Within a 24-hour period this week, a homeless encampment at a Portland, Oregon, park was removed, and a construction crew showed up to build pickleball courts and a skate ramp in its place. 

Homelessness has skyrocketed in Portland, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more than two years, tents have lined a two-block area of Laurelhurst Park, according to Willamette Week. 

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) on Thursday ordered the Portland Police Bureau to cease using a form of tear gas as riots continue to plague the Democrat-run city.

The Oregonian reports:

The declaration that officers will no longer unleash CS gas comes after 105 straight days of protests that have seen city and federal officers deploy tear gas on participants. Over that time, people have also repeatedly been subjected to gas by Portland police in their cars or homes while not participating in the demonstrations. […]

Liberalism cannot bring itself to confront the reality of predators and evil

Watching Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s agonizingly painful and humiliating press conference Sunday night, I was reminded that liberals simply have no capacity for dealing with reality when it comes to violence at home or abroad.

Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler condemned the actions of rioters who he says are “attempting to commit murder."

He also warned the violent demonstrators that they are helping President Trump’s campaign.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) on Thursday condemned the violence that recently convulsed his city, stating demonstrators are “attempting to commit murder” following an attack on East Precinct, where violent left-wing agitators attempted to set it ablaze.

“When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder,” Mayor Wheeler, who has remained relatively soft on demonstrators — even joining them last month — said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland’s nightly protests turned violent again even after the city’s mayor pleaded for demonstrators to stay off the streets and a police officer hit by a rock early Friday suffered what was described as a serious injury.

The protesters who came out Thursday night clashed with officers near a police precinct station and also used metal bars to disable police vehicles, police said in a statement.

A riot was declared in Portland just after midnight Thursday morning after Mayor Ted Wheeler’s tense visit with protesters-- where he was booed, told to resign, given a list of demands and tear-gassed by federal agents.

His visit ended with his security detail engaging in a struggle with protesters late Wednesday night as they worked to get the mayor to safety, a report said.

Mayor Ted Wheeler was tear gassed in downtown Portland early Thursday morning, according to video and posts on Twitter from a New York Times journalist.

The video shows Wheeler, wearing goggles and a face mask amid a crowd of people, hold his nose and close his eyes in distress as a cloud of tear gas drifts by him.

"It stings. It's hard to breathe. I can tell you with 100% honesty I saw nothing that provoked this response," Wheeler said to the Times camera. "I'm not afraid but I am pissed off."

The mayor of Portland, Ore., was hit with tear gas Wednesday night after he joined a crowd of protesters who gathered outside a federal courthouse as tensions persisted in the city in response to the Trump administration's deployment of federal officers.

Video shared on social media showed Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) coughing and retrieving goggles as a haze of gas overwhelmed a crowd that was protesting behind a fence located in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse.

The mayor of the U.S. city of Portland, Ted Wheeler, was stung by tear gas early on Thursday morning after he joined demonstrators protesting against racial injustice and police brutality.

Security forces have frequently tear-gassed and clubbed demonstrators during weeks of unrest and Wheeler, visiting the protest site outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, urged federal agents to be withdrawn from the city.

“They’re not wanted here,” he said.