"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What began as peaceful protests over the death of an African-American in Minneapolis, quickly turned violent as rioting, looting and arson spread to dozens of cities. The storm of rage ignited a contentious national conversation about policing, racial justice and property destruction.
Police arrested more than 1,000 rioters and looters nationwide during the wave of violence. It is difficult if not imprecise to calculate the number of deaths because of lax reporting in many cities. However, using a search of public news reports, at least 15 deaths have been linked to the riots.
During the melee, at least two police officers were killed, including a retired African-American policeman and a security officer for the Federal Protection Services. More than 60 Secret Service members and at least 200 New York City policemen have been injured.
The incident that sparked the torrent of protests was the death of George Floyd, a 46-year who died on Memorial Day after police arrested him over a suspected counterfeit $20 bill. A Minneapolis policeman is charged with kneeling on Floyd's neck, causing the man's death.
While the events surrounding Floyd's death have justifiably received pervasive attention, little has been written about what appears to be a coordinated attempt to hijack the peaceful protests with the intention of promoting widespread mayhem against businesses, police and citizens.
The shadowy, loose-knit, organization Antifa has been under suspicion because of its past involvement in ugly racial confrontations over the last four years. The anarchist miltia-style movement has made no secret of its aspiration to engage in political street warfare.
However, Antifa is just one of a burgeoning evolution of anarchist groups which have sprung up in the past decade. While there is little formal affiliation between the organizations, they all embrace an agenda of insurrection, physical confrontation and are virulently anti-law enforcement.
Anarchist Origins
Antifa, the acronym is a truncation of anti-fascist, traces its roots to the 1960's in Europe when a collection of groups and individuals organized to oppose far right-wing movements. Their original aim was to counter what it perceived as the German people's failure to oppose Nazism in the 1930's.
By the end of the 1970's, the movement migrated to the U.S. but it remained largely an underground organization with no public presence. The Rose City Antifa, located in Portland, is the oldest and best known group. It is no coincidence that Portland has been the scene of some of the worst rioting.
On its Facebook page, Rose City clearly advocates for aggression. "We are unapologetic about the reality that fighting fascism at points requires physical militancy. Anti-facism is, by nature, a form of self-defense: the goal of fascism is to exterminate the vast majority of human beings."
Antifa has a website ItsGoingDown.org which promotes its brand of activism. In previous posts, the website identifies as one of its goals to "build a culture of non-cooperation with law enforcement." The group urges disciples to make the country "ungovernable" through "mass insurrection."
Antifa has left a trail of tumultuous, provocative incidents in is activist wake. An Antifa mob prevented a Manhattan Institute scholar from entering the Claremont McKenna College auditorium for a speech to students, calling her a "fascist, white supremacist and a warhawk."
Her crime? She had penned books defending police as not racist.
The group was active in cities across the U.S. after protests over the killing of unarmed African-American Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri in 2014. After a grand jury declined to idict the white police officer who shot Brown, violence erupted in cities from Los Angeles to New York.
Tracking Antifa's activism is difficult because it is loosely allied with many splinter groups. Local groups with titles that include the words, "Against Police Brutality", may not be directly linked to Antifa, but embrace its tactics for ongoing confrontation with law enforcement.
Other wannabe organizations that are in the Antifa orbit include Refuse Fascism, created weeks after President Trump's election in 2016. In Chicago, the Haymaker Anti-Fascist Gym admits it has "passion for insurrection in our fists." Their mission is to stamp out far-right violence.
Of course, the best known of these anarchist groups is Black Lives Matter, formed in 2013 in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin. The group, which once met with President Obama, has been at the epicenter of racial incidents around the country, including in Ferguson and Baltimore.
The faction claims its mission is to "eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes." In their credo, they state the are working for a world "where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise."
Another anarchist agitator is the New Black Panther Party, which has advocated violence against whites and Jews in particular. They call themselves revolutionaries and usually show up in force whenever there are large protests over police conduct or racial episodes that attract national attention.
Although no evidence was found directly linking the group to the man who gunned down five Dallas police officers in 2016, police discovered his Facebook page was supportive of the New Black Panther Party. Detectives found bomb-making materials, rifles and ammunition at the killer's home.
There is even a group, known as Tilted Scales Collective, which offers legal assistance to anarchists who are arrested in "social struggles to assist them in navigating their criminal legal charges." It fights "for political prisoners...and politicized prisoners in the so-called United States."
Not all anarchist groups are on the left. Three men with ties to a loosely organized group of right wing extremists, who advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government, were arrested on terrorism-related charges in Las Vegas. They were charged with conspiracy to incite violence.
Federal prosecutors stated the three had military experience and were planning to capitalize on protests over the Floyd death. Once in custody, the men self-identified as members of the "boobaloo" movement, a term used by extremists who are preparing for a coming civil war in the country.
As this analysis demonstrates, there is a large and growing network of so-called anti-fascist groups embedded in the country. This loose collection of organizations poses a threat to the safety and security of the country, according to Attorney General William Barr.
Barr blamed a "witches brew" of extremist groups, such as Antifa and other anarchists, for exploiting the George Floyd protests. He has instructed the FBI to open an extensive investigation of this notorious cabal which has as its objective the inciting of violence.
Defunding Police
Out of the flames of fires in major cities wracked by violence, Black Lives Matter has begun petitioning governors, mayors and other anarchist groups to seize the momentum of the national attention on the Floyd murder to defund police departments, a long-standing aim.
"Black communities are living in persistent fear of being killed by state authorities, like the police," an organization spokesperson told reporters. Money saved on policing could be diverted to social programs, the group pointed out.
In it's petition BLM makes clear its intention. "We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive but thrive..."
BLM already has lined up signatures of many Hollywood elites and big name athletes to bolster its campaign. The effort is beginning to attract champions, including legislators in New York state and the mayor of Los Angeles. In total, 14 lawmakers in states and cities have signaled support.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who just weeks ago was pushing for raises and bonuses for police officers, is backtracking. The mayor now supports cuts of up to $150 million in the budget for the LA police. New York legislators are calling on New York City, in particular, to shave police funding.
The issue already has gained the attention of Congress. Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled far reaching legislation to overhaul policing in the U.S. The speaker said the bill, dubbed the "Justice in Policing Act" was in reaction to the "martyrdom of George Floyd" and "police brutality."
In this rush toward symbolism, politicians have ignored the facts about policing and race. Although the final 2019 data from the FBI is not available, The Washington Post has maintained a generally recognized accurate account of people shot by police, dating back to 2015.
According to the Post, the data shows the fewest number of people were shot and killed by police in 2018 since it began collecting the numbers. There were 995 people killed, which is about 0.01% of the contacts and arrests police had with Americans of all colors.
The figures show 403 white people were shot and killed; 210 African-Americans; 148 Hispanics,; 38 were classified as "other;" and, 199 were listed as "unknown." Of the 995, some 47 victims were unarmed: 23 were white; 17 were black; 5 were Hispanic; and, two were "unknown."
The 2018 FBI data recounted there were 10.2 million police arrests. That means that the 47 unarmed victims police killed equated to 0.00047% of those arrested. These does not excuse any unjustified shooting, but offers perspective on how frequently killings occur.
While police shootings trigger headlines, less attention is accorded by the national media to the number of police officers killed in the line of duty. A total of 56 policemen were killed in 2018, according to FBI data.
Not one American I know or have read about in news reports has tried to justify the actions of the policemen involved in Floyd's arrest and murder. What they did is evil and a blight on police forces across the country. But dismantling police departments is an emotional response not based on facts.
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