The narrative usually goes like this: a relatively small “right wing” group obtains a lawful permit to hold a rally; the “leftwing” finds out about it and uses social media to call for a counterprotest; the rally becomes contentious, left wing agitators create mayhem that can also involve physical attacks and property vandalism. And after all is said and done, the media consistently reports those confrontations as “mostly peaceful”.
Democratic congresswoman calls antifa ‘peaceful protesters’
Protests converge in Portland, but remain mostly peaceful
Portland Mayor Says Protests Were ‘Largely Peaceful’ as Videos Show Antifa Assaulting People
Antifa violence caps otherwise peaceful Unite the Right 2 DC rally
Conservatives and counter-protesters keep it mostly peaceful at Capitol rally
Controversial rally in Boston has ended, police say. At least 8 arrested on what was a mostly peaceful day.
While the media shields their young “left wing” offspring from any stink of violence they almost always bring with them, what’s left in their wake is reality to those in the affected communities.
The demonstrators were often indiscriminate, frequently targeting the businesses and prized possessions of people of color. They smashed a hair salon, a pharmacy and several restaurants. Police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, but some people retreated along 14th Street and bashed cars along the way.
— San Francisco Gate, 1/8/09
All remnants of a violent protest Saturday night, when 100 people gathered after the George Zimmerman verdict was read, marched through downtown Oakland and left destruction in their wake. At Flora, on the corner of 19th and Telegraph, employees and patrons had to duck for cover under tables as the restaurant’s windows shattered around them.
Down the block, Sears has been a target during past demonstrations. On Saturday night, the business sustained the worst damage yet. Witnesses say the protesters used weights to smash nearly 30 windows and doors. Despite all the damage, there were no arrests and no injuries.
— ABC7 San Francisco, 7/15/13
Los Angeles police said about 150 people splintered off from a peaceful vigil in the Crenshaw area on Monday, some of them jumping on cars and breaking windows at fast-food outlets. Several protesters vandalised a Walmart in the neighbourhood. Aerial broadcast news footage showed troublemakers kicking and punching people on the street.
— BBC, 7/16/13
Ferguson unrest continues into the night, with police using tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters, some of whom are alleged to be firing guns at officers. The fourth night of protests results sees Molotov cocktails thrown by protesters while heavily-armed police deploy armoured vehicles.
— Telegraph (UK), 8/10/15
Buildings and cars across the city were engulfed in flames. About a dozen businesses looted or damaged. At least 15 officers were wounded, six of them seriously, the police commissioner said. Late Monday night, CNN crews saw looters breaking in through the roof of a Baltimore liquor store. They were tossing bottles and cans of alcohol onto the street below.
— CNN, 4/28/15
With thousands of people already packed into stands and music blaring to warm up the crowd, Donald J. Trump’s campaign abruptly canceled his rally here on Friday night over security concerns as protesters clashed with his supporters inside an arena where he was to speak.
Protesters were jubilant, some protesters shut down lanes of a nearby expressway. Arguments and small skirmishes broke out along the streets. At one point, the police rushed in, separating people. At least one man was hit on the head with a police baton, witnesses said, and blood could be seen coming from a gash on his face. A woman, also bloodied, was led away by police.
— New York Times, 3/12/16
Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in downtown San Jose spun out of control Thursday night when some demonstrators attacked the candidate’s supporters. Protesters jumped on cars, pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, snatched signs and stole “Make America Great” hats off supporters’ heads before burning the hats and snapping selfies with the charred remains.
Several people were caught on camera punching Trump supporters. At least one attacker was arrested, according to CNN, although police did not release much information.
— Washington Post, 6/3/16
After a night of violent protests, tensions remained high in Milwaukee as residents gathered Sunday to mourn an armed man shot to death by police. Sylville Smith’s sister Sherelle urged protesters to take the violence elsewhere, sobbing as she lamented that she would never be able to again hug her brother.
“Take that shit to the suburbs. Burn that shit down,” Smith said. “You all want to hurt somebody, take that further out. Don’t bring it here.”
— CNN, 8/14/16
One person was shot Wednesday night and four officers were injured as a second round of protests gripped this North Carolina city in the wake of a police-involved shooting of a black man.
