OAKLAND SF PROTESTS
Bay Area protest updates: Schaaf calls Oakland protest 'beautiful and powerful'

By Amy Graff, SFGATE Published 9:19 am PDT, Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf told KCBS Radio Tuesday morning a youth-led protest starting at Oakland Technical High School brought more than 15,000 people to the streets and was mostly peaceful.

Schaaf called the event condemning the killing of George Floyd a "powerful and beautiful demonstration around our wish for a most just world."


Later in the day, people who the mayor believes were not associated with the protest, engaged in unlawful activity, throwing bottles and rocks at law officers and looting stores. Officers declared an unlawful assembly order and then used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. Forty arrests were made.


Police: About 40 Arrested, Tear Gas Used At Protest Monday

Bay City News Service Published 11:19 pm PDT, Monday, June 1, 2020

Photo: Noah Berger/Associated Press
A man runs from police officers in Oakland, Calif., Monday, June 1, 2020.

OAKLAND (BCN)

Oakland police arrested about 40 people at the latest demonstration Monday following last week's death of an unarmed black man under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

A large youth-led protest and march with thousands of people had started earlier Monday at Oakland Technical High School at 4351 Broadway and ended in the downtown area. The action was a week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day.



Then what Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson described as a second group of people separate from the youth-led march began throwing rocks and bottles at officers in the area of Broadway and Eighth Street.

Watson said officers declared an unlawful assembly order and then used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. The group moved north to the area of Broadway and 14th Street, where officers surrounded the protesters and took them into custody, she said.

Along with the roughly 40 people arrested on suspicion of assaulting officers, Watson said many others received citations for not complying with the unlawful assembly order.



Many people on social media Monday night criticized the use of tear gas by officers following a peaceful demonstration that started with the high school students.
"I'm so proud of the youth & today's peaceful protest in Oakland was huge testament to that," one person wrote on Twitter. "It just makes me sick that after the protest the police decided to tear gas & and arrest teenagers."

Watson said police late Monday night "are patrolling throughout the city of Oakland for safety to our citizens and preventing additional looting and destruction of our valued, vulnerable businesses."

Copyright © 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

Here's everything to know about Bay Area protests

Thousands have gathered around California in recent days to protest the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

You may have questions about what's unfolding, and we have answers for you below.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Amy Graff and Katie Dowd

June 1, 2020Updated: June 2, 2020 8:36 a.m.

Why are people protesting?

Demonstrators are protesting the death of George Floyd, 46, who was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, 44.
Floyd was detained May 25 because he matched the description of someone who tried to pay with a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. Horrifying video footage showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes — Floyd was handcuffed on the ground — as he pleaded that he couldn't breathe.
After massive public outcry, Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
People are also taking to the streets to raise awareness about racism and the number of black men killed by police officers.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Is this about more than George Floy

Yes, these protests are about both Floyd and the centuries of deep-rooted racism in the United States. Floyd's tragic death has amplified important dialogue about the over-policing of Black communities and inequality in America.
Here are some videos articulating these messages:
--In this video, Michael Render, the son of an Atlanta city police officer, speaks: Watch the video on YouTube.
--This video shared by reporter Fatima Syed shows two black men, ages 45 and 31, lamenting over how nothing has changed: Watch it on Twitter. 
-- Footage shared on the Twitter account @lukehighs shows a black woman explaining the situation.
--This video shows Liberian immigrant Patrick Smith giving CNN an interview during a Minneapolis protest on May 30: Watch it on the CNN Twitter account and on YouTube
--American philos0pher and activist Dr. Cornel West tells CNN anchor Anderson Cooper: "We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment": Watch it on Twitter.
In the photo above, demonstrators march in San Francisco on Sunday, May 31.

Juliet A. Williams/Associated Press

Which cities have held protests and what happened?

Protests have unfolded in big cities around the Bay Area, such as San Francisco and Oakland, and also in suburbs such as Walnut Creek and San Leandro. The demonstrations have generally been peaceful marches; a statement from the SF Police Department said events in the city on Sunday were "overwhelmingly orderly and peaceful."
A caravan of thousands of cars passed through downtown Oakland over the weekend in a demonstration that aimed to keep people safe during the coronavirus pandemic. 

San Francisco police reported 80 arrests Sunday for violating the dusk-to-dawn curfew and looting in the Market Street, SOMA and Union Square areas Sunday night. Police officers seized firearms and explosives, said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.
In Oakland, 60 arrests were made for crimes ranging from shooting, vandalism, looting and illegal possession of firearms.
A woman was shot in the arm at a protest in Walnut Creek on Sunday; San Leandro police reported looting.
In the photo above, A woman stands on top of a car chanting as part of a protest in response to the death of George Floyd in San Francisco, Calif., on May 30, 2020.

Nhat V. Meyer/Associated Press

Are more protests planned?
Yes, here are a few of the bigger scheduled protests:
San Francisco
June 3 at 4 p.m.
George Floyd Solidarity Protest at Mission High
June 5 at 5:30 p.m.
George Floyd Solidarity Ride organized by Critical Mass. The group meets at Embarcadero Plaza.
Pictured: Protesters are detained for breaking curfew while protesting over the death of George Floyd at S. 9th St. and Elizabeth St. in downtown San Jose, Calif., on May 31, 2020.

Bay Area News Group/Jose Carlos Fajardo/Associated Press

Which Bay Area cities have curfews?

