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In the name of “social justice” and “fighting systemic racism,” an activist punched Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler in the face while he was eating in an outdoor restaurant in his hometown.
This is a new episode in the kindness and respect with which “social justice” groups treat those who disagree with their ideas in Portland.
According to mayoral spokesman Jim Middaugh, the group reportedly started heckling Wheeler as he sat in Café Nell’s outdoor dining area with a dinner companion.
When the mayor asked the people to go away, “one member of the group started swatting at the mayor and made physical contact with him,” the spokesman added..
In another clip, Wheeler can be seen asking the person behind the camera his age and telling him to grow up.
“You are going to be made to feel like the scum you are,” the person later yelled at Wheeler before the cafeteria staff convinced the group to leave, The Oregonian reports.
Wheeler took a photograph of his alleged attacker, Tracy Molina, an activist who supports social justice causes and a regular participant in his city’s protests against police violence and so-called systemic racism.
Police confirmed they have not yet made any arrests. The Portland mayor’s spokesman said that Wheeler does not plan to file criminal charges over the incident.
“Given the tenor of political discourse at the national and local levels, it is not unusual for people to confront the mayor and other elected officials in public,” said Middaugh. demonstrating how, increasingly, political positions and ideas in the United States are being met with violence. “It’s part of the job.”
Despite this, the mayor urged people not to be afraid of the violent and the maladjusted, “The mayor will continue to support local restaurants and businesses as often as he can. He urges others to do the same.
Throughout the country, the restaurant sector has been one of the sectors of the economy most affected by lockdowns. Now lockdowns are being eased, the sector is braced for a reovery.
Potential backlash of the mayor’s words
Café Nell’s incident occurred a day before police declared a riot in a Portland suburb, all after dozens of people broke windows and sprayed graffiti in a downtown shopping area.
According to the Post, “the chaos in Tigard, a city of some 48,000 residents, occurred in response to the fatal police shooting of 26-year-old Jacob Ryan McDuff, a suspected domestic violence suspect.”
Zane Saleem Bsoul, 20, was arrested and charged with a rioting, according to Tigard police.
One week after the Tigard riots, Portland mayor Wheeler pledged to crack down Antifa, an organization that has been the source of violent protests for much of the past year.
“My good-faith efforts to reduce violence have met with continued violence and even contempt from anarchists and Antifa radicals,” the Portland mayor said on January 1st.
“In response, it will be necessary to use additional tools and push the limits of the tools we already have to end criminal destruction and violence,” added Wheeler, a Democrat who won a second term last month, after narrowly defeating the openly pro-Antifa candidate Sarah Iannarone.
Portland has been one of the cities that has suffered the most from violence after George Floyd’s death and the start of anti-racism protests. On January 5th, there were four arrests after a protest in Portland turned violent.
Somewhat ironically, the same Democratic authorities who repeatedly refused to condemn the violence from the more radical groups are now being targeted and harassed by the same extremists.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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