Portland mayor call on feds to cancel permit for 'alt-right' pro-Trump rally next weekend

PORTLAND -- The mayor of Portland is calling on the federal government and organizers to cancel a "Trump Free Speech Rally" and other "alt-right" events next weekend.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said Monday that the community is sad and angry after the fatal stabbing of two men who confronted a man hurling racial slurs at two young women on a train, and that the rallies are inappropriate and could be dangerous.

He says his main concern is participants are "coming to pedal a message of hatred."



In a series of tweets Monday, Wheeler said a pair of events are scheduled for Terry Schrunk Plaza on June 4 and June 10.

Wheeler said the city of Portland "has not and will not issue any permits for the alt-right events," but it's the federal government that controls permitting for the downtown plaza.

Wheeler said the three men who intervened on the train Friday were willing to give their lives to stand up for people they didn't know.

He says he hopes their actions inspire "changes in the political dialogue in this country" and that people put aside their hate and honor the victims.

On Monday, Trump condemned the killing of the two men who came to the womens' defense.

 

The mother of one of the girls who was the target of a hate-filled rant against Muslims on a Portland train says she's overwhelmed with gratitude and sadness for the strangers who were stabbed to death when they came to her daughter's defense.

Dyjuana Hudson posted a photo on her Facebook page of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, saying: "Thank you thank you thank you... You will always be our hero."

Authorities say Meche and Ricky John Best were killed Friday trying to stop Jeremy Joseph Christian from harassing Hudson's daughter, Destinee Mangum, and her friend. The friend was wearing a hijab.

Christian was arrested on charges of aggravated murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a handgun.