All curfews exclude first responders, essential workers, members of the media, people seeking medical care or individuals experiencing homelessness. Police caution, however, that all individuals out after curfew may be stopped and questioned. There is no statewide curfew, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is encouraging mayors to pass their own mandates, as needed.

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Associated Press

How does the coronavirus pandemic fit into all of this? Am I allowed to protest with shelter-in-place? 

Bay Area counties are encouraging protesters to wear masks and maintain social distancing as much as possible.

In a press conference Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged peaceful demonstrations and said protestors should get tested after attending events. He referred people to the state's website COVID19.CA.gov to find free testing sites.
In the photo above, a protester lowers her head to pray during a moment of silence after marching from Hayward City Hall to the Hayward Police Department in Hayward, Calif., May 31, 2020.

Nhat V. Meyer/Associated Press

How can I help?
A petition demanding justice for Floyd has over 12 million signatures and is the biggest Change.org petition of all time.
Several media outlets have created list of ways to help including the Courier, USA Today, Oprah Magazine and The Cut.
In the photo above, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, center, speaks to protesters as he takes a knee during a protest over the death of George Floyd outside of San Jose City Hall in downtown San Jose, Calif., on May 31, 2020.
Amy Graff is a digital editor and Katie Dowd is a senior digital editor at SFGATE

How the George Floyd case has affected Kamala Harris' chances for Biden VP

Klobuchar damaged by link to Chauvin case

By Mike Moffitt, SFGATE Published Monday, June 1, 2020

Photo: Washington Post Photo By Melina Mara
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., (left) speak quietly during a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The two are currently hopefuls for the running mate spot with Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket.

Only three weeks ago, Kamala Harris was picked by Politico as the favorite to join presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on the November ticket.

Now, as fury mounts over the death of George Floyd, who was asphyxiated under the knee of a white police officer, the California senator’s law enforcement record has come under scrutiny and could be a liability, according to the publication.

Politico says right-wing trolls have joined progressives in pushing the “Kamala is a cop” narrative to discredit the former California attorney general and San Francisco prosecutor with liberal Americans. Progressives have long criticized Harris for claiming to be a reformer while actually supporting “tough on crime” policies.

The Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast, writing in Vogue, says not to count Harris out.

“Picking an African American to be his running mate may no longer just be a political expediency or a canny campaign move by Joe Biden,” she wrote. “After the events of the past week, it may just be the right thing to do.”

What everyone seems to agree on is that the vice presidential candidacy of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, is in deep trouble.


While she was running for Senate in 2006, Klobuchar’s office was investigating Officer Derek Chauvin — the policeman caught on video pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck on May 25 — in a police-involved shooting. Klobuchar was already serving in the Senate when a successor sent the case to a grand jury, which declined to charge him and five other officers. The jury ruled the use of force against Wayne Reyes, who had stabbed two people before pointing a sawed-off shotgun at police, was justified.


RELATED: Who will be Joe Biden's running mate? The odds

Nonetheless, the linkage between Klobuchar and Chauvin has impacted her negatively.

The poor performance of the Midwest moderate among nonwhite voters during the presidential primary hasn’t helped either.

Like Harris, Florida Rep. Val Demmings’ stock as a potential Biden running mate may be rising despite her law enforcement background. Demmings, the former police chief of Orlando, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last week:

"My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?”, adding, "I cannot begin to understand how any officer could ignore the painful pleas we heard from Floyd — or from anyone suffering."


The Orlando Police Department has a long history of use-of-excessive-force complaints.

Other possible VP candidates include former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who earned praise from Biden’s campaign for denouncing unruly protests that broke out in her city Friday.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favorite of progressives, has also been frequently mentioned as a possible Biden running mate.

HOW DARE THEY! 

ANARCHISTS DEFEND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

'Domestic terrorist actors’ could exploit Floyd protests, DHS memo warns

The memo cites “previous incidents of domestic terrorists exploiting First Amendment-protected events” as one reason for DHS’ concern of additional targeted violence.

Police advance on protesters gathered in downtown Washington, D.C. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

By BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN and NATASHA BERTRAND

06/01/2020

Anarchist and militia extremists could try to exploit the recent nationwide protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, the Department of Homeland Security warned in an intelligence note sent to law enforcement officials around the country.

Floyd, a black man who pleaded that he couldn't breathe while a police officer held him down and pressed his knee into his neck for nearly 9 minutes, was killed in Minnesota on May 25. The officer responsible has been charged with murder and manslaughter.

The memo, dated May 29 and marked unclassified/law enforcement sensitive, cites “previous incidents of domestic terrorists exploiting First Amendment-protected events” as one reason for DHS’ concern of additional targeted violence by “domestic terrorist actors.”

It also reveals, citing the FBI, that on May 27, two days after Floyd’s death, “a white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the ‘boogaloo ’— a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War — by shooting in a crowd.” One Telegram message encouraged potential shooters to “frame the crowd around you” for the violence, the document said.

THERE WERE NO ANARCHISTS THIS WAS A MAGA RALLY
And on May 29, “suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol,” the memo reads, citing FBI information.

The body of the memo says the plans about the state capitol were made in 2019, but a footnote describing the FBI’s information says twice that the plans were made in 2020. Spokespersons for DHS and the FBI did not respond to requests for clarification on the dates, but a source familiar with the report said 2019 was a typo, and the plans were made in 2020.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said he was unable to confirm or deny the report for security reasons. A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment. After publication, a DHS spokesperson flagged a tweet from DHS Secretary Chad Wolf. In the tweet, Wolf confirmed that DHS had reported that domestic terrorists were trying to exploit the protests.

