Associated Press Brags: See, No ‘Leftist Radicals’ Committed Protest Violence!

The Associated Press, desperate to distract from the left-wing violence that accompanied this summer’s protests against police brutality, performed a labeling two-step to dodge the issue in its analysis of court records: “AP finds most arrested in protests aren’t leftist radicals.”  AP’s Alanna Durkin Richer, Colleen Long, and Michael Balsamo’s document dive was particularly galling in its dishonest framing: First, the mainstream media insists, ad nauseam, that Antifa is merely a loose collection of anarchists, more of an idea than an organization (unless they’re the inheritors of the spirit of the brave soldiers that stormed the beach at Normandy to save the world from Nazism). Next, the press then turn around and point to the fact that few people arrested had proof of membership in Antifa so as to deny left-wing radical violence is a problem in the first place! Here they went: President Donald Trump portrays the hundreds of people arrested nationwide in protests against racial injustice as violent urban left-wing radicals. But an Associated Press review of thousands of pages of court documents tells a different story. Very few of those charged appear to be affiliated with highly organized extremist groups, and many are young suburban adults from the very neighborhoods Trump vows to protect from the violence in his reelection push to win support from the suburbs. The media have constantly downplayed the undeniable violence and property damage committed by left-wing activists during the street riots that accompanied “mostly peaceful” protests this summer: “Defense attorneys and civil rights activists are questioning why the Department of Justice has taken on cases to begin with[.]” In need of activists to bolster their lunacy, they found a hard-left lawyer, Ron Kuby, who said: “It is highly unusual, and without precedent in recent American history.” The AP admitted briefly that yes, there’s been some violence: “Other police cars have been set on fire. Officers have been injured and blinded. Windows have been smashed, stores looted, businesses destroyed.” But just as they started to stumble onto the truth, they went back to a world divorced from reality (click “expand”): Some of those facing charges undoubtedly share far-left and anti-government views. Far-right protesters also have been arrested and charged. Some defendants have driven to protests from out of state. Some have criminal records and were illegally carrying weapons. Others are accused of using the protests as an opportunity to steal or create havoc. But many have had no previous run-ins with the law and no apparent ties to antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups that Trump has said he wants to declare a terrorist organization. Then came the pathetic "mostly peaceful" cliche, familiar to conservatives who’d been paying attention over the five months the press has coddled demonstrators and soft-peddled the violence and destruction they leave behind.  Even though most of the demonstrations have been peaceful, Trump has made “law and order” a major part of his reelection campaign, casting the protests as lawless and violent in mostly Democratic cities he says have done nothing to stymie the mayhem. If the cities refuse to properly clamp down, he says, the federal government has to step in. And how can one not weep over the fate of this poor young man, jailed merely for making an incendiary device for violent purposes (click “expand”): In Texas, Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin repeatedly challenged the prosecutor to explain why Cyril Lartigue, who authorities say was caught on camera making a Molotov cocktail, should be behind bars while he awaits his trial. Lartigue, of Cedar Park, described his actions that night as a “flash of stupidity,” prosecutors said. The 25-year-old lives with his parents in the Austin suburb and had never been in trouble with the law before and wasn’t a member of a violent group. If Antifa is such a loose collection, why would anyone claim membership? But whatever, folks: “While some of the defendants clearly hold radical or anti-government beliefs, prosecutors have provided little evidence of any affiliations they have with organized extremist groups.” This is apparently some kind of takedown of Trump, if you squint: Several of the defendants are not from the Democratic-led cities that Trump has likened to “war zones” but from the suburbs the Republican president has claimed to have “saved.” 

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