{"id":217,"date":"2025-06-12T12:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=217"},"modified":"2025-06-12T12:22:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T12:22:00","slug":"some-far-left-groups-have-encouraged-peaceful-protests-to-turn-violent-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=217","title":{"rendered":"Some far-left groups have encouraged peaceful protests to turn violent, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was approaching nightfall in Los Angeles on Sunday when black-clad demonstrators began to torch a row of self-driving Waymo taxis. Within minutes, videos of the fiery scenes began to pop up on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMORE. MORE AND MORE AND MORE,\u201d a group known as Unity of Fields posted on X, along with a video of the flaming vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>The post wasn\u2019t an anomaly. Since the start of the demonstrations against immigration raids in Los Angeles, the Unity of Fields X account has been pumping out messages urging people to wreak havoc in the streets and \u201cgive &#8217;em hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s part of a far-left online ecosystem that has proliferated in recent years, experts say. Some of the groups behind the accounts express contempt for peaceful resistance and glorify acts of violence \u2014 and even murders, like those of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and two Israeli Embassy staffers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caas-da \">\n<div id=\"sda-LREC1-22dde4dc-e28a-3377-ab16-9772bc73f81c1749730661221\" class=\"caas-sda-benji-ad caas-sda-gam-container-mid-center caas-sda-gam-container-mid-center-small wafer-destroyed\" data-wf-benji-page-context=\"{&quot;pageUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/far-left-groups-encouraged-peaceful-090000227.html&quot;,&quot;spaceid&quot;:&quot;1197809036&quot;,&quot;site&quot;:&quot;news&quot;,&quot;hashtag&quot;:&quot;unrestconflictswar;politics;culture;politicaldemonstrations&quot;,&quot;lmsid&quot;:&quot;a0a0W00000LRNm8QAH&quot;,&quot;lpstaid&quot;:&quot;22dde4dc-e28a-3377-ab16-9772bc73f81c&quot;,&quot;pt&quot;:&quot;content&quot;,&quot;pd&quot;:&quot;modal&quot;,&quot;pct&quot;:&quot;story&quot;}\" data-wf-benji-wafer-config=\"{}\" data-wf-benji-config=\"{&quot;positions&quot;:{&quot;LREC1-22dde4dc-e28a-3377-ab16-9772bc73f81c1749730661221&quot;:{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;LREC1-22dde4dc-e28a-3377-ab16-9772bc73f81c1749730661221&quot;,&quot;path&quot;:&quot;\/22888152279\/us\/ynews\/ros\/dt\/us_ynews_ros_dt_mid_center&quot;,&quot;region&quot;:&quot;viewer&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:[[300,250]],&quot;kvs&quot;:{&quot;loc&quot;:&quot;mid_center&quot;}}}}\" data-wf-trigger=\"onLoad\" data-wf-margin=\"100 0\" data-hide-ad-string=\"\">\n<div id=\"LREC1-22dde4dc-e28a-3377-ab16-9772bc73f81c1749730661221\" class=\"wafer-benji-success\" data-google-query-id=\"CIugxNju640DFRhjpAQdziAo7w\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/22888152279\/us\/ynews\/ros\/dt\/us_ynews_ros_dt_mid_center_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The leftist networks tend to be different from right-wing groups in that they are typically decentralized with no leadership structures. But they can be highly adept at using social media, and some have been working hard to amplify and celebrate the acts of violent protesters in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether they directly threw a Molotov cocktail is actually not as essential as the ecosystem of encouragement and coordination they have created,\u201d said Joel Finkelstein, a co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a nonpartisan group that tracks online extremism.<\/p>\n<p>The unrest in Los Angeles follows a pattern that has played out in numerous cities over the past five years in which protests that break out remain mostly peaceful during the day, but at night agitators engage in fiery clashes with police.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-lightbox\" data-lightbox-src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/N1.za2U9GtsOzIKWDNdO9Q--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xNjAwO2NmPXdlYnA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/d30311378084ff4b41b07c1b2d834460\"><span class=\"caas-img-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/kbfeQDIIMu3jk2HDYbAN4g--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/d30311378084ff4b41b07c1b2d834460\" alt=\"A protester sets fire to a shopping cart during a standoff with law enforcement in Compton (Barbara Davidson \/ Reuters)\" data-caas-lazy-loading-init=\"1\" \/><button class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp caas-lightbox\" aria-label=\"View larger image\" data-ylk=\"sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;elm:expand;itc:1\" data-rapid_p=\"10\" data-v9y=\"1\"><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\">\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\" data-id=\"m-1\">A protester sets fire to a shopping cart during a standoff with law enforcement in the Los Angeles County city of Compton on Saturday. (Barbara Davidson \/ Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That dynamic tends to distract from the focus of the demonstrations \u2014 in this case, workplace immigration raids by federal agents \u2014 and provide fodder to people who oppose them. In this case, that\u2019s President Donald Trump and his supporters, who have sought to dismiss the broader protest movement as the work of \u201cpaid insurrectionists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s concerning is the attempt to conflate the individual actors who do commit violence with the mass movement as a whole,\u201d said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.<\/p>\n<p>He said the narrative pushed by some people on the right \u2014 in his words, that there\u2019s a \u201croving band of antifa groupies who are following protests from city to city\u201d \u2014 doesn\u2019t comport with reality.