Fringe Groups Advocating and Supporting Violence
There are fringe groups and individuals at protests who advocate, support and engage in violent acts. Some are from the left; a far larger number are from the right. On the far right are groups seeking race war and an elimination of Jews, Hispanics, immigrants and African Americans; they derive their ideologies from fascism, Nazi-ism and from white supremacist ideologies associated with the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederacy. On the left are the anarchists and the Antifa (a loose collection of individuals dedicated to direct confrontation with the resurgent far right militias that assembled in Charlottesville and Portland, Oregon).
Over the past twenty years, 111 Americans have been killed in far right attacks as compared to 8 Americans killed in black nationalist attacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_terrorism#United_States “As of October 2019, the New America Foundation placed the number killed in terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11 as follows: 111 killed in far-right attacks, 104 killed in jihadist terrorist attacks, 8 killed in black separatist/nationalist/supremacist attacks, and 8 killed in ideological misogyny/"incel" ideology attacks.[82] According to the Government Accountability Office of the United States, 73% of violent extremist incidents that resulted in deaths since September 12, 2001 were caused by right-wing extremist groups.[83][84]
Left wing terrorist account for no American deaths over the past twenty years; those groups have largely disappeared from the American landscape. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_terrorism “Modern left-wing terrorist groups in the United States developed from remnants of the Weather Underground and extremist elements of the Students for a Democratic Society. Between 1973 and 1975, the Symbionese Liberation Army was active, committing bank robberies, murders, and other acts of violence.[16] Other terrorist groups such as the small New World Liberation Front resorted to death threats, drive-by shootings and planting of pipe-bombs in the late 1970s.[17] During the 1980s, both the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO) and the smaller United Freedom Front were active. After 1985, following the dismantling of both groups, one source reports there were no confirmed acts of left-wing terrorism by similar groups.[18] Incidents of left-wing terrorism dropped off at the end of the Cold War (circa 1989), partly due to the loss of support for communism.[19]”
“Antifa” accounts for no American deaths over the past twenty years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States) “The antifa (/ænˈtiːfə, ˈæntiˌfɑː/)[1] movement in the United States is a left-wing,[2][3][4][5] anti-fascist political activist movement[11][16] that comprises autonomous activist groups that aim to achieve their political objectives through the use of direct action rather than through policy reform.[17][18][19][20] Activists engage in protest tactics such as digital activism and militancy, involving property damage, physical violence and harassment against people whom they identify as fascist, racist, or on the far-right.[25] … Individuals involved in the movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist views[26] and subscribe to a range of left-wing ideologies such as anarchism, communism, Marxism, social democracy and socialism.[27][34] President Trump has singled out “Antifa” in his diatribes. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/02/how-antifa-became-a-trump-catch-all-297921
On the other hand, armed right wing militia members entered the Michigan state Capitol last month seeking redress of their grievances about stay at home orders and threatening the safety of lawmakers and the Governor, with the repeated encouragement of President Trump. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496514 and https://www.npr.org/2020/05/14/855918852/heavily-armed-protesters-gather-again-at-michigans-capitol-denouncing-home-order. Some of their adherents have coalesced under the code name “boogaloo” and seek to infiltrate and use the cover of the George Floyd protests to foment a race war. https://news.yahoo.com/boogaloo-arrests-in-nevada-portray-extremists-using-protests-to-incite-civil-war-131125733.html
President Trump seems intent on using the protests as a platform rallying point for his re-election campaign, mischaracterizing their largely peaceful conduct, focusing on isolated looting and vandalism, and calling for the military to suppress them. To date, the military and even some members of his own party have descried his efforts, and his responses are backfiring with the public.