Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is promising to “resist harder” against anarchists and Antifa radicals after another turmoil shook the city on New Year’s Eve, admitting that months’ efforts to contain the violence have failed.
“My good faith efforts to slow the escalation were met with continued violence and even contempt for radical Antifa and anarchists,” Wheeler said during a news conference on Friday, according to KOIN. “In response, it will be necessary to use additional tools and push the limits of the tools we already have to end the destruction of crime and violence.”
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Wheeler, a Democrat, was responding to the New Year’s Eve riot near the downtown courthouse, which was the focus of months of violent unrest last summer. Police said thugs on Thursday night dropped “several incendiary bombs” at police officers and launched commercial-grade fireworks in the courtroom.
Protesters also smashed windows and set the area on fire, KOIN reported, and the police began using pepper spray or apples against the crowd, as well as what appeared to be rubber bullets or pepper balls.
Seven months after the first riots hit the city, Wheeler said it was time to take further steps to contain the violence.
“Illegality and anarchy represent a great cost and a great risk to the future of our community,” he said. “It is time to resist more strongly against those who are determined to destroy our community and take more risks in the fight against illegality.”
He also noted the demographics of rioters, who often claim to be fighting for racial justice.
“Why would a group of whites, young people and a few middle-aged men destroy the livelihood of other people who are struggling to survive?” he asked, before calling it “the height of selfishness”.
Wheeler said it was difficult for him and others “to accept the reality that there are only a few people on this planet who are committed to criminal destruction; that there are some people who really just want to see the world burn”.
Some of the crackdowns he suggested were tougher penalties for disturbances, as well as requiring offenders to provide public service and find the owners of the businesses they damaged.
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Violence hit the liberal fortress over the summer, following the death of George Floyd by police in Minnesota. Wheeler, however, focused on federal police officers sent by the Trump administration, ostensibly to protect federal buildings – accusing them of heightening tensions.
In July, he said his immediate concern was “the violence that federal officials have brought to our streets in recent days and the life-threatening tactics that their agents use”.
“We don’t need or want their help,” he said, an opinion that was shared by the state governor and parliamentary delegation.
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Wheeler even joined the protesters outside the courtroom and tried to conduct a “listening session” – before he was hit by tear gas deployed by federal agents.
However, while some protesters were receptive, many others harassed and booed him, contesting his refusal to support some of his demands, such as the abolition of the Portland Police Department.
“F — Ted Wheeler!” a protester shouted. “He can’t speak, he is a fucking fascist.”
Wheeler narrowly defeated a left-wing opponent in November, but continued to deal with problems of anarchists and Antifa violence.
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In December, he authorized the police to use “all legal means” to end an illegal occupation of a house in the city, in which protesters tried to declare an autonomous zone.
“There will be no autonomous zone in Portland,” said Wheeler.
David Aaro and Dom Calicchio of Fox News contributed to this report.