News of the report comes as the Trump administration has touted its ambition to crack down on Antifa, a cohort of far-left activists who often destroy private property and use violent tactics.

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr have blamed Antifa radicals for inciting violence at the protests, and Barr on Sunday said the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces would coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to find violent perpetrators.

“The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” Barr said. Trump also tweeted that he would designate Antifa as a terrorist organization––a move he does not have the legal authority to make.

Despite the DHS intelligence note, administration officials have focused overwhelmingly on alleged left-wing violence. The note itself does not use the terms “left” or “right.” But it defines “militia extremists” as people who direct violence at the government because they believe it is taking away Americans’ freedoms and setting up a totalitarian regime. That definition also notes that militia extremists oppose laws regulating gun ownership and often form armed paramilitary groups. Those details are all hallmarks of far right extremism.

The document also defines “anarchist extremists” as people who use violence to change the government and society because they oppose capitalism and globalization, and believe government institutions are unnecessary and harmful––hallmarks of the far left.

The DHS intelligence note is at least the fifth the department has sent out to law enforcement officials in the last two months warning of the mobilization of domestic terrorists and violent extremists in the context of a national crisis.

TRUMPS MAGA FOLLOWERS
On April 23, as so-called Liberate protesters began demonstrating outside several states' capitol buildings demanding an end to the coronavirus lockdowns, DHS warned that the pandemic was “driving violent actors — both non-ideologically and ideologically motivated — to threaten violence” and “serving as the impetus for some domestic terrorist plots.”



In remarks to the Security Industry Association on Monday, DHS’ assistant director for Infrastructure Security, Brian Harrell, said the department had been “touched by this violence,” too. He cited the murder of a Federal Protective Service contract officer on Friday as he and his partner, who was wounded, monitored protests, as well as assaults on Secret Service officers that evening and over the weekend.

“As Americans, we should all support peaceful demonstrations and exercising our constitutional rights,” Harrell said. “However, violence, destruction, and bloodshed in the streets is never the answer. DHS, as the nation’s largest law enforcement organization, will continue to support our state and local police and first responder agencies, to bring a quick, safe, and peaceful ending to the disorderly violence in the streets.”

How Trump’s scattered team scrambled to respond to historic protests

Trump lurched between conciliatory and aggressive statements as he sought to make a mark amid America’s broadest racial justice protests in a half century.


President Donald Trump departs the White House to visit outside St. John's Church in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo


By GABBY ORR, NANCY COOK and DANIEL LIPPMAN
06/01/2020 

A barricade of police troops had already formed outside the White House by the time President Donald Trump returned Saturday evening, still giddy from his trip to Florida to watch the first manned commercial spacecraft launch into orbit.

Even before Trump was hurried into the executive complex by nervous aides and Secret Service personnel, the latest milestone in American space exploration had faded into the background — another casualty of a news cycle focused squarely on protests against police violence that devolved into chaos right outside the president’s front door. As the demonstrations continued into Sunday, followed by violence and looting in the late-night hours, Trump remained in retreat: out of the public eye and away from supporters who dismissed his calls for “law and order” as empty threats amid the backdrop of burning vehicles, graffitied storefronts and Washington’s historic St. John’s Church partly engulfed in flames.

The weekend brought the broadest race-focused protests to sweep America in a half century, and laid bare the Trump administration’s struggle to deliver a fitting response. Caught between placating his supporters, who grew agitated by the lack of a swift crackdown on looters, and the desire for soothing words from a nation in need of healing, Trump tried on multiple messages over the tumultuous 48-hour period — each time his words carrying the risk of exacerbating tensions further.

POLITICO DISPATCH: JUNE 2“I am mobilizing all federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting.” A look at why President Trump skirted calls for unity amid national demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe on Spotify

In a Rose Garden address Monday, against the noise of flash bangs and tear gas unleashed on streets just outside the White House gates, Trump cast himself as a “president of law and order.”

“My first and highest duty as president is to defend our great country and the American people. I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our nation and that is exactly what I will do,” he declared.

It was a notable departure from his remarks in Cape Canaveral, Fla., over the weekend, as he condemned Floyd’s death as a “grave tragedy” and acknowledged the “horror, anger and grief” many Americans are feeling.

As the pivotal weekend unfolded — with the convergence of George Floyd’s death and ongoing coronavirus outbreak creating social upheaval unseen at this scale under the Trump administration until now — top White House aides were scattered across Washington and beyond, struggling to mount an appropriate response. This account is based on interviews with more than a dozen administration officials and Trump allies.

Some White House aides ventured into the office early Sunday morning for television appearances and meetings before protesters reemerged. Several administration officials trekked to the D.C. suburbs to celebrate incoming Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe at the home of conservative consultant Arthur Schwartz. Among the crowd of at least two dozen party-goers, who exchanged mixed opinions about events of the weekend over afternoon drinks and appetizers, was White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien; White House counsel Pat Cippollone; Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette; State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus; outgoing Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell; Andrew Giuliani, a White House public liaison official; and Kash Patel, a senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Four people familiar with the gathering said O’Brien did not appear to stay long, and arrived after participating in a series of Sunday show interviews from the White House. Spokespeople for the National Security Council and the Energy Department declined to comment.

In an email to POLITICO, Schwartz said of the gathering: “There was a secret meeting at my house to discuss the media-incited violent riots where Antifa looted American businesses across the country.”