<\/p>\n<p>But, Lewis added, there has no doubt been a normalization of violence in parts of the left, although it is more fractured than in right-wing groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of anti-capitalist stuff in one case. A little bit of antisemitic stuff in another case,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that reflects the nature of those online leftist movements where there is no cohesive, central structure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than 300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations broke out Friday in Los Angeles, police say. The charges include failure to disperse, looting, arson and attacks on police officers. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said demonstrators have shot commercial-grade fireworks at police officers and hurled pieces of concrete at them.<\/p>\n<p>Were they the acts of lone wolves seizing an opportunity to target police? Or was there a level of coordination and planning among the instigators?<\/p>\n<p>Experts say it\u2019s likely to be a combination of both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have the organized protests by people who are committed to a particular cause, and then you have radical fringes,\u201d said Dan Byman, the director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey might put on airs and call themselves anarchists or something like that, but they\u2019re young people who like destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Network Contagion Research Institute has been analyzing the rise of what it calls \u201canarcho-socialist extremism.\u201d It has found that the chaos and violence that have broken out at some of the major protests in recent years, like those against the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, weren\u2019t as spontaneous as they might have seemed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-lightbox\" data-lightbox-src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/DpR447oBs_PMk2GhjbwAFw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xNjAwO2NmPXdlYnA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/3dc49b5daa124f22f7b575d637f9d1f1\"><span class=\"caas-img-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/30WVTUh6GJueUla.2_v65w--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/3dc49b5daa124f22f7b575d637f9d1f1\" alt=\"TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST (Jose Luis Magana \/ AFP via Getty Images file)\" data-caas-lazy-loading-init=\"1\" \/><button class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp caas-lightbox\" aria-label=\"View larger image\" data-ylk=\"sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;elm:expand;itc:1\" data-rapid_p=\"11\" data-v9y=\"1\"><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\">\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\" data-id=\"m-2\">Police clash with protesters near the White House in 2020 during demonstrations against George Floyd&#8217;s death. (Jose Luis Magana \/ AFP via Getty Images file)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhat we found in our research is there are groups that were attempting to exploit the situation, oftentimes after dark, and their coordination was somewhat sophisticated,\u201d said Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser to the Network Contagion Research Institute.<\/p>\n<p>That involved demonstrators\u2019 surveilling police movements and sharing tips about making the most destructive Molotov cocktails, Goldenberg said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were trying to exploit an already volatile situation in an attempt to provoke violent clashes with police, create viral moments to inflame tensions and draw in others through emotional triggers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-lightbox\" data-lightbox-src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/HYbZcY_N9fgOsp4gLxm2QQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xNjAwO2NmPXdlYnA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/54b6bd504af6194ff16cc37d8891a7ac\"><span class=\"caas-img-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/TfMNo0Ds__4h6RGDPPLwBQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/54b6bd504af6194ff16cc37d8891a7ac\" alt=\"TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-POLICE-JUSTICE-RACISM (Chandan Khanna \/ AFP via Getty Images)\" data-caas-lazy-loading-init=\"1\" \/><button class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp caas-lightbox\" aria-label=\"View larger image\" data-ylk=\"sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;elm:expand;itc:1\" data-rapid_p=\"12\" data-v9y=\"1\"><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\">\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\" data-id=\"m-3\">A protester in front of a building set on fire during a demonstration in Minneapolis in 2020 over the death of George Floyd. (Chandan Khanna \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Soon after it launched in 2019, the Network Contagion Research Institute focused on right-wing threats like the\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/social-media\/what-boogaloo-how-online-calls-violent-uprising-are-getting-organized-n1138461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:Boogaloos;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"13\" data-v9y=\"1\">Boogaloos<\/a>, a loose-knit anti-government movement that calls for violence against law enforcement and political opponents. But it soon found that left-wing groups were using many of the same tactics to incite violence.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/networkcontagion.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCRI-White-Paper-Network-Enabled-Anarchy-25-Sept-259pm.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:2022 report;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"14\" data-v9y=\"1\">2022 report<\/a>\u00a0by the institute found that animus toward law enforcement among anarchist types had been proliferating online for years. The appearance of posts with anti-police outrage and\/or memes and coded language increased over 1,000% on Twitter and 300% on Reddit during the period of the Floyd protests in 2020, the report found.