Since George Floyd’s murder, there have been ~11,000 demonstrations in the U.S.
- Police intervened in 725 of them, and used force 400 times or in roughly 1 of every 28 protests
- There were 100 government and police assaults against news media in these protests
- Rightwingers organized 360 counter-demonstrations, usually much smaller
- Of those counter-demonstrations, 40 turned violent, or 1 of every 9 such gatherings
- Vigilante groups and rightwing individuals intervened in 100 BLM protests
- At least 20 different rightwing militias participated in those interventions
- Vigilantes and far-right activists confronted protesters nearly 500 times
- Vigilantes assaulted protesters 64 times
- Vigilantes drove vehicles into protesters 38 times
- Vigilantes fired shots at protesters 9 times
- 6 protesters were shot, 3 fatally
- 1 rightwing activist was fatally shot
The bottom line is that the BLM protests triggered by George Floyd’s killing have been overwhelmingly peaceful. Obviously it would be unfair to suggest all the violence has come from the right. However, the data do paint a picture of rightwing violence against protesters. Read story here.
Meanwhile, Republicans in many states have tried to penalize protest activities such as blocking traffic by walking in streets. (Read 2017 article here.)
People with long memories will recall that Republicans were hostile to dissent during the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, too. It seems to me that when you have thousands of people turning out for a demonstration, police should close streets and provide security for the demonstrators, as police are doing in the photo below.
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