One administration official in attendance said guests discussed the protests over Floyd’s death, among other topics. “There were conversations about everything. We talked about when baseball is going to come back and were trying to figure out ways to start the country again and deal with these municipalities that are getting out of control,” the official said.

Neither the president’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, nor his senior adviser Jared Kushner — whose effort to boost the president’s appeal with African Americans could be upended by Trump’s approach to the latest crisis — attended the suburban gathering. Meadows spent the weekend with family outside of Washington, and Kushner did not go into the West Wing on Saturday or Sunday. His wife, senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump, was spotted walking in Northwest Washington on Sunday.

White House staffers received an email on Sunday advising them not to come into the office if possible as the White House campus was under an “elevated security posture.” They were also told on Sunday and Monday to hide their government and White House complex badges until reaching the entrance of the White House. On Monday, aides also received an email saying that White House staffers could leave work at 4 p.m. A spokesman said the White House “does not comment on security protocols and decisions.”

Several of the president’s senior aides spent the weekend debating the merits of Trump delivering a formal address to the nation about the civil unrest — both the peaceful protests and the violent riots. Top staffers like Meadows wanted Trump to give a speech to emphasize his law-and-order credentials — a selling point for many of his base supporters — while Kushner and counselor to the president Hope Hicks urged restraint. The latter two aides worried that a speech in this environment could alienate key voters, including African Americans and suburban women, whom the Trump campaign has sought to make inroads with ahead of the 2020 election.

Others close to the White House said the format would end up backfiring on Trump, who looked uncomfortable and restless during his last Oval Office address about the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, and encouraged him to take stronger action against rioters instead of offering another string of comments.

“He can’t moderate his tone or inflections,” one person close to the White House said before Trump’s Monday evening remarks. “He’s a terrible teleprompter reader. He’s imprecise. He’s a blunt instrument, so the idea that Trump is going to get on television and say anything that comforts people — it’s not going to happen.”

Some of the president's aides argued internally that the string of protests in major cities stemmed not just from anger over Floyd’s death, but from frustration over the coronavirus lockdowns and the upsetting state of the U.S. economy. The president should wait a few days before deciding on his next steps, these aides suggested.

But by Monday mid-morning, Trump’s political advisers and many within his political base were apoplectic that he had not yet delivered an address to assure Americans of their safety, or announced further actions to prevent daytime demonstrations from further descending into clashes between law enforcement and protesters.

Conservative news outlets and Trump loyalists were publicly trashing the president for staying silent on Sunday, apart from a tweet announcing his decision to designate anti-fascism protesters known as Antifa as a terrorist organization. Trump also went after the media in a pair of tweets Sunday evening and shared the all-caps message: “LAW & ORDER!”

It would be great if the President of the United States would stop rage tweeting in all caps and actually take decisive action as a leader instead of going MIA as our nation melts down,” Republican operative Caleb Hull said on Twitter. “I’ve heard nothing but disappointment from @realDonaldTrump’s biggest supporters.”

Trump‘s Monday evening speech came days after he was taken into a White House bunker at the outset of protests in Lafayette Park, prompting a mocking “Where’s Trump?” message to circulate over the weekend online.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, author of “In Trump We Trust,” questioned the reason for his lack of visibility after Saturday night’s violence. “Is it possible Trump has resigned and they just haven’t gotten around to the press release?” she wrote on Twitter Sunday evening.

One Republican close to the White House described violent riots as “a political goldmine” for Trump in the middle of an election year, “but only if the president takes advantage of the opening the left has given him.”

Trump allies, advisers and friends were reaching out to the president and his top aides directly over the weekend to pressure him to do something — if not a speech in the Oval Office then one in the Rose Garden or another White House setting. Some White House aides, frustrated by what they viewed as a weak response by the president, sought reinforcement from outside allies who talk with Trump regularly — hoping they could persuade him to take a sterner approach moving forward.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had swatted down the idea of an Oval Office address during an appearance on “Fox & Friends“ Monday morning, even as some of her colleagues continued to push for one internally.

“A national Oval Office address will not stop Antifa,” McEnany told the Fox hosts. “What is going to stop Antifa is action, and this president is committed to acting on it. He has several meetings pertaining to that today.”

McEnany’s comments echoed what Kushner privately told other White House aides and advisers as he urged a more restrained approach over the weekend.
But with Kushner and Meadows both absent from the White House on Sunday, the dearth of top staffers around Trump left top allies and advisers under the impression the president was making decisions alone over the weekend at a key juncture in his administration.


There was a growing recognition within the Trump orbit that the president needed to speak up more forcefully, and as part of that speech, he should acknowledge the tragedy of Floyd’s death while arguing that rogue actors could not run amok in cities. In his remarks on Monday evening, Trump did indeed touch on the tragedy of Floyd’s death.

Aides and advisers wanted Trump to try to parse out for Americans the difference between peaceful protesters and violent players, like Antifa, who the White House says is weaponizing the social unrest for their own interests. They wanted a focus on a base-pleasing message: the need for greater law and order.

“Working class Americans are aghast at these violent riots and are craving law and order, not anarchy,” said the Republican close to the White House. “A formal speech isn’t necessarily about ending the riots, it is about calming the waters and giving people who are fearful for their well being a sense of safety.”

When asked why Antifa keeps coming up in the administration’s messaging, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said officials “received information from state and local authorities and our U.S. Attorneys” on Antifa’s role, although she declined to go into details. The FBI has been interviewing some suspects who have been arrested in connection to violence over the last week.

