> The Black Lives Matter uprisings were remarkably nonviolent. When there was violence, very often police or counterprotesters were reportedly directing it at the protesters.
> police made arrests in 5% of the protest events, with over 8,500 reported arrests (or possibly more). Police used tear gas or related chemical substances in 2.5% of these events.
> Protesters or bystanders were reported injured in 1.6 percent of the protests. In total, at least three Black Lives Matter protesters and one other person were killed while protesting in Omaha, Austin and Kenosha, Wis. One anti-fascist protester killed a far-right group member during a confrontation in Portland, Ore.; law enforcement killed the alleged assailant several days later.
> Police were reported injured in 1% of the protests. A law enforcement officer killed in California was allegedly shot by supporters of the far-right “boogaloo” movement, not anti-racism protesters.
> Only 3.7% of the protests involved property damage or vandalism. Some portion of these involved neither police nor protesters, but people engaging in vandalism or looting alongside the protests.
> In short, our data suggest that 96.3% of events involved no property damage or police injuries, and in 97.7% of events, no injuries were reported among participants, bystanders or police.
@Wipqozn Some common criticism I heard on this study was that it didn't account for the size of the event. it only counted the events themselves, so something like the Minneapolis riots where 1500 buildings were damaged and 2 people killed counts as 1 violent protest, while a hypothetical protest of 25 people in a small town in Alabama where they threw a brick through the local precinct also counts as 1 violent protest
@Nzall That doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of the protests were peaceful, though. The incident in Minneapolis doesn't give people free reign to paint all of the protesters with the same brush.
@Wipqozn The vast majority were peaceful, yes. But most people didn't see those because media attention was heavily focused on the few HUGE protests that devastated major cities
Which is why it is good that this study has pointed out those are the exception
@Wipqozn Not me personally, but when I read the article on the study on Reddit, the top comment pointed out the common criticism I stated. I'm gonna see if I can find it again, been a day or two since I saw it
I can't seem to find the thread itself anymore, but I did find some smaller threads which stated that even though an overwhelming majority of events were peaceful, there were so many events all over the US that even a violence incidence rate of 2-5% still means hundreds of events that had violence.
And those events were what people saw
like, that study covered 7305 BLM protests. That's still around 170 events where participants, bystanders or police were injured, and 270 events with property damage or police injuries. That like 5-6 per state
I will say: it is extremely cool that the third precinct got burned to the ground, and I don't think the state of minnesota would have sought charges if it was still standing.
> An assault on a gay man near Toronto Island’s Hanlan’s Point on Saturday night left him requiring surgery for multiple injuries, and is being treated as a potential hate crime by police. A Canadian Football League player accused of being involved in the attack has been suspended by his team.
> According to a police report, a 24-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman were walking to the ferry docks on Toronto Island at 11:30 p.m. on June 5 when they encountered another group. Members of that group allegedly made homophobic comments and a female member of the group grabbed one of the victims. At that point, “Two men from the group assaulted the 24-year-old man by punching and kicking him, leaving him with significant injuries,” the police report states.
> Hanlan’s Point, where the assault occurred, has long been a popular meeting space for Toronto’s LGBTQ2S+ community. The city’s first-ever unofficial Pride celebration was held on the beach in 1971.
> Reports on social media subsequently claimed one of the assailants was Chris Larsen, a 25-year-old defensive lineman with the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League.
