The tense standoff between demonstrators and federal police dispatched to Portland, Oregon, dragged on Thursday after the city’s mayor was tear-gassed by U.S. …
The tense standoff between demonstrators and federal police dispatched to Portland, Oregon, dragged on Thursday after the city’s mayor was tear-gassed by U. S. government agents as he made an appearance outside a federal courthouse during raucous protests. Mayor Ted Wheeler and hundreds of others Wednesday night were objecting to the presence of federal police sent by President Donald Trump, who labeled the demonstrators as “agitators & anarchists” after Wheeler was gassed. Wheeler, a Democrat, appeared slightly dazed and coughed and said it was the first time he’d been tear-gassed. He put on a pair of goggles someone handed him and drank water but did not leave his spot at the front of the raging demonstration – with protesters lighting a large fire between protective fencing and the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse amid the pop-pop-pop sounds of the federal agents deploying tear gas and stun grenades into the crowd. It wasn’t immediately clear if the agents knew Wheeler, a 57-year-old sixth-generation Oregonian and longtime politician, was among those in crowd when they used the tear gas. Earlier in the night, Wheeler was mostly jeered by protesters as he tried to rally the demonstrators who have clashed nightly with federal agents. But they briefly applauded when he shouted “Black Lives Matter” and pumped his fist in the air. Trump in his tweet attempted to ridicule Wheeler, calling him the “Radical Left Mayor of Portland, who last night was booed & shouted out of existence by the agitators & anarchists.
