Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler holds press briefing after violent protest

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler addressed the city Tuesday morning after a fourth night of large-scale protests prompted by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by police in Minneapolis last week, but he declined to extend the curfew that’s been imposed on the city for the last several nights.

Wheeler also said his request to Gov. Kate Brown to deploy the National Guard in Portland over the weekend had been mischaracterized by the governor, who said on Monday the mayor had asked her to put troops “in direct confrontation with protesters.”

WATCH Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Holds Press

Wheeler said he never suggested National Guard troops would be on the front lines doing crowd control, just to protect property in a supportive role.

Unlike the previous three protests, which devolved into vandalism and looting, Monday’s demonstration remained largely peaceful as thousands packed Pioneer Courthouse Square to denounce police brutality. Wheeler called the change in tone a “significant shift” and said he would not extend the city-wide curfew for Tuesday night.

“What we are witnessing is a truly extraordinary moment in history,” he said. “People coming together, united, to support our black community in ways that we have never seen before.”

Despite the fact that the Monday night crowds were in violation of a citywide curfew imposed by Wheeler after protests turned violent over the weekend, the protesters met no resistance from Portland police.

Officers did cordon off a large swath of the downtown core — including the Multnomah County Justice Center and the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, which had been heavily vandalized previously.

Throughout Monday night’s protest, which stretched on for hours, speakers encouraged those within their ranks to stop anyone from vandalism or violence.

“If you see something, say something,” one said in relation to broken windows and looting. The crowd met any attempts at destruction with shouts of “peaceful protest!”

Shortly before midnight, about 100 protesters were gathered downtown at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street, according to police. Some of them began throwing things at officers, including glass bottles and rocks, police said, and one officer was injured. At least a dozen adults were arrested Monday night into Tuesday morning and the police used unspecified “crowd control munitions” to get them to disperse. Information about those arrested wasn’t immediately available.

At a news conference earlier in the day, Wheeler revealed he had asked Gov. Kate Brown to deploy the Oregon National Guard over the weekend, but the governor had instead suggested an alternative strategy: increasing the presence of Oregon State Police in the state’s largest city.

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