Joe Biden seems to think that federal law enforcement is "brutally attacking peaceful protesters" and using "egregious tactics" in Portland, Ore. He ought to get out of his basement more often.

On Saturday — over 50 days into a riot that has done millions of dollars in damage to downtown Portland and caused tens of millions of dollars in economic losses — rioters broke into the headquarters of the local police union, the Portland Police Association, and set it on fire. Up to that point, they had been laying siege to the city's federal courthouse, barricading police inside, and engaging in pitched street battles firing ball bearings with slingshots and air rifles. So much for the "peaceful protesters."

But what of the federal law enforcement officers Biden mentioned? This has become a bone of contention. The Marxist and anarchist rioters, attempting to intimidate others with their own show of force in Portland, have complained that federal agents are driving around in unmarked cars and arresting their comrades-in-arms.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and other mayors who have refused to let local police uphold the law in their cities, allowing regular crime and violent riots to escalate this summer, have now sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to remove federal law enforcement from their cities.

"The unilateral deployment of these forces into American cities is unprecedented," they write, "and violates fundamental constitutional protections and tenets of federalism." Signing on to the letter are mayors of Portland, Denver, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Atlanta, and Chicago.

As incongruous as we find these liberals' sudden interest in the 10th Amendment, they might have a point. Although the unmarked cars should never have become the issue, the use of Customs and Border Protection officers in camo to snatch up rioters wearing makeshift battle gear might represent an example of devious creativity by bureaucrats. But then, in the alternative, the feds argue that they are merely protecting federal property, which, given the attacks on the courthouse, seems at least plausible in some cases.

We still lack all of the facts and evidence necessary to evaluate such claims. But these mayors have another recourse if they really don't want an enhanced federal presence in their cities — get off their duffs and start governing. Send in the police and break up the mob the moment it gets violent. And most importantly, don't let violent antifa rioters rule your city with fear long before the crisis happens, the way they had been doing in Portland for years before any of this happened.

The mayor of Portland ought to resign. The mayor of Seattle, recently home to the beloved but short-lived secessionist anarchist movement CHAZ, ought to resign.

The mayor of Denver, where the statehouse is being vandalized nightly and a monument commemorating the Armenian genocide has been defaced, ought to resign.

These weak leaders, in their desperation to placate the anti-police mob, are putting lives at risk. They are not up to the task of governing their cities. In some cases, as in Portland, these spineless politicians had been placating and pandering to antifa when times were good, laying the stage for an eventual serious incident in which it would take the feds to step in and restore order.

As for Biden, it is curious that he feels the need to take the side of antifa rioters. Perhaps he feels they are a neglected voting constituency — or maybe he aspires to reestablish and lead CHAZ if this November's election doesn't pan out as expected.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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