Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Monday criticized how local prosecutors and his own Police Bureau handle street violence among political factions.

In a wide-ranging press conference, Wheeler called for a change to rules and laws if they do not allow police officers to arrest brawlers and vowed that anyone fighting on Portland streets will not escape unpunished.

Wheeler, animated, baffled and exasperated at times, said it defies belief that left- and right-wing protesters who slug each other on Portland streets can evade arrest and prosecution with impunity. Yet he said that is exactly the advice his aides have received from Multnomah County prosecutors.

Wheeler made particular reference to an Oct. 13, 2018 fight outside the Kelly’s Olympian bar in downtown Portland. On that night, members of Patriot Prayer and Antifa used their fists, batons and even bear mace to bloody and blind each other outside the popular establishment.

Portland police officers were present but did not attempt any arrests. Video footage of the fight went viral, drawing international news coverage that cast the Rose City as a lawless town.

Wheeler said officials in the office of Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill told mayoral aides that prosecutors could do nothing because the law allows for “mutual combat” between people fighting.

“That was an unacceptable answer for me,” Wheeler said Monday.

Brent Weisberg, a spokesman for Underhill, said the prosecutor’s office will continue filing charges against people who fight in public. “We continue to investigate the violence that has recently unfolded and will hold the perpetrators accountable,” Weisberg said.

Weisberg said the prosecutions are “incredibly complex” and some elements have been oversimplified “by individuals other than prosecutors.” Sometimes prosecutors cannot determine “the initial aggressor,” he said, making it legally and ethically questionable to file charges.

For his part, Wheeler said that when he watched video of the fight, he “could not reconcile how what I was seeing on that tape could possibly be sanctioned or legal.”

In the months since, news coverage has questioned the mutual combat standard, probing if Underhill’s office was correct in its assessment and showing that Joey Gibson, the Patriot Prayer ringleader, believed mutual combat laws would keep his followers from prosecution.

“I found it useful when people started raising the question of whether mutual combat was a thing at all,” Wheeler said. “Turns out, guess what, it's not.”

State law bans mutual combat and physical fighting in general.

As prosecutors have declined to file charges, police have declined to make arrests. Wheeler said that left him wondering, “Why aren’t you arresting these people?”

“In what city is it legal to engage in a street brawl?” the mayor asked. “C’mon folks, we’re overcomplicating this. You’re not allowed to fight on the streets of the city.”

Wheeler went on: “How am I supposed to explain this to my 12-year-old daughter? That we allow adults to fight on the streets of our city. Is there anybody who actually thinks this is a good idea? I don’t.”

Berk Nelson, a senior adviser to Wheeler on police matters, said officers consider “the totality of the circumstances,” such as their own safety, before moving to arrest people fighting in the streets.

City Attorney Tracy Reeve declined to discuss if her office has done any analysis of the mutual combat standard or arrest practices, citing lawyer-client privilege.

Wheeler said he has not directed Police Chief Danielle Outlaw or other officials to change their approach to arrests. But he said he has made his frustrations “eminently clear to all parties involved.”

If the law doesn’t allow for arresting street fighters, it must be changed to “untie our hands,” he said.

“In cities across the country they’re looking at us like, ‘What the heck? We’d arrest these people.’”

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com