Political change despite escalation – Wiener Zeitung Online



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You are the one who created the hatred and division, “said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler at a press conference on Donald Trump.” What the United States needs is to be stopped. “

US President Trump responded within minutes, calling Wheeler, a moderate Democrat, in a series of tweets “crazy” and “dumb.” “Force is the only way to stop violence in Democratic-run cities with high crime rates.”

Those kinds of disputes come just 24 hours after the Portland escalation led to another death. Although it has not yet been confirmed, it is likely that he was a Trump supporter. According to media reports, his visor was evidence of membership in “Patriot Prayer”, a right-wing group, some of which traveled to Portland to restore “law and order.” He died of a gunshot wound to the chest. It has not yet been confirmed if the bloody incident is directly related to the protests in Portland.

The Black Lives Matter protesters argue with the police.  - © getty images / afp
The Black Lives Matter protesters argue with the police. – © getty images / afp

A leader of a right-wing group from neighboring Washington state called the dead “a good friend.” Over the weekend, many Trump supporters had come to Portland in cars to confront groups of protesters. There were always confrontations. At least 600 of these cars were counted.

The police used tear gas to break up a demonstration.  - © getty images / afp
The police used tear gas to break up a demonstration. – © getty images / afp

How could it come to this? In the liberal city of Portland, in the northwestern state of Oregon, there have been demonstrations every day since the violent death of African American George Floyd in Minnesota at the hands of a white policeman. Floyd passed away on May 25. And while the protests have taken over the country, they are most persistent in Portland. There are daily demonstrations, especially in front of the police and the court. The protests, mostly peaceful, turned into property damage. Reason enough for the White House to send the National Border Police to Portland, against the mayor’s explicit wishes. Federal police drove through the city in anonymous cars without identification and in July dragged many protesters into the car. The constitutionality of these actions is still under review.

Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August. If Blake survives, he will most likely only be able to move around in a wheelchair. Police violence against Blake fueled protests again, not just in Portland, but in Wisconsin as well. At the same time that Republicans were preaching at their party conference that America should not be reduced to rubble, a 17-year-old Trump fan (he was in the front row at least once at a Trump event) traveled from Illinois to across the federal border to Wisconsin, and fired a rifle a few times at a Black Lives Matter protest. Two people died. The 17-year-old has been charged with double murders. Your lawyer talks about self defense.

Biden asks Trump to condemn the violence

Trump’s challenger in the presidential election campaign, Joe Biden, has called on Trump to condemn the violence from any political direction. “We must not become a country that is at war with itself,” said the Democratic candidate.

Trump “believes that tweeting about law and order makes him strong. His inability to appeal to his supporters to stop pursuing conflict shows how weak he is,” Biden said in a statement. He rejects any kind of violence, whether from the left or the right, “and I urge Donald Trump to do the same.” Biden had previously accused Trump of fueling tensions in the country in order to mobilize voters with the message of “law and order.”

Trump warned that extreme leftists would have a free hand in Democratic-run cities. The president of the United States announced over the weekend that all options regarding Portland were on the table.

Wisconsin Governor Removes US President

Trump also wants to travel to Kenosha on Tuesday to get an idea of ​​the destruction of the city. But there is resistance to this. Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers asked Trump to cancel the visit. “I am concerned that their presence only hinders our healing,” Evers wrote in an open letter.

The White House, meanwhile, continues to react harshly to the demonstrations. On Monday night, protests against racism and police violence in Washington led to clashes between protesters and security forces, according to a media report. As the well-known “Washington Post” reported, the police used irritating gas on Monday night (local time) to break up a demonstration in the “Black Lives Matter Plaza” near the White House. Before that, around 100 people demonstrated there at night, most peacefully.(wake)

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