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In a press conference after a right-wing protester was killed in Portland on Saturday night, Mayor Ted Wheeler blamed President Donald Trump for the clashes between left-wing and right-wing protesters, saying the president has stoked hate and divisions that led to the violence. Trump responded almost immediately over Twitter, and Wheeler began to rebuke the president's tweets in real time, leading to a back-and-forth that half took place on the president's Twitter feed and half in Portland City Hall. WW reported the debate. Here's what our readers had to say:
@HannahSiberia via Twitter: "Spoiler alert: Wheeler won."
kjane via wweek.com: "Doing nothing other than blaming others isn't leadership; it's just a low character tactic. That speech solved nothing, helped no one."
Carmen Ford-Treacy via Facebook: "Wheeler is absolutely right. That occupier of the White House is pushing to get his goons back in Portland."
Jonathan Daniel Gonzales via Facebook: "The nation is burning because Trump is a proven white supremacist that promotes violence against BIPOC that threaten his fragile white ass."
BuckmanRes via wweek.com: "'It's hard for me to stand here, with a human being dead, and say that we did everything we possibly could.' Ya think, Ted? Maybe if you had requested additional law enforcement, including the National Guard, way back in May or ordered a curfew, things might have settled down within a few days. Instead, you emboldened a criminal faction of the protesters to feel the law would not be enforced on them. This is the result."
K_J_Pall via wweek.com: "Regardless of the political leanings of the man who was killed, the fact that his life was taken yesterday is a damn tragedy. We didn't have a single fatality in 90-plus days of left-wing protests, when the [Portland Police Bureau] had the will to brutalize unarmed protesters night after night. We got the first fatality the day the PPB welcomed the Trump caravan of out-of-town agitators into downtown Portland and let them run rampant through town, assaulting, gassing and attempting to run over people they, and the PPB, don't like. In allowing this behavior to continue with impunity, the PPB ensured that the tensions would reach their tragic boiling point. And now a man is dead. But hey, there wasn't any graffiti!"
Thank you for exposing Facebook's pernicious and secretive efforts to ravage our beautiful coast at Tierra del Mar.
Facebook is hardly a "utility." It is a reprehensible, selfish and greedy monster. My Facebook account was hacked a month ago, and Facebook offers zero customer support: No email, no telephone number, and a snail mail letter to their corporate offices is unanswered. When people try to use it for "connections" during a pandemic, this cavalier lack of service is disgraceful.
This, of course, is in addition to its willingness to spread pernicious lies which jeopardize lives and our very republic.
Susan Elizabeth Reese, Trial lawyer, Newport, Ore.
Letters to the editor must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words.
Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.
Email: mzusman@wweek.com
