On Sunday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was walking outside a craft brewery on the Oregon city’s southwest side when a man walked up to him and shouted, “Thanks for ruining the city!”
Within minutes, Wheeler pepper-sprayed the mand and then threw a water bottle at him. He said the man was too close to him while not wearing a mask.
The Democratic mayor blasted the man in the eyes with pepper spray.
“Oh my God!” the man cried in an audio recording of the encounter published by the Willamette Week. “Wow … I can’t see. The mayor has just thrown something at me.”
According to the report, Wheeler said he told the man he was carrying pepper spray and to “back off,” but the man refused.
MASKLESS MAN
Wheeler claimed in the report that “He had no face mask on and got within a foot or two of my face while he was videoing me. I became imminently concerned for my personal safety, as I had recently been physically accosted in a similar situation. In addition, I was concerned about contracting COVID given that he was right in my face and he was not wearing a face mask.”
Pepper spray is legal in Oregon in limited conditions.
Wheeler also said he did not recognize the individual.
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The mayor said he threw a water bottle at the man to rinse his eyes as the man was walking away before Wheeler and Adams drove away.
USE OF FORCE
The encounter between Wheeler and the unidentified man was recorded by former Portland mayor Sam Adams, who later told police that the man, who was unmasked, had accosted them on the street with a video camera.
Tim Becker, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, told The Washington Post in an email Monday that Wheeler is cooperating with police “and encourages others involved to do the same.” Adams declined to comment.
According to Portland Police’s directive on the use of force, this would have been cause for an officer to be punished.
Wheeler has let Antifa run amok, destroying Portland. But, apparently, he likes to use force when it affects him. Sounds like it could be assault, but nothing will happen to him. The video appears to back up his story.
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