What Trump Said: “Why is it that in Portland and in many other places, Minneapolis—Why is it that nothing happened with them and they actually caused death and destruction at levels not seen before? So you know, if you take a look at what happened in Seattle, you had people die, you had a lot of death, and nothing happened, and these people [January 6th insurrectionists] have been treated really, really badly.”
The Facts:
Not included in the Time Magazine fact check:
- Political violence in Portland and Seattle predated the George Floyd protests. The extent of looting and other public disturbances committed by non-BLM protesters is unknown.
- 95% of the Black Lives Matter protests were non-violent.
- There was violence committed by right-wing protesters as well.
- 51% of BLM protests were met with physical force (this included use of less-lethal projectiles like tear gas or rubber bullets to beating protestors with batons) compared to 33% of right-wing demonstrations.
- Excessive force by the police against BLM protesters was widespread, including in New York City which paid protesters over $6 million in a mass arrest class action lawsuit.
In the absence of official state or legal data, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) exists as one of the most reliable sources of data to track protest-related political violence in the USA during the summer of 2020 [2]. The ACLED is an independent non-profit data collaborative combining the resources and expertise of academic institutions, governmental organizations, and local partners to create a publicly available disaggregated data set on political violence around the world.
Connect the Dots 101 
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