Floyd protestsSorting out Claims of Extremist Involvement in U.S. Protests is Challenging
The series of nationwide protests the past nine days over the death of African American George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police have drawn a hodgepodge of outside agitators. They range from anarchists to anti-fascists, radical environmentalists, white supremacists, anti-government militiamen and just straight-up opportunists. All have been seen in numbers small and large at mass gatherings across the country. But sorting out their precise involvement in the demonstrations — and the related violence, burning and looting — has presented a challenge to law enforcement officials and researchers.
The series of nationwide protests the past nine days over the death of African American George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police have drawn a hodgepodge of outside agitators.
They range from anarchists to anti-fascists, radical environmentalists, white supremacists, anti-government militiamen and just straight-up opportunists.
All have been seen in numbers small and large at mass gatherings across the country. But sorting out their precise involvement in the demonstrations — and the related violence, burning and looting — has presented a challenge to law enforcement officials and researchers.
Muddying the picture, politicians, officials and activists have played up the presence of one group over another.
While some Democrats have blamed white supremacists for exploiting the protests, President Donald Trump has laid the blame squarely on what he terms radical-left anarchists and the militant anti-fascist movement known as antifa.
“It’s ANTIFA and the Radical Left,” Trump tweeted on Saturday before vowing the next day to designate the movement as a terrorist organization, despite legal barriers to that.
It’s Complicated
The reality is more complicated. While antifa members have been arrested at protests throughout the country, eyewitness accounts, social media posts, court documents, official statements, and research by independent investigators all suggest that radical elements of all stripes — and not always affiliated with any one group — have sought to take advantage of the unrest for ideological ends.
“I think all hate groups on both sides — left, right, middle — any group whose intent is to drive hate and to further separation in our communities all try and use these situations to their own advantage and try to exacerbate things,” said former Boston Police Chief Daniel Linskey, who is now a managing director at Kroll, a global risk consulting service.
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino, said the protests have sparked more online chatter among extremists than action on the ground.
“Even that action is not always violent and not always easy to confirm until we get the arrest data, which is filtering,” Levin said. “Let’s see what the arrest logs look like as police departments across the country do a reverse investigation.”
