Alleged extremist involvement[edit]
There have been accusations of various extremist groups using the cover of the protests to foment general unrest in the United States, but "officials offered little evidence to show who was responsible and contradicted one another on who was to blame."
[401] Donald Trump blamed "
far left extremist groups" for inciting and organizing violent riots.
[87] "What we are seeing now on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace," Trump said. "Those making excuses or justification for violence are not helping the downtrodden, but delivering new anguish and new pain."
[402] During a press conference, Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert claimed Antifa were behind the violence during the protests. He added, "It's just a damn shame that they took advantage of the situation, for something, something happened in another state where somebody died who shouldn't have died, and they hijacked that message for their own."
[403] U.S. Attorney General William Barr blamed "anarchic and far left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics" for the violence at the protests. "The voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements," Barr said.
[404]
Vice reported that the far-right "
boogaloo boys," whose ideological aim is to incite a second civil war, have been spotted at the protests.
[405] Admins of the Facebook page Big Igloo Bois, a splinter of the Boogaloo movement, called for members to attend the protests with one administrator stating, "come in peace, prepare for there to be violence."
[406] White supremacists were claimed by Minnesota officials to have taken part.
[407] An attendee of the Friday night Minneapolis protests — Jonathan Turner Bargen — claimed to see a white man in a red pickup truck, carrying an assault rifle and a handgun with a far-right militia group
Three Percenters symbol on the truck.
[406] The truck had Minnesota license plates.
[406] Another attendee — Bridget Schumann — reported a truck driven aggressively, intimidating other drivers.
[406] The truck reportedly had a white sticker featuring the
OK sign symbol.
[406] The symbol has been associated with white supremacists.
[406] Schumann claimed that the two men in the truck were harassing a woman leaving an apartment building garage.
[406] A similar story was told by Alexia Kelsey who came to the Friday protests to help clean up the damage.
[406] According to
MPR News, social media users have claimed that far-right activism and "fringe" libertarian groups were seizing on the instability to provoke violence and destruction."
[406] White nationalist
Nick Fuentes also attended a protest in Tampa.
[408][
failed verification] Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right supported the idea of far-right extremist involvement. He also doubted the prominence of Antifa groups although acknowledge that some online Antifa groups were supporting the protests.
[406]
Minnesota Governor
Tim Walz speculated that there was "an organized attempt to destabilize civil society," initially stating that as many as 80% of the individuals had possibly come from outside the state,
[409] and the mayor of St. Paul,
Melvin Carter, said that everyone arrested in St. Paul on May 29 was from out of state.
[410] However, this was shown to the be incorrect, as records proved that the majority of those arrested were in-state.
[411] At a press conference later the same day, Carter explained that he had "shared... arrest data received in [his] morning police briefing which [he] later learned to be inaccurate".
[412]
The so-called "Umbrella Man," who was recorded calmly breaking windows during the beginning of the protests, was accused of being an
agent provocateur trying to provoke or give the appearance of rioting; some speculated he was working for the police, but the police chief denied it.
[49]
Misinformation[edit]
Misinformation was spread across social media, hours prior to the beginning of the first protests. Members of the general public and celebrities have spread images of men wearing
MAGA hats or near President Trump during a rally, that were falsely identified as Chauvin. Others have spread images of other protests or incidents claiming that the violence and destruction were attributed to the protestors but were instead from other protests.
[413]
not that I want to look up. so I will bow to your pressure and say that only poor people steal bongs, alcohol, computers, tvs. . happy?
