Reacting to the riots: Mayor Ted Wheeler, Governor Kate Brown, and the sheriffs
The Portland rioters are testing Wheeler, to see just how far they can go. They understand that he’s weak and getting weaker, and they revel in it. Now he’s thinking he may have to move from the condo in which he lives, in order to spare his neighbors the violence.
You can run, but you can’t hide.
Wheeler probably doesn’t know what hit him. Although, looking at his Wiki page, I discovered that Wheeler’s stint as mayor already hadn’t been a bed of roses, even before the riots:
In September 2018, Portland residents who found Wheeler’s response to the growth of homeless encampments inadequate petitioned his office and other local agencies to take stronger action.
In 2018 Wheeler was overheard saying, “I cannot wait for the next 24 months to be up.” But he has also said he aspires to break the streak of one-term mayors. In early 2020, Wheeler declared he would seek reelection in 2020.
He may have changed his mind about that last bit.
There’s also this, which I hadn’t realized before:
In August 2019, Wheeler requested that Governor Kate Brown keep the National Guard ready to respond in anticipation of a potentially explosive stand-off between far-right groups and Antifa demonstrators. His request was denied.
Governor Brown has recently announced a plan that involved six steps, including these::
1. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will prosecute serious criminal offenses, including arson and physical violence….
4.The Governor is asking Clackamas and Washington County Sheriff’s Offices and the City of Gresham Police Department to support the Portland Police Bureau with personnel and resources to keep the peace and protect free speech….
KGW has reached out to the Gresham Police Department, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) to see if they will honor the governor’s request for mutual aid.
Guess what? The sheriff of Clackamas County says that Brown hadn’t asked him about this, and neither sheriff is exactly pleased with what she’s been doing [emphasis mine]:
On Monday afternoon, the CCSO [Clackamas] said it would not be sending staff into the city of Portland. In a statement, Sheriff Craig Roberts said that he was surprised to learn of CCSO’s involvement in the governor’s plan because she had not reached out directly.
“Had Governor Brown asked me, I would have told her that no amount of human resources will stop the ‘cycle of violence’ (her term) that is making Portland unsafe. For that to occur, the criminal justice system will need to do its part and hold offenders accountable.”
Sheriff Roberts said he believes the Multnomah County district attorney and the presiding judge should require bail with conditions for release.
WCSO [Washington County] similarly said in a statement that they would not be sending deputies to work in Portland but would support PPB through indirect ways like analyzing risks associated with social media, air support and assisting with a specific criminal investigation.
“The lack of political support for public safety, the uncertain legal landscape, the current volatility combined with intense scrutiny on use of force presents an unacceptable risk if deputies were deployed directly,” Sheriff Pat Garrett said.
Can’t say I blame them one bit. You can’t ask police to do a job you won’t let them do, or a job that is simply a revolving door because offenders are let out again.
Brown also wants to have a nice discussion:
The governor will also convene a community forum to “create a venue for all community voices to come together, listen to each other, and co-create a just and peaceful future.” The forum will include Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and invite Black protest organizers and community leaders.
“Change will not come overnight, and, as we have seen in these last months, it does not come easily either. But we are building a more just future,” Brown said.
“A more just future” – the quest for cosmic justice isn’t doing too well in Oregon, it seems. But the dream dies hard. Brown and others need to learn that first, people must feel safe, and that there must also be meaningful follow-through when rioters are arrested, or the violence will go on and on. The organized and activist far left will take full advantage of the weakness prominently displayed by those in office.
[NOTE: I want to draw attention to the sheriff’s sarcasm over the use of the phrase “cycle of violence.” His sarcasm is well-deserved. What an absurd phrase to use here, when the violence has been predominantly on the side of the left. It reminds me of the use of the phrase for the Middle East (Israel and Palestine), when it was equally inappropriate.]
