Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is crying victim after he was confronted at a restaurant in Northwest Portland last night by a group of Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists. They ambushed him at his table as he was drinking wine with someone and told him what they think of his job performance. The encounter was not pleasant and now Wheeler is accusing the uninvited guests of assaulting him, but no footage produced so far supports his claim.
The video below was posted on Twitter by Black Lives Matter activist MacSmiff (https://twitter.com/MacSmiff/status/1347059987894341632). The video begins with someone approaching Wheeler's table at the Cafe Nell restaurant on Northwest Kearney Street in the *** Hill neighborhood. The exchange between Wheeler and the cameraman was as follows:
Cameraman: He says, "You comfortable Tevis?" (Tevis is Wheeler's middle name)
Wheeler: "What's that?"
Cameraman: "Are you comfortable? Are you having a good night on the town?
Wheeler: "I think you need to leave."
Cameraman: "You enjoying yourself? I think you need to do your job as a f*cking mayor. I think you're a disgrace. I think that everybody in this f*cking city thinks that you're f*cking pathetic Tevis. How dare you do sweet talk while people are still on the streets. How dare you. Do not touch me. How dare you. You are a shame Tevis. You think we're going to forget about you? We're never going to forget you Tevis. Ever! Ever! I hope you enjoy the little wine. You're f*cked Tevis. Start doing your f*cking job. Don't talk about it, do it. None of that, do it. "
Wheeler: "How old are you?"
Cameraman: "Put it, put it in."
Wheeler: "How old are you?"
Cameraman: "Tevis, none of that matters."
Wheeler: "How old are you?"
Cameraman: "None of that matters."
Wheeler: "No, it does."
Cameraman: "You know what matters Tevis?"
Wheeler: "You need to grow up."
Cameraman: "You need to grow up Ted."
Wheeler: "No, you need to grow up."
Cameraman: "The only f*cking problem that we're having here is that you are an incompetent mayor. You have done nothing in the city for whatever f*cking sum.
Wheeler: "You need to leave."
Cameraman: "Kiss my a$$, f*ck you, to your face, you're a *****, and I, every time you step up, every f*cking time, you are going to be made to feel like the **** you are. F*ck you, f*ck you, shame on you, I hope you're little girlfriend knows that too."
Then the cameraman turned and walked away. At no point did this footage or any footage that we have seen of this incident show anyone taking a swat at Wheeler as he now accuses these activists of doing. He also has no visible injuries despite his spokesman accusing people of making physical contact with him. Usually when claims of assault and physical contact are combined with no evidence of any injuries whatsoever such claims are false. This entire encounter looks like the work of people whose goal was to make their voices heard. At no point do they appear to do anything to physically harm him. They had every opportunity to smash him to a pulp, but he walked away without a mark on his body. We think that had someone went there with the intention of assaulting him that he would have proof of many injuries to back up his assault claim. Victimhood culture being what it is today, people like to cry victim whenever anyone causes them any apprehension of harm and others are quick to agree with them based on their feelings, but not the facts. The only way people like Wheeler have a chance of using the courts to really punish people for making them fear for their safety is often by making up accusation that they took struck or tried to strike them. Without an allegation like that their efforts to criminalize free speech usually fail. By claiming physical contact such pansies also elevate the seriousness of their accusations to that of person crimes and are more likely to persuade the police to make their case a priority. Wheeler can make his case a priority because of who he is, but a regular person would probably be ignored completely minus a claim that they had been physically assaulted under these circumstances.
This also does not appear to be a trespassing case because the activists entered a public restaurant and left after being told to by the staff. This appears to have been a good old fashioned First Amendment audit that Mayor Wheeler failed miserably.