Holly MatkinPortland, OR – A protester punched Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler while he was out at a Nob Hill restaurant on Wednesday evening, according to police (videos below).
The incident occurred at Café Nell at approximately 8:30 p.m., after a group barged into the tented outside area where Wheeler and a friend were waiting for their meals, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
Wheeler and his companion had been there for about five minutes before they were confronted by the angry group, the mayor’s communications director, Jim Middaugh, later told the news outlet.
According to Portland Police Bureau (PPB) spokesperson Sergeant Kevin Allen, one member of the group punched the mayor in the shoulder during the ordeal, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
Video footage from the encounter didn’t capture the alleged strike, but it did show the protesters screaming and cursing at Wheeler.
“You comfortable, Tevis?” a man in the group said as he interrupted the meal by calling Wheeler by his middle name, one video showed. “You having a good night on the town?”
“I think you need to leave now,” Wheeler responded.
The mayor turned towards his dinner companion as the protester lit into him about how to do his job.
“I think you need to do your job as a f—king mayor,” he told Wheeler. “I think you’re a disgrace. I think that everybody in this f—king city thinks that you’re f—king pathetic, Tevis. How dare you…do you think that we’re gonna forget about you? We’re never gonna forget you, Tevis! Ever!”
Wheeler interrupted the raging man’s tirade to ask him how old he is, the video showed.
“You need to grow up,” the mayor ultimately told the yelling protester.
“You need to grow up, Ted!” his critic retorted. “You are an incompetent mayor…kiss my -ss! F—k you! To your face! You’re a b—h!”
Another protester suddenly popped up just inches behind Wheeler’s head screaming, “war criminal!”
“You are going to be made to feel like the scum you are!” a masked man standing just feet away from the mayor yelled in another clip. “F—k you! F—k you! Shame on you!”
A third video showed Wheeler holding up his phone and panning over the group as they taunted him on their way out of the restaurant.
Wheeler later said that one of the women involved in the incident “swatted” at him when he tried to use his phone to record them, Middaugh told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Police said the mayor was not injured during the assault.
The suspect who allegedly hit him left before officers arrived at the scene and has not been identified.
Wheeler ultimately took his meal to go and left the business, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
The mayor has become a target for angry rioters who blame him for allowing police to use tear gas earlier in the summer to disperse violent mobs that burned and looted the city.
Wheeler is often harassed and verbally attacked as he travels throughout Portland, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
He announced in August that he would be moving out of his condominium after the 16-story tower was repeatedly targeted by rioters.
Hundreds of people showed up outside the mayor’s Pearl District home on Aug. 31, 2020 to “celebrate” his 58th birthday.
Many members of the group wore party hats and carried balloons and signs demanding the mayor’s resignation, KATU reported.
Some sang “Happy tear gas, war crimes Wheeler/Happy tear gas to you,” to the tune of “Happy Birthday,” according to the news outlet.
Upon their arrival at Wheeler’s building, the mob launched off commercial-grade fireworks, broke into a random business, smashed various windows, graffitied buildings, and ignited a fire inside an occupied apartment building, according to a PPB press release.
Rioters pushed a dumpster to the middle of the street and set it ablaze, then started a second fire in the roadway, KATU reported.
They fueled the fires with various pieces of furniture they had stolen from a building they had broken into, according to the PPB.
Just two minutes after police ordered the mob to leave the area, police saw a member of the crowd “throw burning material through a broken window into a ground-level business [inside] a large, occupied apartment building,” according to the press release.
Police then declared the situation to be a riot.
They arrested 19 people before the chaos finally died down around 2 a.m.
Wheeler sent an email out to the other residents of his 114-unit condominium building the following morning, The Oregonian reported.
“I want to express my sincere apologies for the damage to our home and the fear that you are experiencing due to my position,” he wrote, according to the paper. “It’s unfair to all of you who have no role in politics or in my administration.”
Middaugh said in a statement on Thursday that the recently re-elected mayor has not been deterred by the constant barrage of angry outbursts from citizens.
“The Mayor is committed to supporting local businesses and wants others to do the same,” his office told Oregon Public Broadcasting in a statement. “Given the tenor of political discourse nationally and locally, it’s not unusual for people to confront the Mayor and other elected officials in public. It’s part of the job.”
Watch the incident unfold in the videos below. Warning – Obscene Language:
"You comfortable, Tevis?" 🤣
— All-Time Blocks Leader 🏁🐍 (@MacSmiff) January 7, 2021
Watch how Ted tries to age-check the unhappy citizen.
This is how the mayor of Portland gets treated when he leaves his hidey-holes. pic.twitter.com/8IJASJ35Ge
Sandy Malone