Unlike the tool currently in the Governor’s chair in Wisconsin, and the chorus of tools in charge of the Minneapolis city government, Wheeler’s background is in finance. Evidently, Portland has a retro commission form of government. Each member of the commission is assigned a portfolio of agencies to supervise. He supervises the police, but may be constrained in what he can do by the dispositions of the other commissioners. The commission has six members. One seat is vacant as the commissioner died in January. It’s rather like an Episcopal vestry; Wheeler’s the only man on the commission. They all have capsule biographies up. As far as I can tell, none of the commissioners are currently married and only two of the five admit to any children. One of the commissioners posts capsule biographies of her office staff, none of whom have families.
What has happened in this country? It reminds me once again of my shock in 1966 that there were citizens who would “rather be Red than dead.” Where have people like Brown, Wheeler, and Durkan gotten their beliefs about how to govern? I understand ideas of collectivization, central planning, tax and spend policies – but where do they get ideas that not protecting their citizens and their property are acceptable? It is as if there has been a virus of the mind afoot that has destroyed their ability to understand that protecting their constituencies is job one for government. Has TDS been so virulent that it has destroyed the Progs ability to reason?
The solution I see for the problem is an overwhelming electoral victory for Trump and the GOP in November. Only that will restore sanity and force the left to realize that the majority of the citizenry really do want law and order. Let it be so.
Where have people like Brown, Wheeler, and Durkan gotten their beliefs about how to govern?
Brown and Durkan are lawyers with long histories in the public sector. No surprises there. Wheeler is something of a surprise inasmuch as he’s out of the business sectors. Wheeler is the only one of the three with a semblance of a normal domestic life. Durkan is a dyke living with another dame. Either through medical technology or the misbehavior of members of the social work ‘profession’, they’ve been allocated two children.
Gov. Kate Brown is bi for what that is worth, from the Eugene OR area (ultra progressive) IIRC. The mayors of Portland have a long history or “alternative” morality, Mayor Bud Clark of the 1980s was famous for his “Expose Yourself to the Arts” poster and he was relative to those of the last 20 years, normal.
Don’t know where the Wheeler of Portland falls on the Portland mayoral normalcy scale, maybe his predecessors never faced the challenge of an Orange Man Bad; they just had the Bushes and Reagan to rage against.
“1. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will prosecute serious criminal offenses, including arson and physical violence….”
The fact that this is a NEW approach tells us why the violence has been going unchecked for months.
I don’t blame the surrounding sheriffs for not wanting to put their personnel at risk.
Where have people like Brown, Wheeler, and Durkan gotten their beliefs about how to govern?
Stalingrad?
And somehow Michael Reinoehl (aka the Antifa assassin of Portland) identified days ago as the probable shooter of Aaron “Jay” Danielson hasn’t been arrested, Is the Multnoma Co DA or the Governor even interested?
Crickets.
Not too bright to give an interview and admit you killed Aaron. Stupidity and evil kills. The face of Antifa/BLM.
Vice is posting an interview with him tonight it appears. http://ace.mu.nu/#389982
If the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office is now willing “to prosecute serious criminal offenses, including arson and physical violence,” is that because US Marshals have deputized the Oregon State Police?
*****
The move, which was made in response to the growing unrest in Portland, means a deputized OSP trooper can arrest someone for a federal crime and turn the case over to a federal prosecutor instead of a state prosecutor.
Doing so would essentially override Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Shmidt’s policy of limited prosecution for certain charges related to the ongoing protests. Last month, Schmidt’s office announced charges such as Interfering with a Police Officer or Criminal Trespass would not be prosecuted and people arrested for those crimes would be quickly released.
Lewis & Clark Law Professor Tung Yin said the workaround could spell more federal crimes coming out of the protests.
“Even if DA Mike Schmidt is taking a hands off approach of, ‘Well, I’m not going to prosecute that case,’ that person, theoretically, could face federal charges,” said Yin.
https://www.koin.com/news/protests/oregon-state-police-troopers-federally-deputized-amid-renewed-portland-protest-response/
So will Gov. Kate Brown now reverse herself and remove the Oregon State Patrol from Portland? They certainly don’t want their foot soldiers (Antifa/BLM) to be facing time in the federal pen. Start the countdown clock; how long until she does the 180?
