The Political Insider

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler reportedly pepper-sprayed a maskless man who had confronted him outside a restaurant for not wearing a mask while dining.

The man allegedly accosted Wheeler and former Portland Mayor Sam Adams outside McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House where he complained that the two had not worn masks while dining.

Wheeler replied they had been “in the tented area of a restaurant sitting at a table” and that “current Covid regulations allow people to take their mask off for the purpose of eating and drinking.”

Not satisfied with that response, the man, according to a police report, followed Wheeler to his car where the former mayor warned him that he had pepper spray.

Fox News reported that the Democrat mayor “became concerned for his personal safety and of contracting COVID-19,” leading him to make use of the pepper spray.

“He remained at close distance, I pulled out my pepper spray and I sprayed him in the eyes,” Wheeler said.

He then tossed a bottle of water to the man to help him flush out his eyes.

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Wheeler Pepper-Sprays Maskless Man

The irony of the situation isn’t lost on anybody.

Wheeler banned Portland police from using tear gas against rioters in his own city this past September.

And while it allowed for the use of mace and pepper spray, Portland Police Deputy Chief Chris Davis said in June that the latter is “actually a little worse” than tear gas.

Wheeler himself got hit with tear gas over the summer when he joined protesters in the streets and called for federal police officers to leave his city as rioters attacked a federal courthouse with explosives.

Protesters proceeded to throw water bottles at the Mayor and target him with leaf blowers to his face.

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Wheeler Was Accosted Earlier This Month

Reports surfaced earlier this month that Wheeler had been punched by a social justice activist while dining out at a local cafe.

“One member of the group started swatting at the mayor and made physical contact with him,” a spokesman told the New York Post, while the mayor could be heard on video claiming to have been assaulted.

Wheeler denounced the violence that has been ongoing in Portland for eight months now as “unacceptable.”

“I will never support acts of criminal destruction and violence. That is not how we make political points in the United States of America,” Wheeler said.

But he’s certainly tolerating it. Just not when it involves his own personal safety.