Right wingers were counting on riots to break out after the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd. They figured Chauvin would get away with kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes until Floyd was asphyxiated, and outraged Blacks would take to the streets in violent protests, which would make great video for the white supremacist channels, including Fox “News.”
Scott Greer, a speaker at the recent white-nationalist America First PAC convention and a former writer for the Daily Caller, tweeted early on April 20 that “White boy summer starts with Derek Chauvin’s acquittal,” David Neiwert noted at DailyKos.com.
Instead, that afternoon, the Hennepin County jury convicted Chauvin of three counts of murder. Greer updated his tweet that, “Uhhh ... it appears white boy summer has been postponed.” So the wingers switched to Plan B, as Greer wrote, “Why even remain a cop? This system hates you and only needs you to enforce mask regulations. Get a job that won’t send you to jail for doing your job.”
Chuck Tanner of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, who collected reactions of far-right extremists after the Chauvin trial, noted that “the response across the far right and white nationalist movement demonstrated its base lack of compassion and lack of mooring in reality.”
Jaden McNeil of America First Students bemoaned that Chauvin “never stood a chance” in a multiracial America.
Self-proclaimed “groyper mommy” Michelle Malkin wrote that “Chauvin was sacrificed.” Tulsa, Oklahoma-area Proud Boys recirculated a post declaring that “Derek Chauvin Did Nothing Wrong.”
Peter Brimelow, founder/publisher of the white-nationalist site VDare, asked on Twitter, “Does anyone really see a way out except Civil War/secession?” Brimelow tweeted an article he wrote in 2017 predicting that “it will come to blood.”
Tucker Carlson’s rant on Fox “News” on April 20 — in which he claimed that Chauvin couldn’t receive a fair trial — was echoed widely on far-right channels, Neiwert noted.
“Everyone understood perfectly well the consequences of an acquittal in this case,” Carlson said. “After nearly a year of burning and looting and murder by BLM, that was never in doubt.”
Blaming Democrats for the verdict, Carlson echoed white nationalist themes as well: “No mob has the right to destroy our cities,” he said. “No politician or media figure has the right to intimidate a jury. It’s an attack on civilization.”
Carlson helped to build the myth that the Black Lives Matter movement was responsible for violent protests in the summer of 2020. Republicans used that myth to scare White suburban voters.
In fact, studies of racial justice protests have found the Black Lives Matter protests were remarkably nonviolent. When there was violence, very often police or right-wing provocateurs were directing it at the protesters.
A study by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and the Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) at Princeton University in September 2020 found about 93% of protests since the death of George Floyd were peaceful and non-destructive.
ACLED recorded more than 10,600 demonstrations across the US between May 24 and August 22, 2020. About 7,750 of those protests were linked to the Black Lives Matter movement. Peaceful protests took place in more than 2,440 locations across all 50 states and Washington, D.C, while violent demonstrations occurred in fewer than 220 locations.
Violence sometimes was initiated by law enforcement authorities, who intervened in 9% of BLM protests with force, using tear gas, rubber bullets or pepper spray. Of all other protests, including unrest over the COVID-19 pandemic, 3% were met with force.
As the use of force became more heavy-handed, the risks of violence increased, particularly in Seattle and Portland, the report noted. Violent demonstrations in Portland increased after federal agents arrived on the scene and “re-escalated tensions,” the authors wrote, in reference to demonstrations in Oregon.
“Prior to the deployment, over 83% of demonstrations in Oregon were non-violent. Post-deployment, the percentage of violent demonstrations has risen from under 17% to over 42%, suggesting that the federal response has only aggravated unrest.”
Right-wing gangs, such as Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Bois and the Ku Klux Klan also intervened in demonstrations and engaged in often-violent counter-protests.
Protesters or bystanders were reported injured in 1.6% of the protests. In total, at least three Black Lives Matter protesters and one other person were killed while protesting in Omaha, Austin and Kenosha, Wis. One anti-fascist protester killed a far-right group member during a confrontation in Portland, Ore. He claimed he acted in self-defense, but law enforcement officers killed the anti-fascist several days later, a killing Donald Trump applauded.
Now Republicans are seeking to use the myth of violent BLM protests to push new laws to criminalize protests. Legislators in at least 34 states have introduced bills to increase penalties against people who are convicted of protest-related crimes.
A Republican proposal in Indiana would bar anyone convicted of unlawful assembly from holding state employment, including elected office. A Minnesota bill would prohibit those convicted of unlawful protesting from receiving student loans, unemployment benefits or housing assistance. In Kentucky, where protests after the police killing of Breonna Taylor lasted for months, the state Senate passed a bill that would make it a crime to insult or taunt a police officer with “offensive or derisive” words or gestures that would have “a direct tendency to provoke a violent response.” Those arrested on such charges would be held in jail for at least 48 hours, which the Democratic Senate floor leader noted is more than those who are arrested for murder, arson or rape.
Republican legislators in Oklahoma and Iowa have passed bills granting immunity to drivers whose vehicles strike and injure protesters in public streets.
And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed sweeping legislation that toughened laws governing public disorder — a bill he’s called “the strongest anti-looting, anti-rioting, pro-law-enforcement piece of legislation in the country.” The law transforms many misdemeanor offenses into felonies. It denies bail to protesters until they see a judge. A “riot” is defined as at least three people who, together, pose a “clear and present danger” to someone. The law also increases penalties associated with taking down Confederate monuments, making it a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
These are authoritarian solutions to relatively minor problems. There are tough criminal penalties available to prosecute real cases of assault, arson and looting. Instead, Republicans are trying to suppress the right of the people to peaceably assemble. Under the new rules, a few unruly participants can give police the excuse to call that assembly a riot. Then police can “kettle” the participants in a confined area and wait for the crowd to boil over.
First they take away your right to vote, and then they take away your right to complain about it.
Apparently, the QAnon party believes suppressing protests is easier than getting police to stop killing unarmed people of color. — JMC
From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2021
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