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Some far-left groups have reportedly encouraged peaceful protests to turn violent, experts claimed via NBC News.
A video of an incident in which black-clad demonstrators began to torch self-driving Waymo taxis during the anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles was shared by a group known as Unity of Fields on X with the caption, "MORE. MORE AND MORE AND MORE." The group has shared several similar posts since the Los Angeles protests gained national attention, which included a message of "give 'em hell" urging demonstrators to wreak havoc.
Experts claim its the latest in a far-left online ecosystem that has increased rapidly in recent years, having disregarded acts of peaceful resistance and, instead, glorified acts of violence such as the murders of a UnitedHealthcare CEO and two Israeli Embassy staffers or the terror attack on Israeli hostage supporters in Boulder, Colorado. The far-left groups differ from far-right extremists in that they typically have no leadership structures, however, can be proficient using social media, which is how their attacks get amplified and celebrated.
“Whether they directly threw a Molotov cocktail is actually not as essential as the ecosystem of encouragement and coordination they have created,” said Joel Finkelstein, a co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a nonpartisan group tracking online extremism, via NBC News.
The incidents in Los Angeles have played out in numerous cities during the past five years as mostly peaceful protests have been escalated by agitators resulting in fiery clashes with authorities, distracting from their overall message, as President Donald Trump and his supporters have portrayed the protesters as "paid insurrectionists."
“What’s concerning is the attempt to conflate the individual actors who do commit violence with the mass movement as a whole,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, via NBC News.
Lewis claimed that some conservatives have pushed the narrative that the protesters are a “roving band of antifa groupies who are following protests from city to city,” which he said was false while still acknowledging that there has been a normalization of violence among some liberals, though he said it is more fractured than the far-right.
“It’s a little bit of anti-capitalist stuff in one case. A little bit of antisemitic stuff in another case,” he said. “I think that reflects the nature of those online leftist movements where there is no cohesive, central structure.”
More than 300 people have been arrested during demonstrations in Los Angeles since they began last Friday (June 6) on charges of failure to disperse, looting, arson and attacks on police officers, police confirmed via NBC News.