President Donald Trump has blamed Antifa for clashes with police at George Floyd protests across the country, but new data shows that more than 85 percent of arrested protesters in Minneapolis and Washington DC last weekend were actually local residents.
Following the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minnesota who died after a white cop pressed his knee into the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes, demonstrations have emerged across the country demanding the end of police brutality and racism.
Trump and fellow Republicans have blamed the violence on radical-left thugs with anti-facist group Antifa, who Attorney General William Barr described as engaging in domestic terrorism.
‘The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,’ Barr said in a statement last Sunday on May 31.
Barr, put in charge of organizing the police and military response, activated the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force last weekend to target protest organizers.
That same day President Donald Trump announced he will designated Antifa as a terrorist organization.
President Donald Trump has blamed Antifa for clashes with police at George Floyd protests across the country, but new data shows that more than 85 percent of arrested protesters in Minneapolis and Washington DC last weekend were actually local residents
Following the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minnesota who died after a white cop pressed his knee into the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes, demonstrations have emerged across the country demanding the end of police brutality and racism. Protesters raise their hands in a protest in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 6
On the other hand, some Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, initially tried to blame out-of-state far-right infiltrators for the unrest before walking back those statements.
However, there is scant evidence either is true.
More than 85 percent of those arrested by police were local residents rather than outside agitators, according to an AP analysis of court records, employment histories, social media posts and other sources of information for 217 people arrested last weekend in Minneapolis and the District of Columbia, two cities at the epicenter of the protests across the United States.
Minneapolis balloon artist Scott Nichols is one of those protesters who was arrested last weekend when he was riding home on his scooter from a demonstration and was struck by rubber bullets fired from a cluster of police in riot gear.
‘I just pulled over and put my hands up, because I didn’t want to get killed. Anybody that knows me knows I wasn’t out there to cause problems,’ Nichols, 40, said.
Nichols, who before the coronavirus pandemic made his living performing at children’s birthday parties under the stage name ‘Amazing Scott,’ spent two days in jail before being released, facing criminal charges of riot and curfew violation.
He laughed when asked if he had any ties to Antifa or other militant groups.
He said he lives less than half a mile from where Floyd was killed on May 25 and protested to support of his neighbors, many of whom are black.
Antifa is a left-wing, anti-fascist political activist movement in the US who believe in achieving change through direct action rather than policy reform. An Antifa protester pictured at a George Floyd protest in Boston in support of the Black Lives Matter movement
‘It was the most insane thing I’ve seen in my life. The city was going crazy,’ he said.
Nichols said he and a friend helped douse a dumpster fire near a laundromat. He remembers getting a text from his mother saying that Minneapolis had set an 8pm curfew, but he thought it would be enforced loosely.
‘Had I known that being out after curfew would be such a severe penalty, I would have never done it,’ Nichols said, adding that he missed his son’s high school graduation while he was in jail.
Of those charged with such offenses as curfew violations, rioting and failure to obey law enforcement, only a handful appeared to have any affiliation with organized groups.
Those charged with more serious offenses related to looting and property destruction – such as arson, burglary and theft – often had past criminal records. But they, too, were overwhelmingly local residents taking advantage of the chaos.
Social media posts indicate only a few of those arrested are left-leaning activists, including a self-described anarchist. But others had indications of being on the political right, including some Trump supporters.
Despite the lack of evidence Trump has doubled down on blaming violent scuffles with protesters and looters as ‘radical-left, bad people’ and cast blame on Antifa, which is an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organizational structure.
‘These are acts of domestic terror,’ Trump said in a Rose Garden speech Monday, moments after heavily armed troops and riot police advanced without warning on the largely peaceful protesters across the street from the White House.
Trump continued his stance on Saturday, sharing videos of his Make America Great Again fans in Maine on Twitter saying there were no riot cops needed for his supporters.
He tweeted: Riot gear or military control is not necessary because antifa & other wackso groups of anarchists aren’t present to cause trouble. Incredible people. Thank you Maine!’
President Trump claimed there were no ‘Antifa and Wacko anarchists’ among his supporters which was why riot gear wasn’t needed as he took a swipe at the George Floyd protests
Hundreds of Trump supporters lined the motorcade route to welcome the president to Guilford, Maine. There were a number of Black Lives Matter protesters as well
Trump reposted the video from the White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino in which his fans are seen lining the streets in large numbers while waving American flags and Trump-Pence reelection signs.
It had first been shared by YouTuber Lily Marston who wrote: ‘Can’t help but notice a lack of riot gear or military control to ensure the protection and safety of this very large crowd’.
There have been violent acts, including property destruction and theft at protests.
Police officers and protesters have been seriously injured and killed. But federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence that Antifa-aligned protesters could be behind a movement that has appeared nearly simultaneously in hundreds of cities and towns in all 50 states since Floyd’s death.
The AP obtained copies of daily confidential ‘Intelligence Notes’ distributed this past week to local enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security that repeat, without citing evidence, that ‘organized violent opportunists — including suspected anarchist extremists — could increasingly perpetrate nationwide targeting of law enforcement and critical infrastructure.’
‘We lack detailed reporting indicating the level of organization and planning by some violent opportunists and assess that most of the violence to date has been loosely organized on a level seen with previous widespread outbreaks of violence at lawful protests,’ the assessment for Monday says.
The following day, the assessment noted ‘several uncorroborated reports of bricks being pre-staged at planned protest venues nationwide.’
‘Although we have been unable to verify the reporting through official channels, the staging of improvised weapons at planned events is a common tactic used by violent opportunists,’ the Tuesday assessment says.