Trump’s political advisers believed delivering a sterner televised address could be a political boost for the president amid the pandemic, cratering economy and mass protests. They saw it as an opportunity to reassure the nation, including key voting blocs of senior citizens and suburban women, that the country would be safe, while putting political pressure on Democratic mayors and state leaders to end the violent riots.

In a phone call with the nation’s governors Monday morning, Trump called participants “weak” and accused them of treating violent protesters with too much leniency.

“You’re making a mistake because you’re making yourselves look like fools,” he said. “Some have done a great job, but a lot of you — it’s not a great day for our country.”

The White House’s acting director of the domestic policy council said Monday in a POLITICO Playbook virtual event that the White House was busy formulating its plans for the weeks ahead, but did not specify what new policies Trump might enact.

“We are working through a list of solutions and possibilities — bipartisan. How do we come together? How do we use this as a unifying force for this country?” Rollins said.

Fringe groups point finger back at Trump, Democrats

Antifa, Boogaloo Bois and others on the far left and far right say politicians are wrong to blame them for the violence.

Police clash with protesters outside the White House. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

TRUMPS MILITARIZED PARK POLICE ATTACK NON VIOLENT PEACEFUL PROTESTERS

EXPRESSING THEIR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, THE AMENDMENT BEFORE TRUMPS FAVORITE SECOND AMENDMENT 

By BEN SCHRECKINGER

06/02/2020

Extremist movements on the left and right are pushing back at claims by President Donald Trump and others — including some Democrats — that their members are primarily to blame for the violent unrest convulsing the country in recent days.

In interviews with POLITICO, followers of both the far-left Antifa and the far-right Boogaloo Bois — diffuse, mostly white, movements without any clear hierarchy or central organization — pointed their fingers back at government officials and expressed their support for black protest leaders.

"This is really just one more attempt from the Trump administration to distract from real problems," said “David,” a spokesman for Rose City Antifa of Portland, Ore., who offered only a pseudonym in responding to statements from President Donald Trump and administration officials blaming the movement for the outbreak of violence

Patrick Fairbairn, an administrator of several Boogaloo Facebook groups, said most people affiliated with the movement were showing up at at sites of unrest to protect protesters, and he offered praise for Black Lives Matter.

"If they haven’t been heard and they need to be heard, they’ve got to do it their way," said Fairbairn, who identified himself as 23-year-old electrician. "The worst thing is to have this artificial separation between the people."

On Friday, another far-right group, Oath Keepers, which is affiliated with the militia movement, condemned Trump’s statement that “when looting starts, the shooting starts.”

“This is a disaster,” the group tweeted. “President Trump needs to retract that statement ASAP, stating that he misspoke & did not mean to say that National Guard should shoot people for stealing. Arson is a very different matter — that's lethal force because setting fires can kill.”

The comments go to the heart of one of the conundrums surrounding the riots that have raged in cities since the death of George Floyd: Are outside groups with anarchistic agendas using their large internet followings to fan the flames of violence? There is anecdotal evidence in cities that members of Antifa, the Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers and other groups are joining rallies alongside thousands of grass-roots protesters. The groups don’t deny that some of their members have been present at the riots – but representatives insist they’re there to support the grass-roots protesters and have no agendas other than calling attention to the police violence that led to Floyd’s death or protecting property and protesters.

President Donald Trump. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

STAGED A POLICE ASSAULT ON NON VIOLENT LEGALLY PROTESTING AMERICAN CITIZENS, FOR REAL TV EVENT OF HIM WALKING FROM THE ROSE GARDEN, TO ST. JOHNS CHURCH FOR A PHOTO OP OF HIM HOLDING A BIBLE UPSIDE DOWN!!!!!!

Politicians, meanwhile, have insisted that the groups are ramping up violence, even though they offer little conclusive evidence to support the claims. Trump has pointed the finger at left-wing Antifa, while Democratic officials in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz, blamed out-of-town white supremacists.

Meanwhile, a new Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by POLITICO warns of Boogaloo followers advocating violent insurrection. “A white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the ‘boogaloo’ — a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War — by shooting in a crowd,” the memo stated. Citing information from the FBI, the memo also warns that “suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol” on Friday.

In Minneapolis, reports have emerged of clean-cut young white men, described by regular protest attendees as looking out of place, instigating some of the property destruction. Video showed one such young man, holding a black umbrella and systematically breaking the windows of an Autozone with a hammer as other protesters sought to question his motives.

On Saturday, Walz estimated that 80 percent of those arrested in Minneapolis on Friday were from out of state. John Harrington, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety, said white supremacists were among those being detained. But KARE 11, the local NBC affiliate, found that in a sample of arrests recorded at a local jail, 86 percent of those arrested listed Minnesota addresses. Of those arrested from out of state, the outlet said it found only one person whose social media presence showed clear support for white supremacy.

Walz later backed off his claim. “The truth is, nobody really knows,” Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison said on Sunday about the composition of those committing violence.

Trump and Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, have blamed unrest on Antifa, and Trump has threatened to designate the movement as a terrorist organization. Representatives of Antifa groups have dismissed those accusations. Of 17 people arrested in Washington on Saturday, most had ties to the region, according to information provided by police.

Part of the problem with making attributions is that the extremist groups are not centrally organized. “David” said he was unaware of Antifa members participating in violence: “I don't know of anybody in particular or specifically, and I probably wouldn’t comment if I did."