The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce expressed its condolences to Keith Lamont Scott’s family, as well as to those injured in the protests, while calling on business owners to be prepared for any new violence. It said businesses should “keep everything as normal as possible,” but also take care to remove or chain down all tables, chairs, signs or planters.
— USA Today, 9/21/16
“Screw our President!” – Child claims to have started fire at @realDonaldTrump protest.
— Fox News, 1/19/17
#MiloAtCal rioters now destroying ATMs for absolutely no reason… CNN still referring to riots as “protests.”
— Breitbart News, 2/1/17
There are no comparative set of incidents where conservatives have ever behaved in this manner during any event where they were relatively left alone.
Despite FBI, DOJ announcements, repeated by self-important nonprofits who send talking points to a receptive media, you can’t find news stories of Tea Party and other conservative rallies that descend into orgies of violence and mass property damage. It never occurs to “right wingers” to deliberately break the law. At the many conservative rallies we’ve attended over the years, police presence is a formality when large groups who’ve obtained permits congregate. In many instances, you see attendees conversing with calm, smiling law enforcement personnel.
A senior FBI counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity to brief reporters in May, said the bureau had recorded a “significant” rise in cases involving “racially motivated extremism” since last fall. He declined to provide specifics, or attribute what might be behind the spike.
Overall, FBI agents have arrested more suspects in domestic terrorism investigations in the last three years than in probes with an international nexus — 355 people versus 310. The FBI did not provide a breakdown of charges lodged against the suspects, or the status of their cases.
— Los Angeles Times, 8/10/19
Based on past behavior, when inconvenient facts damage a liberal narrative, that’s usually when you hear from those “speaking on condition of anonymity” and information to back up public declarations are not provided.
Just take their word for it, no matter how slanderous the implications.
It’s almost always when the left enters the equation where all bets are off, confrontations ensue, violence erupts, people are injured or worse, surrounding property is vandalized, and as long as the incidents are isolated, the “left wing” participation is labeled as “mostly peaceful” and are thus omitted from the list of potentially hate-filled terror events.
“The far left is very active in the United States, but it hasn’t been particularly violent for some time,” says Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. He says the numbers between the groups don’t compare.
This piece was posted in response of the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise by a Bernie Sanders supporter.
Pitcavage says Wednesday’s shooting attack on Republican members of Congress is a warning sign. He is especially concerned because the shooter apparently was not particularly extreme in his political ideas; his views were seemingly in the mainstream left.
— NPR, 6/16/17
If James T. Hodgkinson was “seemingly in the mainstream left”, we have more of a problem than is being portrayed.
When you can choose which incidents will be labeled as “right wing”, “extreme”, and omit the affiliations of “left wing” offenders, you can make your ideologic opponent look as bad as you want. When you control the designation of numbers, you can create any impression you want. When people on the right are hurt by the left, there’s confined outrage but when someone on the left loses a life, they are eulogized.
Heather Heyer, the anti-racism activist killed at the Charlottesville white nationalist protests, died as a result of blunt-force injury to the chest, according to a medical report. Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, died after a car drove into a crowd of counterprotesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally being held in the Virginia town on August 12.
Nineteen other protesters were injured after being hit by the vehicle.
— Newsweek, 10/17/17
Despite warnings from the Virginia governor to stay away, left wing counterprotesters arrived and ramped up a legally permitted gathering that no one would’ve missed had it not been amplified by attention-seekers on social media. Violence, as usual, came with them… from both sides.
Now, do you really think Katie Couric would’ve shown up for an obscure “right wing” protest, to create a definitive documentation of the event, if she knew the left wouldn’t be there and what that would become?
And again, let’s not forget why all of this is happening. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton, the left refuses to this day to accept the result of the 2016 presidential election. We would not have a #Resistance or an emboldened anarchist Antifa had Hillary won, so the aftermath of disruptive violence is all on the left.
That’s why “mostly peaceful” left wing protesters can and will get as violent as they want. They enjoy the buffer of a like-minded liberal media that has no problem providing cover for those who have to hide their faces behind black masks, just as Democrats defended those in the white hoods.
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