OT but related the Antifa/BLM press and street medics have just recently lost their exemptions for compliance with police orders.
I understand the leftist policies of big government – stifling regulation, deficit spending, high taxes, anti-business policies, etc. Those are standard socialist/communist leanings. Durkan, Brown, Wheeler, DeBlasio, Bowser, Lightfoot, and many more Dems subscribe to those ideas. But where did they get the idea that letting mobs burn down businesses was a good idea? I realize that the MSM has been declaring the riots as peaceful demonstrations to give them cover, but when gun and ammo sales are going through the roof because of the violence, wouldn’t politicians of all stripes begin to realize that the tactics may not be working? Yet, they continue to resist restoring law and order. Why? IMO, it’s because they believe they can’t afford to alienate that part of their base. Also, at this point, they need help to actually bring things under control. That help would come from the Feds and that is unacceptable to them. So, they are caught in a straight jacket of their own making. They thought the riots were okay, but they are now seeing the polls going against them. What will they do next? Double down? Increase the gaslighting? Prepare to commit massive voter fraud? All of the above? Or?
The Portland Antifa assassin Michael Reinhold was killed resisting arrest by the Feds in Lacey WA.
https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/09/03/confession-to-homicide-by-portland-shooter-michael-reinoehl-broadcast-on-vice-tv/
Lacey is near Olympia, WA another hotspot of Antifa bozos. Olympia is the location of Evergreen State College. Olympia is the capital of WA too, from whence King Jay of Inslee reigns. A trifecta of moronity.
You know during my salad days I knew a lot of communists (Indeed I even lived with a red diaper Marxist who was in the steering committee of the VDC) and of all those that I knew I never really hated one of them. Disagreed deeply yes, but I never HATED them.
Now, in my dotage, I have finally come to hate all Communists (even those that hide underneath the “socialist” coverlet.). American Communists especially.
is the Brown Wheeler Murderer to be remembered as the Patron Saint of Portland or the Martyr of Lacey? We already have Saint Skateboard of Kenosha.
Pb seems to work curing stupid,
“All of the above? Or?”
Well, yes… And indeed “stifling regulation, deficit spending, high taxes, anti-business policies, etc.” is certainly destructive enough as it goes…but it’s been shown to take TOO FREAKING LONG…
…and so (Thus Sprach Czar-Obama)…the time has come to fast track (“Our patience is not infinite”(?); “The Transformation of America (Inc.) has been delayed long enough by those deplorable criminals”(?): yes, it is time to BURN UP those racist cities, incinerate those racist neighborhoods, destroy those racist small businesses, but also (to be fair) the racist bigger ones, too.
All the while claiming the new “divine right” of thugs (AKA “social justice”, well, supra-ethical thugs, let’s call them) AND—this, of course, is the key—blaming to the hilt Trump and his nefarious minions of fallen fifth columnists—deplorables all—who are gung ho on destroying the American Dream, according to those supra-ethical thugs and their masters and supporters in the Democratic Party and the MSCM).
Yessir, it’s Good (sura-ethical thugs) vs. Evil (racist deplorable)!
(But then we all knew that….)
As for the end game, well it goes like this:
1.
The VIOLENCE spreads and ramps up (remember: all Trump’s fault, of course).
And so Trump’s hand is forced—which is the violence-spreaders dearest hope (even if, in the same breath, Trump is the violence spreader—and he must finally crack down…) Yes, THE TYRANT must finally crack down—which is what HE wanted to do from the very outset you see, which is PROOF—remember, these geniuses are Russia Hoaxers—that HE instigated the violence from the outset—very clever, that Trump monster.)
2.
AND/OR—-no, let’s go with “AND”, actually—the widespread, unrelenting VIOLENCE means that holding elections becomes very, very tricky, perhaps even (nigh?) impossible. WHICH IS WHY—obviously!—THE ONLY WAY TO HOLD ELECTIONS IS BY GOING POSTAL…which Trump will NOT agree to. Hence, Trump, THE TYRANT…. (see #1, above)…. In fact, precisely because of the violence—TRUMP-INSPIRED, of course—elections might (gasp!) have to be delayed!! (Which makes TRUMP a SUPER-TYRANT and his supporters SUPER-DEPLORABLES all…(see #1 above).