A Richmond-based Antifa group, known as Antifa Seven Hills, wrote in an email: “Antifascists aren’t coordinating or organizing these rebellions in the way that many on the Right think,” the group wrote. “But we do provide support, (largely in the forms of food/water, medical, legal) and hold defensive spaces for individuals to make autonomous choices. We certainly don’t get paid to incite any violence or fear.”

The Georgia-based group known as Atlanta Antifascists said in an email that it did not “have the capacity” to answer a question about whether members of Antifa groups had participated in recent violence. “We're a nonhierarchical group, so we can't speak for other groups,” it wrote, “and we don't even speak for our own members when they're not with our group.”

The same is true for The Boogaloo, a much newer movement that emerged from right-wing, anti-government online forums. Its name is an indirect reference to a second civil war, and it has gained momentum in recent months through armed protests of government coronavirus lockdown measures. Its imagery and anti-government sentiments have traveled widely online, but adherents are spread across countless social media and chat groups.

“There's not really direct communication at all, or really any real names,” said Matthew, a 23-year-old student active in Boogaloo groups, who asked that his last name be withheld.

Boogaloo adherents also have no single unifying ideology.

The movement has attracted a grab-bag of different anti-government activists, including some white nationalists. "There's kind of a complicated intersection for white supremacy and the Boogaloo groups," said Daniel Stevens of the Tech Transparency Project, which published an investigation of the movement in April.

But many of its members expressed solidarity with George Floyd, the black man whose death in Minneapolis at the hands of police officers, has sparked a week of protests and rioting. Many members of the Boogaloo compare Floyd to Duncan Lemp — a member of a far-right militia group who was fatally shot during a police raid at his home in Maryland in March — and who is now considered a martyr by the nascent movement.

One Facebook group associated with the Boogaloo, Sons of Liberty Information Network, is organizing a “protest against government oppression” later this month at the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock. The group’s image for the event features a photo of Floyd, and several posts on its page are supportive of the recent protests.

People affiliated with the movement also express varying degrees of seriousness about the idea of overthrowing the government. Stevens said that Boogaloo groups share documents about the use of weapons and combat tactics. But Matthew Kelley, a Massachusetts security guard who engages in online Boogaloo groups and describes himself as sympathetic to anti-government movements, said people who post seriously about civil war are called "smooth brains" — slang for morons — in many of the forums.

Another difficulty of dealing with extremist movements in the digital era is the speed at which they evolve.

Matthew, the 23-year-old Boogaloo follower from Missouri, said he attended a protest this week in the city of Columbia while carrying a sidearm. But he said that he had little interest in civil war, and that many of the Boogaloo groups were moving on to other goals. He said he was becoming more interested in exposing pedophiles.

"People are really starting to share different ideas about what they want for their own personal boogaloo," he said.

While America Struggles for its Soul, Biden Struggles for Relevance

The former vice presidency sees the ghost of Hubert Humphrey.


By JOHN F. HARRIS
06/02/2020

Altitude is a column by POLITICO founding editor John Harris, offering weekly perspective on politics in a moment of radical disruption.

There are many voices who see the violence and despair sweeping America this spring as the natural result of everything President Donald Trump stands for—of his divisive language and policies and worldview.

It is easy to miss, but embedded in these condemnations is a perverse form of praise: The critics do not doubt the efficacy of Trumpian politics. To the contrary, the condemnations assign the president an undeniable agency. There is a clear link between ideas and consequences. People excoriate Trump, and in so doing ratify his relevance.


Relevance is the quality needed most urgently now by Joseph R. Biden Jr.

This is a moment that challenges more than his limited stylistic range. The obstacles for the former vice president are more daunting than the logistics of being housebound in a pandemic. The crisis calls into question the earnest, cheerful, incremental brand of progressivism that animated Biden’s career for a half-century.

The picture of American cities aflame across the continent, in response to what African-Americans credibly regard as widespread police brutality and racism, is a soul-depleting return to an earlier age.

As it happens, it is an age the 77-year-old Biden knows well. He told an audience last year he decided to organize his life around politics during the violent traumas of 1968—the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the racial and anti-war riots that ensued across the country that spring and summer.

Biden’s own words make the year a useful prism for viewing both his present circumstances—even a few weeks ago they would have seemed beyond belief—and the broader premises on which a lifetime in politics have rested.

POLITICO DISPATCH: JUNE 2“I am mobilizing all federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting.” A look at why President Trump skirted calls for unity amid national demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe on Spotify

Biden was 25 years old for most of 1968, working as a clerk at a Delaware law firm. Forty years would pass, all but four of them in the U.S. Senate, until Biden was tapped as running mate by Barack Obama on his way to becoming the nation’s first African-American president. There was an event that affirmed the essence of Biden’s steady, temperate liberalism—striking evidence that the system is on the level, that history moves toward light, that people of good will can overcome America’s original sin of racism.

Could Biden, or even Obama, possibly have imagined 12 years ago how perishable those gains would seem today? How profoundly many African-Americans, and others, believe many institutions are simply not on the level and are not getting gradually better? And how, in such a climate, the voice of a divisive but omnipresent performer like Trump could make Biden seem almost inaudible in the storm?

As it happens, 1968 also offers another vivid example of a progressive but conventional politician out of step with the urgencies of the moment. Although Biden, like many Democrats of his generation, often invoked the Kennedys as a political figure he more closely resembles another tragic leader of that time: Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.

