September 6, 2020
The True Cost of Riots
In a recent interview, BLM organizer Ariel Atkins argued that lootings are reparations for African Americans. Atkins denounced the suggestion that anything can be gained from peaceful protests. “Winning has come through revolts, Winning has come through riots, ‘’ she said. Unfortunately, the belligerence of people like Atkins has been nurtured by mainstream intellectuals, who originally downplayed the malevolent intentions of dangerous activists. Therefore, as adults, we have no alternative but to remind these youngsters that sparking riots is an ineffective strategy to advance the cause of African Americans.
A striking case against riots is clearly expressed in the findings of Professor Mary C. King whose research demonstrates “little relationship between regional progress for African Americans and relatively proximate race riots.” Riotous behavior often results in businesses fleeing minority communities, thus depriving residents of employment and income. Racism is an extremely sensitive matter; however, sensitivity must be tempered by logic. African Americans have experienced substantial progress over the past century. Eroding these gains is a possibility if rational adults refrain from correcting misguided activists. Such was the impact of the race riots of the 1960s. Examining the effects of civil disorder on small businesses in inner cities, sociologists Howard Aldrich and Albert Reiss found that riots not only inflicted serious property damages but in the long term they made it prohibitive to operate in inner cities, hence driving up insurance costs. As a result, businesses migrated to nurturing environments. Low-income residents are the major beneficiaries of entrepreneurship in the inner city, so when emotions trump logic and businesses exit these communities, the losers are poor black people.
Current agitators also seem oblivious to the impact of riots on black property owners. Eminent economists Robert Margo and William Collins in their assessment of the effects of the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr argue that “the riots depressed the median value of black-owned property between 1960 and 1970, with little or no rebound in the 1970s. Analysis of household-level data suggests that the racial gap in the value of property widened in the riot inflicted cities during the 1970s.” Housing is a contributor to the racial-wealth gap, therefore if properties depreciate due to the risk of riots, how can African Americans make 
headways in closing the wealth gap? The long-term implication of riots is that they stigmatize African American communities as hotbeds of social unrest. Homes in such neighborhoods will not be purchased by progressive people interested in building wealth. What this means is that African Americans are deprived of the social capital and networks required to succeed in a competitive environment.
In another study, the authors indicate that riots reduced earnings for black employees in impacted cities, they write: “the findings suggest that the riots had negative effects on blacks’ income and employment that were economically significant and that may have been larger in the long run (1960-1980) than in the short run (1960-1970).” Their results are unsurprising. Inner-city businesses provide blacks with an opportunity to obtain employment and build relevant skills. Employment in a small business is a steppingstone to greater opportunities. When low skilled citizens are robbed of these options, it becomes harder for them to establish themselves in a dynamic environment.
Another negative effect of riots is that they move public opinion to favor oppressive social control measures as a crime-fighting strategy thereby establishing Republican hardliners as attractive candidates. As Princeton’s Omar Wasow notes in a recent study: “Evaluating black-led protests between 1960 and 1972, I find that nonviolent activism, particularly when met with a state of vigilante repression, drove media coverage, framing, Congressional speech, and public opinion on civil rights. Counties proximate to nonviolent protests saw presidential Democratic vote share among whites increase 1.3-1.6 %. Protester-initiated violence, by contrast, helped move news agenda, frames, elite discourse, and public concern toward social control… In 1968, I find that violent protests likely caused a 1.6-7.9% shift among whites towards Republicans and tipped the election.” Kelly Anne Conway beautifully illustrates this point when she told Fox News that “the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and order.”
Evidently, the effects of riots on African Americans are destructive. Therefore, adults in the room must speak the truth -- riots never redound to their benefit and neither does it make sense to enable unrealistic demands of the BLM movement and its naïve supporters. It would be irresponsible for the American people to nurture the desires of activists seeking to destroy the fabric of their republic. Lastly, we must reject not only vandalism, but also the radicalism of the BLM movement.
Image: Pkist
Antifa's violent, organized tactics are getting exposed
Based on the arrest photos of apprehended Antifa rioters, the impression is out there that the group is little more than a bunch of extremist fringe crazies.
Sadly, it's not so.
Report after report shows that Antifa is highly organized, in its rioting, its killing, and its press coverage.
It's shocking, really. This account from SurvivalBlog, by J.D., someone who went to several of Antifa's riots, describes all the security that Antifa and Revolutionary Communist Party (RevCom, or RCP) coevals put into their operations. Based on his account, Antifa and RCP appear to be the same thing:
The first one I attended was on the University of Michigan campus. The protest was rather large, about 1,500 people. What I found interesting was that the first speaker pointed out that “allies from RevCom/ANTIFA” were present, just to provide “logistical support” including medical and security teams. The local RevCom leader got up and explained how to find the medics (Large red or green crosses) and explained that security was “circulating among the crowd” for safety. That was an ominous statement, as I’ll point out later.
I began moving through the crowd and quickly spotted several security team members, obviously watching the crowd for anyone who wasn’t clapping or cheering along. It’s important to note that these protests require 100% ideological agreement or they will approach you and become confrontational, so I made sure I was chanting along. I noticed almost immediately that despite the man who said he was the RevCom leader, a young man named Ethan, that I would later have many interactions with, was actually in charge. He is a security team leader within the ANTIFA organization.
The biggest observation from the first protest was that despite the claims that they aren’t organized, they are highly organized by a central organization. Ethan and his security/medical team have been at every protest I’ve attended in Michigan, including one at the Capitol an hour away. They use the ubiquitous BaoFeng Handi-talkie radios to communicate.
