Outgoing Mayor Ted Wheeler on Antifa, BLM and Domestic Terrorism

Outgoing Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler gave an interview to a local news outlet in which he was asked about his two terms in office. He was specifically asked about the violent protests which began in 2016 after Donald Trump was elected the first time and how he views the challenges those movements presented to the city. His answers were interesting though not, in my opinion, completely honest.

Wheeler was asked about the street battles between Antifa and Patriot Prayer and said that his solution to put in place time, place and manner of protest restrictions was ahead of its time. He got pushback from newspapers across the country for that but he said that after the BLM riots of 2020 the public changed its tune and was much more willing to consider efforts to control street protests.

All of that may be true but it’s also a bit misleading. First of all, Antifa’s initial spree of vandalism in Portland wasn’t prompted by any group on the right. It was prompted by the election of Trump and the large contingent of anarchists who wanted to signal their opposition by smashing up banks and store windows. The street battles with Patriot Prayer came later. 

And even then, those initial Patriot Prayer gatherings weren’t promoted as a time to brawl. Patriot Prayer held free speech rallies to express support for Trump and Antifa goons would show up with weapons including knives, batons and bricks to bash the fash.

Weapons and other items being seized at SW 4th and Morrison. pic.twitter.com/KYBTPRJsb7

— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) June 4, 2017

Another collection of weapons seized today. pic.twitter.com/tdMmMSM2Wp

— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) June 5, 2017

Getting back to Wheeler, he saw a change in the dynamic after the death of George Floyd. “Then when George Floyd was murdered and you had a broader movement around social justice, some of the very same people who’d been engaged in those riots in 2017, 2018 and 2019 conveniently stepped into those broader movements and, frankly, hijacked them,” he said. He added that you could see a difference between the BLM protesters who were protesting during the day and the black bloc Antifa members who would show up at night with tools and spray paint, clearly intent on breaking the law.

He’s right about that but I think he leaves out that, for a time, he seemed to be trying to earn the support of the Antifa crowd. Remember this?

Someone threw a can at him, and people are chanting “Fuck Ted Wheeler,” but he has joined the front lines pic.twitter.com/JW0qWka2mX

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 23, 2020

He was completely on their side even though they were throwing things at him and telling him to go home.

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

It was only later, once Wheeler realize that the Antifa extremists weren’t going to welcome him and in fact hated him that his tune changed. “People forgot I’m a person,” he said. He added, “I don’t think it was necessarily personal but when you come to my house and you try to burn it down or you stand outside my daughter’s room with a firearm. When you catcall her and tell her her father is a Nazi. When you chase her and her mother to school. When you slash my tires. Those things start to get very personal.”

Wheeler connected the treatment he received from Antifa extremists to the shooting of a health care CEO in New York. “If we have differences of opinion politically, we need to come and express them through the institutions, the democracy we have set up,” he said. He continued, “You can’t just confront people on the street and, as we saw even a week and a half ago, you just shoot somebody in the back because you have a fundamental policy disagreement.” 

I’ve never been a fan of Ted Wheeler but I think he did learn the key lesson the hard way. Antifa are not part of our political system, they are violent thugs opposed to our system. We don’t need to listen to them, we need to shut them down.

Here’s the full interview. The section on Antifa starts about 10 minutes in.