Humphrey that year was defending President Lyndon B. Johnson’s unpopular war in Vietnam, a problem Biden thankfully does not have. But like Biden (who later served with Humphrey in the Senate before his 1978 death), the vice president was a garrulous man whose personal decency and progressive instincts were genuine and widely respected, even by Republicans. And like Biden—at least as 2020 has unfolded so far—Humphrey had trouble finding the right emotional pitch during a year of national anguish.

When he announced his candidacy in late April 1968—a few weeks after King’s murder and not quite six weeks before Kennedy’s—he spoke of wanting to infuse his party with a “politics of joy.”

It was a line that flowed naturally from his own ebullient personality—and seemed shockingly disconnected to the country’s reality. Kennedy mocked him in reply: “It is easy to say this is the politics of happiness—but if you see children starving in the Delta of Mississippi and despair on the Indian reservations, then you know that everybody in America is not satisfied.”


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Humphrey, who had been a leader on civil rights since the 1940s, would have regarded the problems of 2020 as at least a partial failure of his own legacy. Minneapolis---that genial, sensible, sturdy city which Humphrey once served as mayor—was the same place where Officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on George Floyd’s neck and wouldn’t take it off.

If changing circumstances have left Biden with trouble finding his voice, they of course also present him with new opportunities if he can find it. Here is a country simultaneously battling economic depression that, at least temporarily, evokes the 1930s and psychic depression—the result of rage disconnected from hope—that evokes the 1960s. Surely a man who has lived so much history has some lessons to offer.

The former vice president, wearing a mask and taking notes, met on Monday with African-American religious leaders at the Bethel AME Church in his hometown of Wilmington, Del. It was his most extended in-person event in weeks.

He told the group that in coming weeks he would address the problems of “institutional structures” and “institutional racism” in a series of “very serious national speeches.”

Well, there’s something to wait for. Until then, if he wants to avoid sounding like Humphrey in 1968, Biden might do well to recall what himself was thinking and feeling in that year of violence and fragility.

“Unless I’m mistaken,” Biden told Dartmouth University students, “Donald Trump did for your generation what the loss of two of my heroes did for mine,” he told the students, adding, “What they did was make you realize, ‘My God, we’re in trouble.’ ”

What is known about the White House's secret tunnels, bunker

Philip Bump, The Washington Post, Monday, June 1, 2020


Photo: Alex Brandon,
IMAGE 1 OF 5
A member of the U.S. Secret Service, front, stands at her post wearing a mask as other staff member social distance wearing masks, before President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus during a press ... 

WASHINGTON - At some point Friday night, with angry demonstrators gathered just north of the White House, the Secret Service took the unusual step of moving President Donald Trump out of the executive mansion proper and into a secure underground facility. It was understandable, given the violence and vandalism that had accompanied protests in Minnesota earlier in the week and erupted near the White House, as well. But it offered an odd contrast with Trump's tweets on Saturday morning, which made a particular point of noting that he was watching the conflict between his security team and the protesters.


It also raised a question: The White House has an underground bunker? It does. In fact, it apparently has more than one - and other ways in which the president can be protected.



Beneath the White House's East Wing is the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, built during World War II as a protective measure for President Franklin Roosevelt. It's where then-Vice President Richard Cheney went during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Former first lady Laura Bush described being evacuated to the facility that same day in a book published in early 2010.

"I was hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal," she wrote. "I was now in one of the unfinished subterranean hallways underneath the White House, heading for the PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, built for President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment. The PEOC is designed to be a command center during emergencies, with televisions, phones, and communications facilities."

She describes being taken to a small conference room with a large table. The National Archives later released photos of members of the George W. Bush administration in that room that day.

If the New York Times' reporting about Trump's movement on Friday is accurate, it's likely that this was the facility the president was taken to. According to Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman, Trump was taken "to the underground bunker used in the past during terrorist attacks," likely referring to the attacks of Sept. 11.


The other, larger, newer facility wasn't in place that day.

In fact, it was built because of lessons learned after the 9/11 attacks.

Ronald Kessler, who wrote about the new construction in his 2018 book, "The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game," spoke with The Washington Post by phone on Monday to describe the project.

"After that attack, the national security people recognized that that just is not going to cut it," Kessler said, referring to the old facility. "That's just not sufficient."

"The idea was, before that, that if there were a nuclear attack or something - biological, radiological attack - that the White House staff and the president's people could be evacuated to some remote location at West Virginia or Pennsylvania," he continued. "But then they realized after the 9/11 attack that they could never leave Washington, certainly by vehicle, because all the roads were clogged. It would take too long. And even by helicopter, it would take - it would be very risky, given that the country was under attack. So they came up with this scheme to create a totally separate facility, an underground bunker under the North Lawn."

In 2010, the General Services Administration began a large project outside the section of the White House where the Oval Office and offices of the president's senior advisers are located. The GSA insisted that the work was meant to replace existing infrastructure at the White House, but the scale and secrecy of the project belied that.

"The GSA went to great lengths to keep the work secret," the Associated Press reported in 2012, when construction neared completion, "not only putting up the fence around the excavation site but ordering subcontractors not to talk to anyone and to tape over company info on trucks pulling into the White House gates."

"It's a bunker, right?" The Post's Christian Davenport wrote in 2011. "It's gotta be a bunker."

According to Kessler, it was.

"What it consists of is five stories deep into the ground with its own air supply and food supply," he said, noting that few details are known. "It is sealed off from the aboveground area so that if there were, for example, a nuclear attack, the radiation would not penetrate into this bunker, which has very thick concrete walls and that sort of thing."

