A furloughed photojournalist set out to document the protests in late May in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. After the widespread rioting and looting began, he infiltrated groups of individuals who were engaging in violence. He expected to find that white supremacists were responsible for the mayhem.
Instead, he discovered something different.
The New York Times’ Farah Stockman penned a column last Wednesday about the experience of Jeremy Lee Quinn, who started photographing a Black Lives Matter protest in Santa Monica, California, on May 31. Upon arrival, he saw looters running out of stores carrying shoeboxes as masked men wearing black supervised the thefts.
The photographer saw a black-clad white man shatter a store window using a crowbar the next day, although he did not steal anything from the store. Quinn began reviewing videos of riots across the country and saw that other groups dressed in a similar fashion were engaging in the same type of activities.
After he noticed the similarities between groups operating in different cities, he decided to infiltrate one of the protests. He believed that he would find that he was dealing with white supremacists engaging in racially-motivated violence. But it did not take long before he realized he had linked up with a group of “insurrectionary anarchists.”
According to the author, Quinn started joining marches with “black bloc” anarchists across the nation to learn more. He said that he respected their goal to build a society without hierarchy, but that their tactics worried him since they could help President Trump get re-elected.
Quinn told Stockman that these anarchist groups advertised the protests on social media and drew “cultlike energy” to demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. Left-wing anarchist groups that are part of the Antifa movement typically use social media to organize their gatherings and protests.
It is a common misconception — and a prevalent lie — that most of these protests spontaneously erupt due to anger at police brutality. But according to Quinn, the truth is that these events are meticulously organized, with protesters being recruited online.
Stockman noted that while some anarchists participate in peaceful civil disobedience, many others support violent activities. These individuals justify arson, looting, and assaults, arguing that it somehow weakens the capitalist economic system.
read more here: https://www.redstate.com/jeffc/2020/10/02/photographer-covers-anarchist-antifa-protests/
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