3. Conclusion:
And so it is clearly proven (see #1 and #2 above) that Trump is a TYRANT who MUST be destroyed. Taken out. Dealt with.
Ditto for all supporters of THE TYRANT.
SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS, right? I mean, hey, we all know THAT. At least that. (Just make sure you look where you’re leaping after the deed is done…)
….which probably means we’re either looking at another round of impeachment proceedings, or even—because the Dear, Beloved Republic just can’t afford to wait—a hard coup.
(Well, you did ask….)
Related (shorter version):
https://twitter.com/LeeSmithDC/status/1301731770082234369
Lee Smith: “Fact is they’ve already lost — thus they threaten suicide.”
That’s what I don’t understand. Has TDS made them incapable of reason? It appears so. For such as me, (with one foot in the grave, but still trying to live) it just doesn’t compute. I have experienced anger , even rage, but I never (at least IMO) was suicidal.
Once again, the only real remedy is a resounding defeat for the Dems up and down the ticket in November. Praying that Lee Smith is right.
When you have a Democrat mayor and a Democrat governor, you are a two-time loser. It’s time to “get out of Dodge”.
Ted Wheeler has left the building, and area…
whoosh!
Gerard vanderleun on September 4, 2020 at 12:48 am said:
You know during my salad days I knew a lot of communists (Indeed I even lived with a red diaper Marxist who was in the steering committee of the VDC) and of all those that I knew I never really hated one of them. Disagreed deeply yes, but I never HATED them.
Now, in my dotage, I have finally come to hate all Communists (even those that hide underneath the “socialist” coverlet.). American Communists especially.
* * *
If I might venture: in (our) salad days – sixties and early seventies – the extent of the deliberate carnage in Soviet Russia and other Communist-style countries was still not general knowledge. Duranty and the NYT, but other MSM outlets as well, simply didn’t push the facts out to the public.
So, the Red-diaper-babies (are historians of the future going to wonder why 21st-century Republicans in the Deep South are being called “communists”?) had a somewhat excusable naivete about their ideological masters.
Now, with all that has been revealed about the communists of Russia, Asia, and the southern Americas, that excuse has been shredded and burned.
They support Communism KNOWING that it is an ideology that inevitably, unavoidably, kills people and destroys lives, and they are fighting to impose it on the USA anyway.
Hate is perhaps not too strong an emotion.
AesopFan:
Enough was known about it by the 60s and 70s that IMHO there was no excuse for being sympathetic to that cause.
It was actually in 1956 that many of the Soviet crimes were revealed. See this. Among many American Communists at the time, that caused them to either renounce Communism or to at least experience some disillusionment and become less active in the cause. It was a real watershed.
I think we are going to see the American house on fire if Trump wins the EC.
The Dems know it, and the rather well-organized, well-funded BLM Marxists and Antifa are setting up for that now.
Well-funded, you ask? I reply, someone is paying for the helmets and body armor.
Outfitting one Antifa “protestor” costs close to $1000.
“Enough was known about it by the 60s and 70s that IMHO there was no excuse for being sympathetic to that cause.” – Neo
It was known to those paying attention.
As a typical LIV of the times, I had no clue.
I suspect a lot of my generation was also clueless.
News was what your parents listened to while you were doing HS homework or grooving to the beat (or whatever –).
Then the Vietnam War and Watergate sucked all the oxygen out of the college room.
I don’t consider myself uneducated — I even have an MA in Political Science! — but I don’t remember ever hearing about the massive murders in Russia even in the context of studying the Cuban Missile Crisis: the Soviets were our enemies because they were Communists, and none of the details of WHY were brought up.
I suspect that was deliberate on the part of some professors, who were left-leaning (not yet all of them!) and not inclined to sully the Soviets, and the others assumed you somehow knew it already and so it wasn’t talked about (that happens a lot in academia).