There were not 574 riots. Dozens were not killed, thousands of officers were not injurder.
“The vast majority of demonstration events associated with the BLM movement are non-violent In more than 93% of all demonstrations connected to the movement, demonstrators have not engaged in violence or destructive activity.”
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project documented the summer protests. The project recorded over 7,500 protests and found that more than 93 percent were peaceful. The project cited over 2,400 locations and found that violence occurred in less than 220. The violence ranged from “fighting back against police” to vandalism, property destruction looting, road-blocking using barricades, burning tires or other materials.” This report also found that the over the top government response from President number 45 contributed to the violence. The federal response basically increased tension and violence. For example, in Portland the violence increased by 9 percent after President number 45 sent troops to that city. What ACLED also found was that government intervened more in BLM demonstrations than any other.
“ACLED also highlights a violent government response, in which authorities use force more often than not when they are present at protests and that they disproportionately used force while intervening in demonstrations associated with the BLM movement, relative to other types of demonstrations.”
Another funny thing was discovered during these protests, (well actually not so funny). The violence in many of these protests were from people who were more than likely not associated with Black Lives Matter. The evidence from ACLED shows that much of the violence came from infiltrators and counter protesters, many who were associated with white nationalist and paramilitary organizations. These groups had an ally that often times helped to escalate the situation, then used violence to settle things down. That ally was law enforcement.
“Since Floyd’s killing, dozens of car-ramming attacks by individual perpetrators — in some cases acting independently with no reported affiliation, and in others linked to hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan — have been reported at demonstrations around the country. Other cases have involved those affiliated with the government, such as the military and law enforcement, including an on-duty police officer at a demonstration in Anaheim, California on 25 July; an off-duty police officer at a demonstration in Seattle, Washington on 4 July; an army sergeant at a demonstration in Austin, Texas on 25 July; and an off-duty jail correctional officer at a demonstration in Kokomo, Indiana on 30 May.”
In similar fashion the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard found that that 96.3 percent of the BLM protests had no property damage or police injuries, and in 97.7 percent of events, no injuries were reported at all. In fact, they determined that the majority of violence was directed at BLM protesters. There were arrests in 5 percent of the protests. Protesters/ bystanders were reported injured in 1.6 percent of the protests. Police were reported injured in 1 percent of the protests.
