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Portland, Oregon has long been a hotbed for violent protests that are more often than not instigated and carried out by far left groups like Antifa. Entire city blocks have been taken over by these groups at times, and it’s not uncommon for people who get in their way to get harassed and/or assaulted.

Because of the failed leadership of Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has tied the hands of the Portland PD, these groups are allowed free rein. As recently as yesterday, they let the PD know it in an embarrassing incident in which police officers were trapped in the central precinct while a left-wing mob that included members of Antifa wreaked havoc outside.

Today, the Portland PD decided enough was enough and took action to dismantle the autonomous zone that protesters were apparently setting up around Wheeler’s uptown condo. Wheeler, too, was out there to help with the clean-up, as my colleague Nick Arama reported earlier.

Wheeler took questions from local media outlets while helping clean-up efforts, but one answer in particular he gave caught my attention and made me wonder if a light bulb has finally gone off. He talked about how he was not in favor of an autonomous zone, and said he was “not impressed’ by what he had seen out of Seattle. In fact, his comments about the Seattle AZ were like a 180 from what feckless Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and national media outlets have been gaslighting saying about how it’s supposedly so “peaceful” and “festive.”

Wheeler gave off the vibe that he had been paying attention more to local news reports out of Seattle, which have been substantially more honest about what’s taking place in Seattle than what’s being reported by sympathetic national media outlets. He expressed serious concern about the reports on how inhabitants are supposedly being asked to “show papers” before they can enter, the reports of armed vigilantes patrolling the zone, and the alleged shakedowns of businesses. He said he was “unequivocally” against such zones being set up anywhere in Portland.

Watch:

Portland Mayor @tedwheeler after mob of antifa and far-left protesters took over the street outside his downtown condo last night: I don’t support an autonomous zone. pic.twitter.com/3gRhS9wcAe

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 18, 2020

He looked a bit like a deer in headlights, like he’d just had a wake-up call. Mugged by reality? Perhaps it was because it was set up around his home. Whatever the case may be, Wheeler is sending a clear message to the people of Portland and the left-wing mobs that are prowling the streets that though he might be willing to reallocate a certain amount of funding from the police to other areas in the name of “social justice”, that an autonomous zone was not going to happen.

That’s one small victory for law and order at a time when we’re not seeing many of those types of victories in cities controlled by Democrats in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. Now if Mayor Durkan would grow a pair so concerned business owners and residents who are in or nearby the “CHOP” area can feel safe again.

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