Police reports reveal the real culprits in 2020 urban riots
Police reports document that 2020 U.S. riots were inflicted by white nationalists
Contrary to popular belief, a battery of police reports prove that the 2020 urban riots that struck U.S. cities were not inflicted by gangs, leftist radicals, or peaceful daytime #BlackLivesMatter protesters.
But if sensational media were misleading the public, then who were the culprits?
The Associated Press reviewed thousands of pages of court documents relating to 2020 protest arrests, and found that most arrestees were “young suburban adults from the very neighborhoods [then-President] Trump vows to protect from the violence.
Court documents explain 2020 urban riots
The AP investigation profiled the protesters:
Some of those facing charges undoubtedly share far-left and anti-government views. Far-right protesters also have been arrested and charged. Some defendants have driven to protests from out of state. Some have criminal records and were illegally carrying weapons. Others are accused of using the protests as an opportunity to steal or create havoc.
But many have had no previous run-ins with the law and no apparent ties to antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups that Trump has said he wants to declare a terrorist organization.
And many arrestees were peaceful marchers, charged with non-violent crimes, rounded up by police during the 2020 urban riots to discourage free speech. Many of those arrested later had charges dropped due to lack of evidence of any wrongdoing.
As early as July 2020, law enforcement officials knew that the worst violence was committed by organized white supremacists. In Virginia, police discovered that white-nationalist Boogaloo Boys instigated the local violence; Black Lives Matter leaders thanked city police for intervening.
Police reports and watchdog groups such as the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights found that in at least 40 other cities — such as Atlanta, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Oakland, Richmond (Va.), San Diego, Santa Cruz, and Wichita — some of the arrested looters were actually white nationalist Boogaloos, Proud Boys, Three Percenters and Oath Keepers: provocateurs who came from other communities, mingled with Black Lives Matter protesters, and provoked violence.
Furthermore, the previously mentioned AP investigation found that the Trump administration sought to corrupt and politicize the arrests, interfering with cases that — legally speaking — should have been handled by local courts, not GOP-controlled federal agencies. In September 2020, the Trump administration’s acting Homeland Security official admitted that they had been lying about a supposed “antifa” conspiracy; white nationalists were, indeed, involved in the riots. And in November 2022, a Department of Homeland Security internal report confirmed that, under Trump’s illegal orders, they had “launched a failed operation that ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters in what new documents show was as a sweeping, power-hungry effort before the 2020 election to bolster President Donald Trump’s spurious claims” about a non-existent “terrorist organization” that Trump accused his Democratic rivals of supporting.
Police reports expose myths about 2020 urban riots
A nationwide 2020 end-of-year nationwide survey of police reports, conducted by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, confirmed all of this. The 2020 urban riots were consistently associated with out-of-town white nationalist organizations and far-right militias fighting against peaceful speech by Black Lives Matter and its progressive American allies.
Today, millions of Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News viewers falsely believe that the 2020 riots completely destroyed American cities structurally and financially. But from Portland to Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. and everywhere in between, damage was limited to a few neighborhoods in each city, and easily repaired. That’s not surprising, given that the marches in each city were found by police reports to have been “overwhelmingly peaceful.”
Relentless media sensationalism did not merely mislead the public. In omitting most facts from their coverage and thriving upon outrage, partisan cable news channels energized fresh white-nationalist violence against U.S. election workers, elected state and local officials and, on January 6, our national democratically elected government.
Trump praised Walz for suppressing the riots
According to news reports, Trump singled out Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for special praise.
“I know Governor Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump said on the June 1, 2020, phone call, a recording of which was obtained by ABC.
“I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim,” Trump added. “You called up big numbers, and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
Trump also claimed on the call that it was his suggestion that Walz call in the National Guard to help manage the protests, which the Harris campaign categorically denied.
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