Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/26/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-pepper-sprays-maskless-man-who-accosted-him.html
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Zero sympathy for the guy who got sprayed
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Portland is dicey AF these days. Also, “a little excitement in an otherwise dull day”.
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There are certainly mayors in this country who would have shot him. Not that a mayor shooting someone would be a good thing, but it puts nonlethal attacks/defenses in perspective.
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I feel like many retail and service workers might be wishing that they were able to use pepper spray on maskholes who stand too close.
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Anyone who gets in your face during a pandemic deserves what they get.
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If they had made this explicitly legal once the need for masks was recognized we would have an awful lot less Covid now.
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Assault with a deadly pathogen. And, no, it doesn’t matter that the cough wasn’t loaded.
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“Sorry, officer, it went off while I was clearing my throat.”
“It is still Assault with a Concealed Weapon, sir.”
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I have a ziploc baggy of Trader Joe black pepper stored under my left armpit. I deploy it using that time-honoured method: cup my right hand in the baggy-laden armpit, make a chicken wing, and give a few quick powerful flaps.
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Martial artisanal weaponry.
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I can’t speak to the details of this incident, but for those outside of Portland:
Our mayor has an unfortunate propensity for using chemical weapons of late.
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But why is everything divided by right or wrong, can’t there be nuance?
Even without a pandemic, people should have the right to space. It varies, some wanting more, some wanting less, even what goes on varies (I don’t want some random person pulling my hair from behind, it’s different if theyare facing me and already engaging me).
And the Mayor is a public figure, he may have fears based on that. (In 1990, I watched the Dalai Lama come out of a hotel, he waved, I was about two feet away, the dorje in my pack jumped. The last time he came to town, there were lots of restrictions on people attending his lecture.)
People don’t want cops to shoot, but then react the same way when they taser people, or pepper spray someone.
News has come to be used as a weapon, to say something by posting it somewhere, rather than speak directly on the matter.
leaving McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House with former mayor Sam Adams
He later went to a fast food restaurant with Mr. Ronald McDonald
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Nothing in the story tells me why Wheeler couldn’t have just left and drove away.
A public official should expect criticism and antagonism and I’m considerably less moved by his covid defense as he was eating in a restaurant. Just because the other guy wasn’t wearing a mask and acting like an ass doesn’t make pepper spraying him acceptable behavior.
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One would think that, since he was complaining about other people sitting too close to each other, he’d know better. Maybe he was upset because he felt like the mayor thought the rules didn’t apply to him… but then he proceeded to act like the rules didn’t apply to himself.
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Thank you! I kept waiting for a punchline there. Without a follow though I was left with a bad case of jokus interruptus.
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I also have zero sympathy for milquetoast Ted who has sat on his hands while the PPB used tear gas on peaceful protesters.
It probably worked against him during elections. No one in Portland would be caught dead drinking a Sam Adams. Not good enough beer, while also insufficiently ironic for hipsters.
One of the recent Portland commissioners is named Nick Fish.
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Look, I hate this guys as much as, or more than most. Honest! However when I read…
“The object thrown was a bottle of water to help the man flush the pepper spray from his eyes”
Gee whiz fellers. Couldn’t ya’ take the water out first?