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Assassination culture\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>One anti-police group, the People\u2019s City Council Los Angeles, has taken to calling out the actions of officers at the protests, using expletives and slights.<\/p>\n<p>Just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, it posted on X the name and picture of a police officer it said was firing rubber bullets at protesters.<\/p>\n<p>He is \u201cf&#8212;&#8211;g unhinged and unloading on protesters at point blank range,\u201d the post read. \u201cF&#8211;K THIS PIG!!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, the group posted a video showing a line of police officers in riot gear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLAPD trying to kettle right now,\u201d the group wrote, referring to a crowd control tactic used by police. \u201cOink oink piggy piggy, we going make your life s&#8212;-y\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The violent demonstrators seemed to represent a mishmash of causes.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the people seen hurling objects at police and setting fires were dressed in all black, their faces covered in masks. Some waved Mexican flags, others\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DKr2WYvpwTK\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:Palestinian flags;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"15\" data-v9y=\"1\">Palestinian flags<\/a>. At least one man was photographed wearing a Hamas armband.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngelenos throwing Modelo Molotovs at ICE while wearing Keffiyehs,\u201d read a post on X by Unity of Fields. \u201cWe are locked the f&#8211;k in, folks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unity of Fields, which was formerly known as Palestine Action US, describes itself as a \u201cmilitant front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Unity of Fields concept comes from the Palestinian resistance,\u201d the group said last year\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/abolitionmedia.noblogs.org\/10751\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:in a blog post;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"16\" data-v9y=\"1\">in a blog post<\/a>\u00a0announcing the name change. \u201cIt refers to the coordination between all the factions on the battlefield despite their geographic fragmentation or ideological differences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finkelstein, the co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, said such groups and the people who follow them represent what he described as \u201cassassination culture\u201d \u2014 in which targeted killings are considered acceptable by those who harbor an array of grievances.<\/p>\n<p>Unity of Fields, for example, is\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/unityoffields\/status\/1931429167599358206?s=43&amp;t=qjA9BAv6BhOCNlxoiZWFbw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:helping raise money;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"17\" data-v9y=\"1\">helping raise money<\/a>\u00a0to cover legal costs for\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/know-suspect-capital-jewish-museum-shooting-rcna208519\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:Elias Rodriguez;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"18\" data-v9y=\"1\">Elias Rodriguez<\/a>, the Chicago man accused of fatally shooting the Israeli Embassy workers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sense is that beneath these grievances is a shared sense of loss of control,\u201d said Finkelstein, who is a psychologist and a neuroscientist. \u201cWho are the people that really feel a sense of hopelessness in their lives? Most are looking for significance, and they think they found it here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to a request for comment, Unity of Fields wrote: \u201cWe will never condemn people who fight to free themselves. When the masses in Los Angeles began using direct action as a means of halting ICE-gestapo disappearances, the media saw only the violence of resistance and never the violence of the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It added: \u201cAll acts of resistance to state violence are justified and all power belongs to the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The People\u2019s City Council Los Angeles didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>While the violent parts of the protests in Los Angeles began to die down Monday, demonstrations against the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on undocumented immigrants have spread to several other cities, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas and New York.<\/p>\n<p>So far, none has experienced violence at the levels in Los Angeles, but whether that will remain the case is an open question. Unity of Fields has made it clear it\u2019s hoping for a repeat in cities like New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNYC, how are you gonna let Angelenos beat you at your favorite pastime (terrorizing police officers)?\u201d the group said Monday on X. \u201cHamas Marxist Army get down there and show them what New Yorkers can do when they put their heads together!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/far-left-groups-encouraged-peaceful-protests-turn-violent-experts-say-rcna211899\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:NBCNews.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-rapid_p=\"19\" data-v9y=\"1\">NBCNews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was approaching nightfall in Los Angeles on Sunday when black-clad demonstrators began to torch a row of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}