BOSTON (WHDH) - U.S. officials are investigating whether extremist groups are infiltrating police brutality protests across the country, and creating violence in largely peaceful demonstrations.
Experts who track extremist groups tell 7NEWS they are seeing evidence of both far-left and far-right groups at work.
Outside of City Hall Monday, Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross said loud and clear, that peaceful voices need to be heard.
He and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, along with leaders across the nation, agree that outside agitators are coming in to break the peace.
While the family of George Floyd continues to stress that violence doesn’t solve anything, federal and local law enforcement across the nation say outside groups, both far-right and far-left, are helping fuel violence, looting and property damage.
Northeastern Professor Jack McDevitt is the Director of the Insitute on Race and Justice.
“You’ve got a bunch of well-intentioned people doing the marching but then at the end of the marches, at the end of the night, you have some of these more professional anti-government groups that are responsible for a lot of the violence and damages being done,” says Professor McDevitt.
President Trump tweeted Sunday that he was designating Antifa, which is short for anti-fascists, as a domestic terrorist organization, although experts say that’s unconstitutional.
A Facebook group for Antifa in Boston describes them as a group fighting fascism, homophobia, racism, and the like in the greater Boston area.
Experts say there’s been no evidence of just one group being responsible, in fact, it’s the opposite.
“We are talking about a large range of groups and they don’t all share the same agenda and the same tactics,” says Professor McDevitt. “But we do know what they want to do is disrupt government and that means if they can attack police, they’ll do it, if they can break windows and disrupt commerce, they’ll do, disrupt government agencies, same thing. They want to be disruptive.”
The New York Police Department said Monday, they had a “high degree of confidence anarchist groups planned violent interactions and vandalism, and that a “complex network of scouts were in place to direct breakaway groups to commit vandalism with rocks and accelerants.”
“We do have a bunch of groups, who have a particular ideological bent, that are taking advantage of the situation where people are legitimately protesting the use of force by police targeting African Americans and Latino males,” says Professor McDevitt.
The FBI told me they are assisting local law enforcement and the US Attorney’s Office to determine if any federal crimes were committed during the protests.
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