Since the initial outbreak of the protests, police have used “less lethal” rounds to blind protesters, rammed their vehicles into groups of protesters, assaulted and arrested journalists—including those from major news networks—without cause, abducted protesters in unmarked vans, and held and interrogated them without charge. The sheer brutality with which they have carried out these actions, in many cases documented over social media and viewed by millions, has reached new levels in the course of these protests.
In one incident in Minneapolis, video emerged of a provocateur dressed in all black smashing the windows of an AutoZone. As protesters confronted him, he refused to identify himself and continued breaking windows before walking away.
Last month the person was identified by police as a 32-year-old member of the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a white supremacist organization associated with the Hell’s Angels biker gang.
A recent legal analysis by the liberal Brennan Center notes some of the implications of police infiltration: “Police infiltration of protests also has a chilling effect on protesters’ First Amendment rights.https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/15/poli-a15.html
