November 1, 2022

By Chuck Ardo

Republicans across the country are using the rising crime rate to bludgeon their Democratic opponents. But, as the racially-charged calls for law and order become the primary issue in this years mid-term elections it’s important to consider the events that helped lead to the current situation.

According to NPR, “In many places, police morale has plunged and retirements and resignations have soared. A June survey of nearly 200 Departments by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a nonprofit think tank, shows a startling 45% increase in the retirement rate and a nearly 20% increase in resignations in 2020-21 compared to the previous year.” Further, “Exit interviews in the PERF survey and other data show that a key factor in the police resignations and retirements is the national conversation and protests that center on changing what police do, how they're funded, and how to better hold officers accountable for abuse of force and racial bias.”

The Black Lives Matter demonstrations over police violence against African-Americans became a defining moment for who was considered a friend of law enforcement. While many in the African-American community saw Black Lives Matter as this generation's civil rights movement Donald Trump and his allies saw Black Lives Matter as a “symbol of hate” in America and the protesters “thugs”, fueling resentment and rage among his white nationalist base.

Even though leaked documents exposed by the Intercept revealed “law enforcement offices across the country were sharing detailed reports of far-right extremists seeking to attack the protesters and police” the vast majority of police officers looked negatively on the BLM movement.

While Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security issued a report detailing how white supremacists were encouraging followers to capitalize on the unrest by targeting the police and went on to describe how “users of a white supremacist extremist Telegram channel attempted to incite 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 police saw the BLM movement as the problem.

As the evidence that right wing racists were taking advantage of the protests mounted and Vice News reported right-wing infiltrators known as “accelerationists”, white supremacists determined to accelerate the demise of Western governments, were “encouraging their neo-Nazi followers to go to the protests and carry out acts of violence against black people, Republicans and their right wing echo chamber focused the blame on ANTIFA. “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade even told his audience he didn’t “see any indication that there were any white supremist [sic] groups mixing in.”

Yet according to the Minneapolis police the masked, umbrella-wielding man accused of inciting the riots and looting was identified as a member of a white supremacist group that aimed to stir racial tensions amid largely peaceful protests. "This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city," a Department arson investigator wrote in a search warrant affidavit. "Until the actions of... 'Umbrella Man,' the protests had been relatively peaceful.” In Las Vegas, three men who self identified as “boogaloo boys”, a far right group calling for a violent civil war, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to instigate violence at the protests against George Floyd’s murder. After a night of destructive protests Richmond, Virginia Mayor Levar Stoney said white supremacists “marching under the banner of Black Lives Matter,” “spearheaded” the violence.

Because police throughout the country failed to adequately investigate the origins of the chaos we may never know who was responsible for the bulk of it. However, we do know the increase in attrition from early retirements and low morale among law enforcement officers was due to the public’s reaction to police response to BLM demonstrations: much of it fueled by right wing infiltration of the protests. Whether that was their goal or not, the spike in crime and violence serves their ultimate goal of increasing racial tension and paving the way for a more authoritarian, white nationalist government.