Most arrested in protests are not associated with antifa
20 October 2020
Antifa may be a focus on the right, but it's hard to find in the court system.
Why it matters: Very few of the people charged in this summer's protests and riots appear to be affiliated with highly organized extremist groups, reports AP.
- In thousands of pages of court documents reviewed by AP, the only apparent mention of antifa is in a Boston case in which authorities said an FBI Gang Task Force member was investigating “suspected ANTIFA activity associated with the protests” when a man fired at him and other officers.
- Authorities have not claimed that the man accused of firing the shots is a member of antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups.
The big picture: More than $1 billion in damage was estimated after the uprisings following the death of George Floyd, as Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson reported last month.
- That property damage was accompanied by violence, including wounded police officers, looting and arson.
- But many of those charged had no previous run-ins with the law and no apparent ties to antifa, AP notes.
Between the lines: Many of those charged are young people from the suburbs.
By the numbers: More than 40% of those facing federal charges are white, AP reports. At least a third are Black, and about 6% Hispanic.
- Most are men.
- More than 2/3 are under 30.
- More than 1/4 have been charged with arson, which if convicted means a five-year minimum prison sentence.
- More than a dozen are accused of civil disorder, and others are charged with burglary and failing to comply with a federal order.
The bottom line: FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress earlier this year that antifa is a "real thing," but it's hard to track because it's "not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.