Portland police opened an investigation following after the emergence of a video online that threatened violence against Mayor Ted Wheeler.
The Portland Police Bureau confirmed late Friday that it is looking into the video, which reveals Wheeler’s home and says that blood “already on” his hands “may just be [his] own” next time.
“PPB is aware of the video and has launched an investigation into the threats made against the mayor,” police spokesman Kevin Allen told the Washington Examiner, adding that the FBI was also notified.
In the video, posted to Twitter on Wednesday, a speaker identifying himself as a “member of the anarchist and anti-fascist community” promises an escalation to the “destruction of Wheeler’s way of life” unless Wheeler resigns.
“Blood is already on your hands, Ted,” the person says in the video. “The next time, it may just be your own.”
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“He has made it abundantly clear that windows to him are more important than human lives,” the narrator of the video under investigation also said of Wheeler, adding, “Window smashing and riots are a necessary escalation when those in power have proven that they are unwilling to listen and have made the choice to ignore you.”
Portland suffered more than 100 straight nights of protests and riots in 2020. Rioters have been especially active in the city ever since the death George Floyd, a black man, on May 25. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was found guilty this month of all the charges he faced in the killing of Floyd.
Wheeler responded to Floyd’s death by appearing in the streets alongside protesters and supporting the reallocation of funds away from the city’s police bureau and toward community programs. The Democrat announced in September that he will be abandoning his condo in favor of a new home after months of demonstrations outside the 16-floor apartment building. He told his neighbors in an email it would be “best for me and for everyone else’s safety and peace” for him to seek a new home.
Wheeler recently rebuked “self-described anarchists” such as those in the threatening video, asking community members to assist in their arrest and prosecution.
“They want to burn,” Wheeler said on April 23. “They want to bash, like they did to the nonprofit Boys and Girls Club in Northeast. Really they want to intimidate. They want to assault.”
“Our job is to unmask them, arrest them, and prosecute them,” he also said.
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That night, Portland police declared a riot as militants began smashing windows, destroying property, and vandalizing businesses.
