for Portland’s anarcho-antifa violence, which long pre-dated Trump’s presidency.
But Ted doesn’t have President Trump to kick around anymore.
Portland-rioting leftists still have Wheeler to kick around, though. And they are doing so.
Wheeler was forced to move from his condo in the tony Pearl District of Portland when antifa and BLM “protesters” began throwing explosives at his building and attempted to build an autonomous zone on his street.
On January 6th, a scrum of screamers, usually seen rioting with BLM and antifa, surrounded the mayor while he was eating at a downtown Portland restaurant. One of the BLM mobsters punched him in the face, according to the mayor’s office. Wheeler took a video of the attack.
Fvck Ted Wheeler! The Portland Police Bureau is the most VIOLENT department in the country! pic.twitter.com/81Y5wAPGGQ
— Cozca (@cozca503) January 7, 2021
But Sunday night, Wheeler decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore.
A man began harassing Wheeler as he sat at a brewpub talking with the former mayor of Portland, Sam Adams. He claimed that Wheeler needed to be masked up while eating. The mask harasser apparently got in Wheeler’s face, even as he lectured him about staying six feet apart. He was incessant and wouldn’t leave Wheeler alone, the story goes. Adams got an audio recording of the exchange.
What the harasser didn’t know was that Wheeler had armed himself with pepper spray. He gave the guy a squirt when he wouldn’t leave him alone.
The Willamette Week transcribed the exchange.
“Excuse me,” Wheeler says, “apparently you don’t know the rules.” He says that two people can dine together if they are six feet apart.
“You weren’t six feet apart from Mr. Adams over there,” the man replies.
“Yeah, we were,” interjects Adams.
The audio is then interrupted with rustling noises, apparently because Adams is walking. The last thing the man says before Wheeler deploys pepper spray appears to be: “Thanks for ruining our city,” although the last word is garbled.
“You just pepper sprayed me,” the man then says.
Wheeler even filed a police report and Adams gave up the tape as evidence.
I wonder if @tedwheeler regrets playing footsies with Antifa for years by pretending they weren’t a problem just because Trump said they were a problem. All Trump wanted to do was take the trash out of Portland but Ted and his party were too stupid and extreme to take the help. https://t.co/qRs5Z78u6H
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 26, 2021
Well, well, well.
Wheeler appears to be doing a slow 180º turn. He only recently denounced the antifa terror group by name and now he’s sticking up for his own safety. He never lifted a finger to help people beaten and punished for trying to keep a raging mob from attacking them.
Better late than never.
Victoria Taft is the host of “The Adult in the Room Podcast With Victoria Taft” where you can hear her series on “Antifa Versus Mike Strickland.” Find it here. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, MeWe, Minds @VictoriaTaft
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