A riot plagued a suburb of Portland, Oregon Thursday night after the officer-involved shooting death of 26-year-old Jacob Ryan MacDuff. Police had responded to calls of domestic disturbance near an apartment complex and attempted to take him into custody. He refused to surrender and had a knife on him. What started as a “peaceful protest” of 100 anti-police activists soon turned into an unlawful assembly of hundreds. Figures.
Antifa rioters smashed the windows and doors of the Tigard police headquarters and spray-painted “ACAB,” an acronym for “All Cops are Bastards.” They also made their way to the downtown business area where they blocked traffic and destroyed public property.
A group started interrogating Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who was dining with a companion at a local cafe. Mayor Wheeler started ignoring the rioters until they pushed past restaurant employees to go confront him. On video, the Mayor claimed to be assaulted, even though a different clip shows rioters yelling at the Mayor before the cafe staff persuading the group to leave.
The left-leaning politicians always end up going after the politicians who aren’t left-wing enough. Mayor Wheeler has vowed to put an end to the ongoing violence and push back harder from “radical Antifa and anarchists.” His newfound zero-tolerance policy came after rioters threw multiple fire bombs at cops and launched commercial-grade fireworks at the courthouse on New Year’s eve.
“My good faith efforts at de-escalation have been met with ongoing violence and even scorn from radical Antifa and anarchists. In response, it will be necessary to use additional tools and push the limits of the tools we already have to bring the criminal destruction and violence to an end,” said Mayor Wheeler.
The tone changed drastically since last summer’s riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Mayor Wheeler had accused President Trump of exacerbating tensions by sending in federal law enforcement officers to protect federal buildings and rejected their help. He had focused his concerns on the violence in federal officers and the life-threatening tactics his agents use in the city.
While Mayor Wheeler has joined protesters outside the courthouse and tried to listen to what people were suggesting, he has refused to abolish the Portland Police Bureau. Radical left activists have looked at defunding police departments entirely and transferring those funds to social programs and services instead.
Mayor Wheeler should realize by now – you can never be left-enough. While he has declared that there will be no autonomous zone in Portland, that hasn’t stopped Antifa before. You can’t ‘people please’ Antifa, when will the Democrats learn this?
