Wednesday night, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, also the citys police commissioner, was simultaneously being gassed by federal agents and berated by protesters cursing his name, labeling his appearance at the 56th night of protest nothing more than a photo opportunity.

The videos of federal agents dispatched by the president gassing moms and clubbing veterans simply wanting to hold a conversation are abhorrent. While the agents have legal standing to protect the federal courthouse, the tactics administered have rightfully sparked a national outcry against a militarized federal government engaging in street clashes against its citizens. It is indeed a radical response from the U.S. Executive Branch, and likely more about politics than law and order as an election nears.

But its also not a surprising occurrence in Portland, where fringe activists have historically been allowed too much leeway to ruin the pure demonstrations for First Amendment rights amid honest attempts at progress.

To quote from a 2017 editorial in this newspaper:

Whether its Republicans on the right or Democrats on the left, allowing the most radical elements of their bases to compromise their principles and mute their voices is repugnant. It helps tighten the grip of raw partisanship, thus serving to thwart reasonable policy initiatives. ...

But when black-masked anarchists infiltrated the otherwise peaceful Portland demonstrations to pelt police, set blazes, smash windows, snarl traffic and engage in random acts of mayhem, organizers were more critical of the police for restoring order than the anarchists for disrupting it. ...

The anarchists were aided and abetted by then-Mayor Charlie Hales, who established a virtually unmatched record of ineptitude during his mercifully brief tenure. They got another boost when the district attorneys office dismissed charges against virtually all the 113 arrested.

Mayoral successor Ted Wheeler, displaying an equal lack of fortitude, allowed the anarchist fringe to bring city council meetings to a grinding halt for weeks with ceaseless demands for the police chiefs ouster. And it took nothing more than an anonymous threat for Portland anarchists to force cancellation of this years 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade.

It should have come as no surprise when anarchists began tossing Molotov cocktails, setting bonfires, defacing storefronts, shattering windows and pelting police again during the union movements annual May Day Parade, staged May 1 in Portland. After all, they openly recruited participants on social media sites.

But the response from the self-proclaimed voice of the American worker was, distressingly, a condemnation of the police rather than the bomb-throwers who spoiled the party and soiled the cause.

Those following the 50-plus days of protests in Portland this summer know they have been mostly peaceful and lawful. The righteous indignation of systematic racism and police brutality is warranted and deserving of cognitive discourse leading to legislation.

But the ongoing inability or unwillingness on both sides to filter extremist views has lead to a fictitious narrative, to the point where all cops are bastards and hundreds of moms wearing yellow are nothing more than Antifa in a new outfit.

With a subsection of protesters and a president eager to fan the flames of the ongoing urban warfare, as Wheeler described what he felt Wednesday night, it is difficult to find hope in positive reconciliation. But find hope, we must.

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Progress still hampered by battles on the fringes - McMinnville News-Register