In the wake of a Portland stabbing that left two men dead, mayor Ted Wheeler is demanding that the Federal Government cancel two rallies in his city. One of the rallies is a pro-Trump free speech rally, and the other is a march against Sharia. These are both obviously causes that go against American values and that present a clear and present danger to society, at least in the mind of a left-wing mayor.
The killings in Portland were horrific, they ended the lives of two great Americans, one was a recent college graduate with a promising future, the other an Army Veteran with a heart dedicated to serving his community. Both of these men, along with another young man who is in critical condition, stepped into a situation to defend two young women who were simply minding their own business, and were being verbally abused by a man on the light-rail. Instead of honoring the sacrifices of these men, mayor Ted Wheeler is using the situation to further a political agenda, with little basis in fact.
The first error the mayor makes is associating this stabbing with “right-wing terrorism”. Although the mainstream media has largely reported this to be the case, there is evidence to the contrary. The stabber, Jeremy Joseph Christian, was an ardent Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein supporter, as can be found in screenshots from his Facebook page. The tone of his Facebook posts indicate that the man clearly has major mental health issues, and do not seem to indicate any right-wing sentiments.
Despite all of this evidence that the man who committed the attack was not a Trump-supporting anti-sharia advocate, the mayor has targeted those two rallies, citing hate speech as a reason to shut them down.
Free speech rallies have gotten violent in the past, as has been seen at UC Berkeley in the past few months, but this is largely due to the actions of the self-named “anti-fascists”, who claim to be anarchists but are all for big government and leftist policies.
The Anti-Sharia march also has been targeted because it can be seen as Islamophobic. While Islamophobia is a real problem in the world, this march is not targeting Muslims for violence, it is attempting to bring attention and to fight back against some of the barbaric practices that are part of certain interpretations of Sharia law. One would expect a “liberal” mayor to support a movement seeking to support civil rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and religious liberty, but alas, this is no longer the case for a sizable part of the American left, which has been increasingly populated by apologists for Islamism.
The mayor of Portland had an opportunity to bring his community together in the wake of this tragedy, honoring the sacrifice of the men who died and were injured defending two young women from a lunatic, and leaving it at that. Instead, he chose to also target those who have different views than him due to the mischaracterized identity of the attacker that has been perpetuated by the mainstream media. Thankfully, most Americans realize that his actions are nothing more than political maneuvering, enough that even the ACLU has spoken out against his demands.