(Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, pictured at City Hall. Gordon Friedman/The Oregonian)

BY GORDON R. FRIEDMAN

The Oregonian | OregonLive

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler believed people would be killed during political demonstrations last June in the wake of the MAX stabbings, according to his testimony during a lawsuit deposition.

"I believed people would die," Wheeler said of a turbulent June 4, 2017 rally, during which opposing protesters took over downtown streets and parks and were kept at bay by riot police. Officers used pepper balls on protesters and corralled and photographed hundreds of rallygoers in a tactic known as "kettling."

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit in response, contending the police were overly aggressive and violated protesters' civil rights.

Wheeler sat for a deposition lasting two hours and 23 minutes at City Hall in July as part of that federal suit. ACLU lawyers questioned him in detail about police policy and whether he personally dictates police tactics. They peppered him with questions on his whereabouts and actions during the June 4 protest.

In the testimony, not previously reported by any news outlet, Wheeler described his approach to his job as police commissioner as almost completely hands-off. He said he “provides broad overall direction and strategy” to the police but delegates all “command and control authority” to the police chief.

“I don’t call tactics,” he said.

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(Police officers in riot gear, pictured at the June 4, 2017 protest in Portland. Dave Killen/The Oregonian)

Wheeler said he had “no formal role” connected to the June 4 protest and was present at the police command center that day only to “observe, to listen, to watch.” He kept contacts with police personnel to “minor pleasantries,” he said, and was “generally staying out of the way.”

Even after the protest, Wheeler did not review police reports or incident summaries about the clashes, he said. He said he could not recall taking action in response to a city report that found the police unjustified in corralling protesters. And he described his conversations about crowd control with police leaders as "only very general."

A city attorney allowed The Oregonian/OregonLive to read the deposition transcript and four exhibits in the case, all filed under seal in federal court. The exhibits include pages of text messages between Wheeler and his chief of staff, Michael Cox.

The rally at which police corralled protesters took place only nine days after a man stabbed to death two men and maimed another on a MAX train. The victims were slashed after they stood up to an Islamophobic rant the knifeman directed at two teenagers, one of whom was wearing a head scarf.

Wheeler told the ACLU lawyers he was on a plane to London when he learned of the attack, and he quickly flew back.

“I don’t have many facts,” Wheeler texted Cox that day. “Sounds like these 3 guys are heroes. I should visit guy in hospital unless he has been released. Talk to families? Muslim community?”

Cox drafted a news release in which the mayor would call the attacker a monster. “Get rid of monster. Too silly,” Wheeler texted back. “Add that they were apparently defending a woman. If true say they are heroes. Say it.”

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(Joey Gibson, pictured at the June 4 rally. Dave Killen/The Oregonian)

Days later, Cox texted the mayor about the planned June 4 rally. “We should get in front of this tomorrow,” Cox wrote in a 2:30 A.M. text.

Later that day, Wheeler asked the federal government to withdraw the permit it issued to Joey Gibson, a Washingtonian who leads the conservative Patriot Prayer group, to hold the rally on federal parkland downtown. But it declined.

Portland was still reeling from the MAX attack as protesters descended on downtown for the rally. Gibson and his followers had been known to provoke violent outbursts from counter-protesters. Demonstrators on both sides have come to rallies armed.

In his deposition, Wheeler said he believed that in connection to Gibson’s rally, “the potential for widespread civic unrest was very, very real.”

“I was concerned that, given how shocked people were in Portland, given that people were mourning, given that there were many people who were very, very angry about what had happened, and, frankly, terrified by what had happened, I thought it was an extremely volatile situation,” Wheeler said.

He went on: “And I do not mind saying, I was very worried that if they came to Portland and had a protest, it would lead to death. I believed people would die.”

Two days after the protest, Wheeler texted Cox, his trusted deputy, about the police response.

“I think it would be very helpful to have the police do a basic recounting of why they used crowd dispersal techniques Sunday and why they kettle people,” Wheeler wrote at 10:40 A.M.

“I’m getting hammered on these two issues. We have to explain for people who could not see the bigger picture unfold,” the mayor said.

He concluded: “To many it looked like chaos.”

-- Gordon R. Friedman

Have a tip about Portland City Hall? Contact Gordon: GFriedman@Oregonian.com