President Donald Trump with his fantastic allies have sought to blame left-wing extremists for the violence and looting at US protests over police brutality while local authorities and watchdog groups have pointed for the threat posed by right-wing movements.
A newly released US intelligence assessment reviewed by Reuters in the week said the majority of the violence at protests appears to have already been driven by opportunists. However the assessment also said there was some evidence that organized extremists were associated with violence or promoting it online.
WHICH GROUPS Are Increasingly Being SINGLED OUT?
President Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans have sought to blame the left-wing anti-fascist Antifa movement but have presented little evidence.
Liberal watchdog groups and a few local authorities have warned that people in the anti-government “boogaloo” movement or white supremacist groups could infiltrate protests.
Federal prosecutors filed charges in the week against three alleged boogaloo members charged with plotting to cause destruction and violence at Vegas protest.
Precisely What Is ANTIFA?
Antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” is surely an amorphous movement whose adherents oppose people or groups they consider authoritarian or racist, in accordance with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors extremists. Antifa aims to “intimidate and dissuade racists,” nonetheless its aggressive tactics including physical confrontations can produce “a vicious, self-defeating cycle of attacks, counter-attacks and blame,” the ADL said.
According to a 2018 report by the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research arm of the US Congress, the FBI has been increasingly concerned about violence perpetrated by Antifa at public events.
WHY IS ANTIFA Very Well-KNOWN?
Antifa grew in notoriety after a 2017 rally inCharlottesville and Virginia, organized by white supremacists and white nationalists who clashed violently with counter-protesters. Trump drew criticism afterward when he said there have been “very fine people on both sides” and blamed “many sides” to the violence. Trump specifically mentioned Antifa.
“You know, they arrive from the helmets along with the black masks, and they’ve got clubs and they’ve got everything,” Trump said of Antifa days right after the rally.
Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said Trump was concentrating on Antifa to redirect the conversation away from social and economic discontent in america at the heart of your protests.
“There just aren’t enough members of Antifa groups out there to accomplish everything they’re being blamed for,” said Bray, a lecturer in history at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
What Exactly Is The BOOGALOO MOVEMENT?
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, the anti-government boogaloo movement embodies a militant ideology whose members believe the United States will enter into a second civil war. Boogaloo followers anticipate the government will make an attempt to confiscate people’s guns.
Some white supremacist groups have embraced it, the ADL found, although the boogaloo ideology itself is not white supremacist.
“Whereas the militia movement and radical gun rights activists typically promote the boogaloo as being a war versus the government or liberals, white supremacists conceive of your boogaloo being a race war or possibly a white revolution,” the ADL wrote in a November analysis.
Boogaloo groups have become in popularity online in the past year. The Tech Transparency Project, a Washington-based tech watchdog group, found thousands of people joined boogaloo-related Facebook groups across a 30-day period in March and April as stay-at-home orders took effect across america to stop the spread of your novel coronavirus. Project researchers found discussions about tactical strategies, weapons and creating explosives in a few boogaloo Facebook groups.
Have You Thought About WHITE SUPREMACISTS AND WHITE NATIONALISTS?
A small number of white supremacists and white nationalists have been spotted at recent protests, according to watchdog groups and media reports. The Nationalist Social Club, a neo-Nazi group, appeared to have had some presence at protests in Knoxville and BostonKnoxville and Tennessee, the ADL said. Members of the far-right Proud Boys were seen at North Oregon and Carolina protests last weekend, according to media reports.
Doubted they would pose a credible violent threat, even though nate Snyder, a former US Department of Homeland Security counter-terrorism official, said it is likely anarchists were among the protesters in recent days.
