In August 2020, then-President Donald Trump offered to assist the Democratic mayor of Portland, Oregon, in putting down the nightly riots that had ravaged his city for more than 90 days.
While the residents of Portland hid in their homes to avoid the violence, he responded to Trump's offer with a sanctimonious letter that included this delusional passage: "No thanks. We don't need your politics of division and demagoguery." A week later, Portland police declared a riot and arrested 59 people.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was swatted in the shoulder Wednesday evening while out to dinner at a restaurant in the Nob Hill neighborhood, according to the mayor's office.
As to federal assistance in quelling the riots, none has been forthcoming from President Trump's successor, but Portland has been removed from the federal list of anarchist jurisdictions.
The latest strategy for dealing with the Portland rioters is lenience.
The primary complaint lodged against Wheeler in last fall's recall effort was that "Portlanders deserve better than a mayor who spent the summer tear-gassing his own residents." Oddly, this recall effort was launched two weeks after Wheeler's 2020 reelection.
As the Willamette Week points out, Wheeler has a number of comfortable places to hide, including "a $1.3 million home in Portland's West Hills, a beachfront home in Arch Cape, Ore., and an $800,000 property in the San Juan Islands." It isn't too much to say that Ted Wheeler and Portland deserve one another.
Monday, April 26, 2021
Portland's Pusillanimous Mayor
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