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Mayor Ted Wheeler lashed out at President Donald Trump for his political rhetoric that he said “fueled division and fueled violence.”
FILE: Pro-Trump supporters drive downtown during a rally in support of the president on Aug. 29, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. Far-left counter-protesters and Trump supporters clashed on Saturday afternoon as a parade of cars carrying right-wing supporters headed from nearby Clackamas to Portland. Image: AFP.
LONDON – Officials in Portland, Ore., Said Sunday they were prepared for an escalation of protest-related violence that has convulsed the city for three months, citing social media posts vowing revenge for a fatal shooting amid clashes. streets on weekends among supporters of President Donald. Trump and the counter-protesters.
“For those of you who say on Twitter this morning that you plan to come to Portland to seek retaliation, I ask that you stay away,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said at an afternoon news conference, urging people of all stripes policies to join. renouncing violence.
He also lashed out at Trump for political rhetoric that he said “encouraged division and fueled violence,” and dismissed a series of weekend Twitter posts from the president criticizing Wheeler and urging the mayor to request help from the federal government to restore the order.
“It is an aggressive stance. It’s not collaborative, ”Wheeler said of Trump’s tweets. “I would appreciate it if the president would support us or stay away.”
Wheeler and Police Chief Chuck Lovell said investigators were still working to establish the sequence of events that led to the fatal shooting Saturday night in downtown Portland, and they provided few new details about the investigation.
Lovell said it remained to be determined whether the shooting was related to that night’s skirmishes between a caravan of protesters moving through the downtown district in pickup trucks waving pro-Trump flags and counter-protesters on the streets.
Video on social media showed people in truck beds firing paintballs and spraying chemical irritants at opposition protesters as they passed, while those on the street threw objects at trucks and tried to block them.
Authorities have not identified the victim of the shooting. ButNew York Times reported that the shot man wore a hat with the insignia of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer. On Sunday, the group’s leader, Joey Gibson, appeared to confirm that the victim was a member of Patriot Prayer whom he knew.
“We love Jay, and he had a big heart. God bless him and the life he lived, ”Gibson wrote on social media. “I will wait to make public statements until the family can.”
Trump later tweeted again a photo of a man identified as Jay Bishop and described in that post as “a good American who loved his country and Backed the Blue,” an apparent reference to the police. “He was killed in Portland by ANTIFA.”
Trump wrote: “Rest in peace Jay!” on your retweet.
UNDER FIRE FROM TWO SIDES
The mayor also came under fresh criticism from several left-wing Oregon-based civil rights and community organizations that have disagreed with Wheeler and called for his resignation in an open letter Sunday.
“Amid 94 days and nights of protests against police brutality, Mayor Wheeler has fundamentally failed in his responsibilities to Portland residents,” the letter read.
Police have warned against people using Twitter based on misinformation.
“There are many who are sharing information on social media and drawing conclusions that are not based on fact,” Lovell said.
He said the shooting was preceded by a “political rally involving a motorcade of vehicles that traveled through Portland for several hours.” He said those vehicles had strayed from a prescribed protest route that was supposed to lead them along Interstate 5 outside Portland to the rally site in neighboring Clackamas County.
He said that by the time the shooting happened, the caravan had already cleared that section of downtown and that there were no police on the scene when it happened.
The protests, which have turned violent at times, have rocked downtown Portland every night for more than three months following the May 25 murder of George Floyd, the black man who died under the knees of a white police officer. in Minneapolis.
Protesters, who demand reforms of police practices that they consider racist and abusive, have frequently clashed with law enforcement and, on occasion, counter-protesters associated with right-wing militias.
In July, the Trump administration deployed federal forces in Portland to crack down on the protests, drawing widespread criticism that the presence of federal agents in the city only increased tensions.
On the Sunday broadcast of ABC This week program, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said, “All options remain on the table” to resolve the Portland riots.
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