As Portland has seen continued unrest, US President Donald Trump promised to "go in and take care of matters the way they should have been taken care of 100 days ago" in the event that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler "does not get control of his city".
"If the incompetent Mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, doesn’t get control of his city and stop the Anarchists, Agitators, Rioters and Looters, causing great danger to innocent people, we will go in and take care of matters the way they should have been taken care of 100 days ago!", Trump tweeted Friday.
If the incompetent Mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, doesn’t get control of his city and stop the Anarchists, Agitators, Rioters and Looters, causing great danger to innocent people, we will go in and take care of matters the way they should have been taken care of 100 days ago!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2020
Authorities in Portland have been criticised by the Trump administration over the handling of unrest the city has been seeing for several months amid nationwide anti-racism and anti-police-brutality protests sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody.
US Attorney General William Barr accused lawmakers in the city of encouraging “violence through action and inaction", and Trump has repeatedly slammed Wheeler for the latter's response to the protests, sending law enforcement to the city, ostensibly to protect federal property.
Wheeler vehemently denounced what he characterized as Trump's "politics of division and demagoguery", sending a letter to the president stating "no, thanks" to the deployment of federal troops in dealing with the unrest.
Trump has recently demanded that Portland follow an example set by Kenosha, Wisconsin, in which National Guard troops and federal agents were deployed, claiming that, since that time, the city has seen "no further violence, not even a small problem".
Anti-racism protests in US cities
The United States has seen a wave of protests against racism and police brutality beginning in late May, when a black man, George Floyd, was killed by white police while in custody in Minneapolis. Since that time, cities all over the US have seen massive demonstrations, some of which have turned violent and resulted in arson, looting and clashes with heavily militarized police.
Portland has been rocked by anti-racism protests for several months, with protesters attacking the federal courthouse in the city as well as police. Some demonstrations in Portland were declared riots, as participants clashed with federal agents deployed by the Trump administration to the city, attempting to throw explosives at the federal courthouse or practicing looting.
The city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, became the latest hotspot for protest after a video emerged showing a white police officer shooting a black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back. Though surviving the shooting, Blake is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down.
The shooting incident triggered a wave of demonstrations that have lasted for several days. On late Tuesday, the protests turned deadly after three people were shot, two fatally, by a 17-year-old with an AR-15-style assault rifle. Later, teenage suspect, Kyle Rittenhouse, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
