WATCH: Antifa activists corner Portland mayor, accuse him of tear gassing them

Democratic Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was cornered at a restaurant in Portland by a group of Antifa activists who accused the mayor of gassing them.

Wheeler can be heard at the beginning of the video asking the activists to leave him alone, a request which activists refused to comply with.

"No, it's our right, this is a public place," one of the activists told Wheeler. "This is a public place and we are allowed to be here to talk to our mayor."

When Wheeler insisted that the activists are not allowed to be there, one of them responded by telling him "you're not allowed to tear gas us."

Tear gas had been employed by Portland police during the riots which engulfed the city over the summer despite Wheeler discouraging their use. In September, Wheeler formally banned the city's police from using tear gas against protesters and rioters, one of the only mayors in the United States to do so.

Wheeler noted this fact to the activists, to which one replied "but you already gassed us."

The activist claimed that the use of tear gas against rioters was like "a sentence for the rest of [their] lives." "The gas you used on us will affect us for the rest of our lives," the activist continued.

While long-term exposure to tear gas can cause known health problems, the effects, when used against rioters in an open space, will largely dissipate in 15-20 minutes.

The activists were eventually asked to leave the mayor alone by a waiter, which prompted one of the activists to tell Wheeler that he is a "war criminal" with "blood on your hands."