As anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests were heating up in June, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, aligned himself with the radical agitators, while delivering an unveiled threat to federal agents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be very clear I do not want the @PortlandPolice to be engaged or sucked into a conflict, particularly from a federal agency that I believe is on the wrong track,\u201d boasted Mayor Ted Wheeler in a long Twitter stream<\/a> defending radical activists for creating chaos inside and outside the Portland ICE office.<\/p>\n \u201cIf [ICE agents] are looking for a bailout from this mayor, they’re looking in the wrong place,\u201d he ominously added.<\/p>\n Wheeler, who also serves as Portland Police Bureau commissioner, took his pledge to prevent local police from being drawn into any conflict too far, according to a\u00a0cease and desist letter<\/a>\u00a0sent Monday by Sean Riddell, an attorney for the union representing ICE agents.<\/p>\n “Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says.<\/p>\n Riddell said further legal action could be warranted if Wheeler did not apologize to ICE officers. Instead of an apology, the proud member of the \u201cResist\u201d movement issued a written response<\/a> insisting that \u201cno such policy exists\u201d and claiming instructions were given to Portland officers to respond to calls when there was an \u201cimmediate life safety concern.\u201d<\/p>\n But in an email obtained by The Willamette Week<\/a>, Portland Police Deputy Chief Bob Day did deny requests for assistance from the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Federal Protective Service.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this time I am denying your request for additional resources from PPB,\u201d said Day, who added that Portland officers would respond \u201cif your officers are assaulted and need us to facilitate a safe exit from the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n The Portland police also did not respond when ICE protesters yelled racial slurs<\/a> at agents or when ICE employees were followed home by protesters.<\/p>\n Nor when the leftist thugs forced a food truck to close down<\/a> after their repeated harassment of the owners\u2019 daughter. Scott Hakes, a co-owner of The Happy Camper Food and Coffee Bar, said the threats to his daughter worsened after she sold food to a DHS officer.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the mayor gave the order that police would not support ICE employees trapped in [a building leased by ICE], he turned the lives of our employees over to an angry mob,\u201d Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council, the organization that sent the cease-and-desist letter, told The Washington Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n