By Kevin Shay
Violence at political protests has long been inflamed by provocateurs. Some even say the 18th-century Boston Tea Party was largely organized by relatively few provocateurs.
In the present case, Trump continually claims the leftist-anarchist network Antifa is behind the initial burning of buildings and other violence in protests over police killings of African Americans. Trump has claimed Antifa was a terrorist organization, wrongly and cynically saying the movement has links to Democrats.
But it’s more likely that far-right white supremacist extremists have been doing much of the protest violence, according to numerous reports by NPR and others. During protests of another police shooting in which James Blake was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wis., in late August, 17-year-old Trump supporter Kyle Rittenhouse killed two BLM protesters. That, of course, gave Trump and his sycophants more ammunition to ramp up their calls for “law and order” as they hypocritically violated laws like the Hatch Act.
One of the first arrests after BLM protests started in late May was of three right-wing extremists who plotted to cause problems in Las Vegas. Trump AG Bill Barr declined to address in a news conference June 4.