It was yet another night of rioting and looting. Granted, in some areas, the chaos was not nearly as bad as the previous night. Fox News’ Kevin Corke reported that while last night’s law enforcement response was not perfect, it wasn’t nearly as anarchic. That’s probably because every law enforcement agency and their mother were out to ensure the curfew was enforced. For Democrats out there struggling to figure out how to control their cities, a big police presence pretty much ensures law and order is re-established. Just saying. Yet, as the rioting intensified over the past couple of days, especially in Minneapolis, there was this ridiculous talking point that right-wing extremists, specifically white nationalist groups, were creating the chaos. That’s not true.
The reason why the nation is engulfed in flames right now is due to the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police. He was arrested for using a fake $20 bill at a local store. Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes, which resulted in his death. It was a nonviolent crime. Floyd was unarmed. And now Chauvin has been fired and facing third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. The three other officers with him were also fired. All of this is captured on video, with Floyd crying out that he couldn’t breathe.
Minneapolis saw some of the worst riots. Our own Julio Rosas was there covering the chaos. A police headquarters was overrun and torched by rioters, looting was pervasive, and vandalism widespread. Gov. Tim Walz doled out that talking point, that may be the rioting was caused by white supremacist groups. Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety couldn’t back that up. Also, it was simply not true. A former British Army counterintelligence officer who now specializes in crowd management said based on his reports, the far right is not there. He did warn that those who are creating havoc are “hard-core” guys (via USA Today):
The real hard-core guys, this is their job: They’re involved in this struggle," said Adam Leggat, a former British Army counterterrorism officer who now works as a security consultant specializing in crowd management for the Densus Group. "They need protests on the street to give them cover to move in.”
[…]
"There are detractors. There are white supremacists. There are anarchists," Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said Saturday afternoon.
However, a civil arrest list provided by the public information officer of the St. Paul Police Department shows 12 of the 18 people arrested from Thursday through 6 a.m. Saturday were from Minnesota. Five of them are from St. Paul, three are from Woodbury (part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area), two are from Minneapolis, one is from Mankato and one is from St. Louis Park. Four are from out of state and two did not have cities of residence listed.
[…]
Leggat, the security consultant, said intelligence reports from his colleagues indicate most of the hard-core protesters in Minneapolis are far-left or anarchists, and that far-right groups have not yet made a significant appearance. He said looting is typically done by locals – usually people with no criminal record who just get caught up in the moment.
And now, in New York City, it appears anarchists are the ones creating the mayhem. Not even the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is biased as anything, couldn't find evidence of white supremacists (via NYT) [emphasis mine]:
I see the "outside agitators don't exist and aren't coordinating to cause violence, but if they do exist they're only white supremacists" narrative is finally dying an ignominious death. https://t.co/dYNDE1bnsv
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 1, 2020
In New York City, a senior police official said anarchists had planned to start mayhem in the city even before the protests started, using encrypted communication to raise bail money and to recruit medics. During the demonstrations, they maintained supply routes to distribute gasoline, rocks and bottles, and also dispatched scouts to find areas devoid of police officers, said John Miller, the deputy commissioner in charge of the Police Department’s counter-terrorism and intelligence efforts.
“They prepared to commit property damage and directed people who were following them that this should be done selectively and only in wealthier areas or at high-end stores run by corporate entities,” he said in a telephone briefing with reporters. Such activity was still under investigation, Mr. Miller said, but many participants, he said, were from outside New York. “They instructed group leaders to tell the people following them that this was not meant to be orderly activity,” he said.
[...]
Far-right adherents generated an avalanche of posts on social media in recent days suggesting the unrest was a sign that the collapse of the American system they have long-awaited was at hand. These groups, known as “accelerationists,” attempt to promote any circumstances that might speed that goal.
Last month they were pushing the idea that the coronavirus pandemic and the demonstrations against shutting down public life might be their moment to incite discord.
The groups are not monolithic. There are factions that express solidarity with some in the African-American community in their animosity toward the police, a position dating to violent showdowns in the 1990s between white supremacists and law enforcement in places like Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Others, however, believe that sparking a race war would ultimately bring about the establishment of a pure white ethnic state in at least part of the current United States.
Signs of any organized effort or even participation in the violence were relatively rare. “I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot,” said Howard Graves, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks white supremacist and other anti-government extremist groups.
Yeah, these aren’t right-wing groups, anarchists are also not white supremacists. The media has a herculean task of making Democrats look good in an election year. Well, you can’t do that when all Democrat-led areas are on fire because their leadership is weak and allowed portions of their cities to be surrendered to the mob for destruction. So, you blame white supremacists in yet another pathetic and failed effort to tie them to the Trump administration because that’s what liberal media outlets do to any Republican that occupies the Oval Office. And then, reality slaps them in the face. Sorry, liberal media, this narrative is dying. It’s probably already dead. You propped up the Trump-Russia collusion myth, one of the most embarrassing exercises in recent memory. Don’t do this with these phantom right-wingers setting fires everywhere. The evidence is not there.