The creepy security followed him everywhere. He had to change costumes a few times to get away from their "security" surveillance. Photographs were forbidden, rioters were supposed to riot on cue without taking pictures, picture-taking was the province of the party elite. The same rioters, and riot leaders turned up in different cities, same people every time. When one group of protestors didn't want Antifa to hijack their protest, Antifa's "security" came anyway, undercover. They followed people. They made threats. And this was just a garden variety of groups in Michigan with its riots directed from someone above.
The big league is Portland, where rioters marked their 100th night of rioting, and chased the city's leftist mayor, Ted Wheeler, from his condo after organizing to try to burn it down, with all the residents in it. They've made Portland a hellhole.
And it turns out they're not just creepy stalkers and "security," some are actual killers. The latest news from Portland is that Antifa's denizens stalked and shadowed young Aaron Danielson, who was murdered in cold blood by "100% Antifa" Michael Reinoehl, who was later rubbed out by the Portland cops as he resisted arrest upon apprehension. This account here shows how Reinoehl laid in wait behind a thin but concealing barrier, gun held in two hands, for his target to walk by, in what appears to be a very strong instance of premeditated murder, or assassination. According to PostMillennial:
Homicide Detective Rico Beniga wrote in the affidavit that Reinoehl “conceals himself, waits and watches” for the men to pass him before he follows them and shoots them. Investigators added that it looks like Reinoehl held his gun with both hands extended when he fired the shots, after which he kept his right hand extended and pointed at Danielson as the victim ran away from him, stumbled and bled to death.
Danielson, 39, was walking in downtown Portland last Saturday when Reinoehl ambushed him, shooting him in the upper right chest. An autopsy found a single bullet lodged in his back.
Which takes the Antifa activity to a whole new level. J.D. notes that they are always prepared for violence in their choice of gear as they prepare to go to the riots.
Besides the atrocities, they also have help. Apparently, someone on the inside in Portland's government is providing shelter for them on the city's dime, in the form of a homeless tent camp. They deny it, of course, but it certainly does seem to explain how Antifa, with all its pan-United States cast of characters, can operate for 100 nights of mayhem in Portland alone.
They also have the press. A number of them serve as Antifa's own press - you can see it on their crudely printed helmets here:
Graphic: #Antifa rioters throw a Molotov cocktail in direction of police in SE Portland. It lands next to people, setting one on fire. Video by @TaylerUSA. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/NJfEURKfkC
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 6, 2020
And they tightly control that press. Anyone coming to one of their riots, where they set fires, attack police and passersby, and damage property, will be spotted by Antifa "security" and chased off. All news agencies have nothing but Antifa-generated footage to work with, mostly showing cops going after protestors, rather than the acts of the protestors that prompted the police to avt.
But they also have reporters on the outside on their string -- New York Times stringer here, Oregonian reporters there. Reason magazine has a link to a Google sheets list of Antifa-approved reporters here.
They report:
These protester-approved journalists are producing much of the news you see about the protests, with an assist from the national press. Kate Shepherd isn't on the list, but she was previously a sympathetic reporter for local Portland media, and she is now filing such stories for The Washington Post, with headlines like "Portland police arrest a hate crime survivor and Wall of Moms organizer in crackdown."
Which paints a terrible picture of just how organized and controlling and lethal this group really is.
Their tactics - mob action, control of the press, opposition to any manifestation of law and order, willingness to kill, a claim to actually being the order - paints a disturbing picture, very redolent of Caracas, Venezuela, where this kind of controlled chaos has been going on for years/
I visited some of the Chavistas engaging in this kind of behavior when I was in Caracas. I went up to visit the Chavista "education" sessions in the Caracas hillside slums. Who was there at their side as they showed me around? That's right, member of the RCP, same group that is impossible to distinguish Antifa from. Same group that engaged in violent acts during San Francisco's Rodney King riots of the early 1990s.
Now they've gone big. And if this kind of modus operandi -- killings, illegal censorship, violence, as well as Chavista historic background isn't reason enough to declare war on them and shut them down, what is?
Data: 48 of America’s 50 Largest Cities Hit By Black Lives Matter Riots
New data from Princeton University show that riots associated with the Black Lives Matter movement took place in 48 out of the 50 largest cities in the United States.
The study found:
In more than 93% of all demonstrations connected to the movement, demonstrators have not engaged in violence or destructive activity. Peaceful protests are reported in over 2,400 distinct locations around the country. Violent demonstrations, meanwhile, have been limited to fewer than 220 locations — under 10% of the areas that experienced peaceful protests.
Mainstream media seized on the data last week to argue that the “Trump narrative” of violent demonstrations was false. The study itself speculated that public perceptions of riots were skewed by “political orientation and biased media framing” and “disproportionate coverage of violent demonstrations.”
Princeton University group studies 3 months of Black Lives Matter protests. Intent is to show they are 'overwhelmingly peaceful.' But report reveals nearly 570 violent demonstrations–riots–in nearly 220 locations spread all across country. https://t.co/it60GBbTZT pic.twitter.com/Ph8iECyHIf
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 5, 2020
However, public perceptions may simply have reflected the wide geographic distribution of the violence.
The Princeton data set shows that nearly every major city in the United States experienced riots from late May to the end of August — even under the narrow definition that the study used to classify riots (as separate from events described as police violence against protesters).
The only exceptions within the top 50 cities by population were Fresno, California, and Mesa, Arizona.
Thus in the public imagination, the proportion that matters most may not be the 7% of protests that were violent, but the 96% of major urban areas that experienced rioting.
Within the largest 100 cities by population, 74 experienced riots.
Several smaller communities have also experienced riots, including — most recently — Rochester, New York, and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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