Mayor Wheeler held a press conference on Friday in which he promised to have a tougher response to violence and vandalism in the future. The conference was held after people clashed with police and vandalized property in downtown Portland over two days starting on New Year’s Eve. He specifically called out members of “antifa” and “anarchists” during his press conference.
Wheeler sought to put the focus on businesses harmed by the vandalism and cast the people who gathered downtown as extremists seeking to cause destruction and violence rather than promote change.
He described the crowds in recent days as “rampaging” through downtown, causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage to taxpayer and private properties including damaging businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.
