Portland mayor calls for calm after death of a right-wing activist
PORTLAND, Ore. — For months, right-wing extremists had largely stayed away from the Black Lives Matter protests in downtown Portland.
That started to change Aug. 15 with a “Stand Up to Domestic Terrorism” rally, where activists waved American flags and a 27year-old man, who was later arrested, allegedly fired gunshots from his vehicle.
The next weekend in front of the federal courthouse, men in tactical military gear, some carrying assault rifles, clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters carrying shields.
Now the conflict has turned deadly.
The Saturday night shooting death of a man who belonged to a local far-right group has raised the stakes in an escalating political battle that pits city officials against a president who seems intent on fanning the flames of unrest for his political advantage.
The killing in Portland closely follows deadly violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week. Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Ill., who said he had come to defend businesses from protesters, was charged with fatally shooting two men and wounding another.
There, as in Portland, the deadly violence occurred after armed right-wing activists descended on Black Lives Matter protests in the name of Trump, who in a combative law-and-order campaign strategy, advocates crackdowns on cities run by Democrats.
On Sunday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler pleaded for calm, urging people not to return to downtown to seek retribution, as some were threatening on social media.
Speaking at a news conference in City Council chambers, he declined to release details about the shooting, saying a homicide investigation was underway.
The police chief, Chuck Lovell, said detectives hadn’t established whether it was politically motivated or perhaps “a skirmish between two small groups” or a “problem that erupted between individuals.”
He said that on Thursday a 16year-old African American had also been shot to death, and three others injured, in circumstances that were still being investigated.
Wheeler directly addressed the president.
“President Trump, for four years we’ve had to live with you and your racist attacks on Black people,” he said. “Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence?
“It’s you who have created the hate and division.”
Evidently watching the briefing, Trump tweeted a real-time rebuke.
“Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his city during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should go on forever. Wrong! Portland will never recover with a fool for a Mayor,” he wrote.
Joey Gibson, the founder of a group called Patriot Prayer, wrote on social media that the man who was killed was Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter who went by the name Jay Bishop.
Founded in 2016, Patriot Prayer is based across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash., and describes itself as advocating free speech and opposing big government.