But social media posts warning that stacks of bricks have been left at protest sites in Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles have been debunked by local officials who have explained that the masonry was out in the open before the protests or was for use in construction projects.
A protester in Lafayette Park near the White House faces a line of incoming officers and police on June 2, paving the way for Trump’s trip to St. John’s Church for his photo-op
Lars Ortiz, a 35-year-old classical musician, said he was driving just blocks from his Minneapolis home on May 29 after visiting a friend recovering from COVID-19 when officers pulled him out of his car at gunpoint. He said he had been unaware of the 8pm curfew enacted that night.
Ortiz and another friend in the car with him were put in zip-tie restraints and forced to wait on a bus for hours before police took them to jail, where he would spend the weekend.
‘It was scary. It was confusing. I felt violated,’ Ortiz, a cellist who identifies as a biracial Mexican American, said.
Ortiz was held on a riot charge and curfew violation. He said he was told when he was released from jail on Monday the more serious rioting charge was dropped.
Lt. Andy Knotz of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies were deployed from the suburban county north of Minneapolis into the city to help with the unrest, said it was a ‘chaotic scene’ and that Ortiz was coming from the direction of the protests. Knotz said Ortiz was removed from his car by the Minnesota State Patrol, and an Anoka deputy took him to the police station.
‘In chaos like that you can’t determine who is legit and who isn’t,’ Knotz said.
Natalie Cook, 43, who’s white, said she had never before participated in a protest, but wanted to be there to support and protect her 24-year-old son, who’s black.
‘Not only did I want to go to be an ally to black people, but I wanted to go to support my son. Also, I was afraid to send him out by himself,’ she added.
Cook said they were marching peacefully with about 100 protesters for hours when police started using tear gas and shooting rubber bullets. As they tried to get away, they were pepper sprayed and her son was hit at close range by a rubber bullet, she said. They were both jailed and released on Monday, charged with riot and violating curfew.
Cook said her son was deeply affected by Floyd’s death and she doesn’t have any regrets about going out to make their voices heard.
On Monday June 1 police deployed tear gas and pepper spray against peaceful demonstrators outside St. John’s Church near the White House to clear the area so President Donald Trump could visit for a photo session
‘My son was really struggling with it. We couldn’t just sit by and watch,’ she added.
In Washington, the DC Metropolitan Police arrested at least 81 people last weekend, including some as young as 13. Most were charged with curfew violations and felony rioting, which could result in up to 180 days in jail and $5,000 in fines.
Among the highest profile arrests made by federal authorities in the last week was Matthew Lee Rupert. Prosecutors allege the 28-year-old Illinois man traveled to Minneapolis to participate in riots and then posted videos on a Facebook page showing him looting stores and handing out explosives.
In one video, Rupert, a convicted felon, says: ‘We come to riot, boy! This is what we came for!’
Though Rupert is alleged to have targeted police officers, there is no evidence cited in his indictment he is affiliated with any organized group. Among the few indicators of his political beliefs was a series of Facebook posts celebrating Trump’s 2017 inauguration.
‘Trump is my president but I’m not racist,’ he wrote, adding that he loves Mexican food.
Rupert, who made an initial court appearance Friday, remains in federal custody. A federal public defender assigned to represent him did not respond to a voicemail message seeking comment.
Michael German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said people often travel and cross state lines to participate in protests and that not all of them have peaceful intent. He said politicians and law enforcement often cite the presence of out-of-towners to justify greater police force against protesters.
‘It’s an old tactic for law enforcement policing protests to suggest that the problems are being caused by outside agitators,’ German said. ‘It opens up the opportunity for greater police violence in response.’
Protester carries a Black Lives Matter sign in Brooklyn during protest where over 250 people were arrested
Among those who traveled to Minneapolis to protest Floyd’s killing was Tara Houska, a 36-year-old attorney and member of the Couchiching First Nation from northern Minnesota. An activist for indigenous rights, she was arrested in Minneapolis last Saturday night and charged with not complying with a peace officer.
Houska, who attended college and law school in the city, said she was with a group a couple blocks from where Floyd died when police told them they were breaking curfew. They replied they were going home, she said, and then the officers hit them with pepper spray and zip-tied their hands.
‘Almost everyone that was in our holding tank with us was from Minnesota,’ Houska said.
Sierra West, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, said she drove to Minneapolis with a friend because she is ‘so angry about what is happening’ with police brutality and wanted to peacefully protest.
After marching for hours, West broke away from the crowds and was walking back to her car through an alley alone when police arrested her early Saturday on riot and curfew violation charges. She said she did nothing to provoke the four officers who confronted her.
‘They were hiding, and they literally jumped out of the shadows with guns drawn on me,’ she said. ‘The street was completely empty.’
West, who is white and describes herself as a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, was freed from jail on Monday afternoon.
University of Minnesota Law School student Santana Boulton, 23, said a police officer pepper-sprayed her in the face on May 28 before she was tear-gassed two days later and then arrested on Sunday, charged with unlawful assembly and violating a curfew.
About 15 minutes before the 8pm curfew, Boulton said she and her boyfriend joined a large crowd of marchers on Interstate 35. People linked arms and kneeled before two lines of police officers formed near the protesters. She said she never heard any orders to disperse.
‘It was nothing like a riot. It was a sit-in,’ she said.
Boulton, a white woman who moved from Michigan to Minneapolis to attend law school, was arrested and spent 16 hours in custody. She described herself as ‘philosophically an anarchist,’ but ‘not a revolutionary.’
‘Antifa isn’t even real. As an actual person who identifies with the political label of anarchist, the only thing anarchists do is have meetings where they argue for five hours and get nothing done,’ she said.