Tag: BLM

Ron Johnson’s misleading citation of data to back his ‘concern’ about BLM protesters

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“Out of 7,750 protests last summer associated with BLM and Antifa, 570 turned into violent riots that killed 25 people and caused $1- $2 billion of property damage. That’s why I would have been more concerned.”

— Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), in a statement, March 13

Johnson has come under fire for telling a conservative news radio show that he “never felt threatened” by the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he would have been concerned if the mob had been made up of Black Lives Matter or antifa protesters. Referring to Trump supporters, he said: “I knew those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law.”

We will leave the political commentary to others. We are interested in the facts that Johnson used to document his concern after the uproar started.

While he did not identify the source of his information in his statement, in a March 15 Wall Street Journal op-ed defending his remarks, Johnson confirmed that first set of numbers came from a study by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project(ACLED), a nonprofit data collection, analysis and crisis mapping project. The property damage figures are from a different source. Continue reading.

Ron Johnson keeps digging

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The Wisconsin senator tried Monday to explain his comments about being more scared had Black Lives Matter followers stormed the Capitol. But the revisionism didn’t stop there.

Last week, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) yet again caused controversy by saying what he really thought about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Having previously downplayed the severity of it and raised a debunked conspiracy theory that it might not have been perpetrated by supporters of former president Donald Trump, Johnson said he never truly felt threatened. His reason: Because, in his words, “those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law.” He said he would have felt more threatened if Black Lives Matter or antifa were behind the riot.

On Monday, Johnson kept digging.

In an appearance on a local Wisconsin radio show, Johnson fought back against allegations of racism for invoking BLM and saying he would have been more scared if that movement had been behind it. Continue reading.

A study of more than 10,000 protests this year found 95% were peaceful

President Trump would have you believe that the past several months of social justice protests against police violence and racial inequality represent a fundamentally violent threat that only he — aspiring strongman that he is — can crush with overwhelming force. But according to a new report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, working in conjunction with Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, the latest wave of nationwide demonstrations have been “overwhelmingly peaceful,” despite politically motivated narratives to the contrary.

The study, officially titled “Demonstrations & Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020” tracked “more than 10,600 demonstration events across the country” between late May and the end of August. It found that “over 10,100 of these — or nearly 95% — involve peaceful protesters. Fewer than 570 — or approximately 5% — involve demonstrators engaging in violence.”

What’s more, the report concluded that “in many urban areas like Portland, Oregon, for example, which has seen sustained unrest since [George] Floyd’s killing, violent demonstrations are largely confined to specific blocks, rather than dispersed throughout the city.” Continue reading.