The purpose is to serve as a command center and living quarters for the president and other members of the president's staff. The air supply is self-contained, Kessler said, and the facility is stocked with enough food to last for months.

When Trump arrived at the White House in 2017, he and a few select officials were given a tour of the facility, which remains unstaffed, a sort of subterranean "break glass in case of emergency" option.

Kessler pointed out that escaping the White House was still an option. There are existing tunnels (like the one Laura Bush employed) under the building, including at least two that leave the mansion entirely. One leads to the Treasury Building and, eventually, up to an unmarked entrance on H Street. The other emerges onto the South Lawn, where the president can access Marine One if needed.

For all the drama surrounding the events of Friday night, Trump's physical safety was secured in a comparatively unexciting way: in a secure room under the East Wing of the White House. Assuming it exists, the five-story, self-contained facility closer to the Oval Office remains unoccupied, as it probably has since it was built.

As far as we know.


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World outrage grows at Floyd's death; EU 'shocked, appalled'

Lorne Cook and Rick Rycroft, Associated Press 

Updated 5:27 am PDT, Tuesday, June 2, 2020


Photo: AP
IMAGE 7 OF 18
In this image made from video, protesters hold up placards reading "Black Lives Matter" during a peaceful rally in Perth, Australia, Monday, June 1, 2020. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest the death ..

BRUSSELS (AP) — From Sydney to Paris, world outrage at George Floyd's death in the U.S. was growing Tuesday as the European Union's top diplomat said the bloc was “shocked and appalled” by it and thousands marched in Australia's largest city.

Chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “I can’t breathe," about 3,000 protesters held an impassioned but peaceful march through central Sydney on Tuesday demanding fundamental change in race relations.

In France, protests were planned for the evening in Paris and across the country after calls from the family of a French black man who died shortly after he was arrested by police in 2016. A protest was also planned in The Hague, Netherlands.


Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a white police officer in Minneapolis who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing. His death set off protests that spread across America.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's remarks in Brussels were the strongest so far to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyd's death was a result of an abuse of power.

Borrell told reporters that “like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd.” He underlined that Europeans “support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions.”

Protesters around the world have expressed solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd’s death.

In Sydney, a mostly Australian crowd, but also including protesters from the U.S. and elsewhere, marched for around a half-mile under police escort in the authorized, two-hour long demonstration.

Many said they had been inspired by a mixture of sympathy for African Americans amid ongoing violent protests in the U.S., but had turned out to also call for change in Australia’s treatment of its indigenous population, particularly that involving police.

“I can’t breathe” notably were the final words of David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards.

“I’m here for my people, and for our fallen brothers and sisters around the world,” said Sydney indigenous woman Amanda Hill, 46, who attended the rally with her daughter and two nieces.

“What’s happening in America shines a light on the situation here. It doesn’t matter if it’s about the treatment of black men and women from here or from another country; enough is enough.”

A total of 432 indigenous Australians have died in police detention since a 1991 Royal Commission — Australia’s highest level of official inquiry — into Aboriginal deaths in custody, according to a running analysis by The Guardian newspaper.

Australia has also never signed a treaty with the country’s indigenous population, who suffer higher-than-average rates of infant mortality and poor health, plus shorter life expectancy and lower levels of education and employment than white Australians.

Ray O’Shannassy, one of the rally’s organisers, said he hoped that, touched off by the situation in the U.S., the upswelling of protest seen in Sydney could, this time, lead to long-term change. A larger rally is planned for Sydney on Saturday.

In France, family and friends of Adama Traore have called for gatherings in the evening in Paris and across the country.

The Traore case has become emblematic of the fight against police brutality in the country. The circumstances of the death of the French 24-year-old man of Malian origin, just after his police arrest in 2016, are still under investigation by French justice authorities.

Paris police formally banned the protest in the French capital as all public gatherings are still not allowed in the country amid the virus crisis.

The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved in the French man's arrest, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the Floyd and Traore cases “have strictly nothing to do with each other” because the circumstances are different.

Bosselut told the AP the death of Adama Traore is not linked with the conditions of his arrest but due to various other factors, including a pre-existing medical condition.

Traore’s family said he died from asphyxiation because of police tactics.

In a video message posted on social media, Traore’s sister, Assa Traore, said her brother and Floyd "had the same words, their last words: I can’t breathe,” she said.

In Europe on Monday, thousands spilled across streets in Amsterdam to denounce police brutality while around 1,000 people gathered in Barcelona at the gates of the U.S. Consulate for a peaceful protest.

Germany’s foreign minister said Tuesday that peaceful protests in the U.S. following Floyd’s death are “understandable and more than legitimate,” Heiko Maas said “I can only express my hope that the peaceful protests do not continue to lead to violence, but even more express the hope that these protests have an effect in the United States.”

Meanwhile, more African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd.

“It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism,” Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught.

Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Pinister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the U.S., “that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country.”

Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin color “is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens.”

And South Africa’s finance minister, Tito Mboweni, recalled leading a small protest outside the U.S. Embassy several years ago over the apparent systemic killings of blacks. Mboweni said the U.S. ambassador at the time, Patrick Gaspard, “invited me to his office and said: ‘What you see is nothing, it is much worse.’”

___

Rick Rycroft reported from Sydney. Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Spain, Franck Jordans in Berlin, Germany and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s latest news about the protests at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd