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Angry Mayor Ted Wheeler responds to Portland riots: 'I couldn't be more disgusted'


Protest in Portland on May 29 - KATU image.
Protest in Portland on May 29 - KATU image.
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As people looted and set fires in the city of Portland overnight Friday, Mayor Ted Wheeler expressed anger over what happened.

He blasted the people who turned earlier peaceful protests that paid tribute to the memory of George Floyd, a black man killed by police in Minneapolis earlier in the week, into a riot.

“I couldn’t be more disgusted with the people engaged in this activity,” he told KATU in a phone interview as he was traveling back to Portland from visiting his dying mother.

He said what happened in downtown Portland doesn’t reflect the community.

“[This] has morphed into something completely different that has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd, and has nothing to do with peaceful demonstration,” he said. “There is no value [in the violence] except the value of self and the desire to steal things and cause destruction in our community.”

Rioters set fires inside the Justice Center, in the streets and in at least one business. Looters smashed windows at the Apple Store, Pioneer Place Mall and other businesses and took what they found.

People jumped on a police cruiser and threw a scooter and a bicycle at it.

Debris and glass from smashed windows littered the streets of downtown Portland.

Chaos ruled the streets as Portland police tried to contain the violence with squads of officers and tear gas, and Portland firefighters rushed from one fire to the next.

Wheeler is planning a news conference Saturday to address the night's events.

Watch the interview below:


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