The GOP’s ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Hypocrisy

Those who complained about last summer’s riots now want to make the case that the January 6 riot at the Capitol was no big deal.

By
213

Last summer, after months of protests and riots in response to the murder of George Floyd, the phrase “mostly peaceful,” often used by the media and Democrats to describe the protests, achieved parody status thanks to a CNN clip.

It showed a reporter in Kenosha, Wis., standing in front of a burning building and cars ablaze. CNN’s chyron read, “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING.”

Conservatives loved it—me included. It summed up a long, hot, pandemic summer of being told not to believe our lying eyes when it came to the violence we saw either on our TVs or in our communities. Thousands of properties and businesses around the country had been burned, damaged or looted, costing billions.

Still, the reality was a bit more complicated. The “mostly peaceful” thing was mostly true. A study by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project found that 93 percent of protests were, in fact, peaceful. Part of the problem, according to the authors, was that the media couldn’t resist showing images of violence (duh!), which created a misperception about the protests.

You're out of free articles
Create an account to unlock 1 more articles
By signing up with your email, you agree to The Dispatch’s privacy policy and terms and conditions
Already have an account? Sign In
213
By
Comments (213)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. M M (Lee)

    Jonah, I'm listening to your podcast on the history of anti-Semitism and historical reasons for Jewish liberalism. How did I not know you had this bank of podcasts here on this website? I walk an hour a day and now I've got plenty of podcasts to enjoy. Not many people could talk alone for an hour without someone else in the conversation and have it be bearable for the listener, but your witty delivery makes it both smart and fun.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Marian Cates

    Excellent piece. Clarifying.

    Collapse
  3. Sprat

    IIRC, the "93 percent peaceful" figure was one of those tricky figures-- e.g. if there was a Floyd protest in Detroit that turned into a three-day riot, that counted as one event, and if 18 people showed up to a "rally" in suburban Boise and waved signs for an afternoon, that also counts as one event.

    Collapse
    1. Gabej1989

      Yeah I think there’s plenty of room to debate the methodology.

      Collapse
    2. AJA

      good point. but also some of the damage and looting were people just taking advantage of the situation on the ground. they were not part of any protest

      Collapse
      1. DJ

        The fire at the Minneapolis police station was started by a Boogaloo. There were lots of provacateurs at the protests last year.

        Also, people bring up Antifa like they're Biden supporters or something. Antifa hates Democrats too! They vandalized a Democrtic party office in Portland the day after inauguration.

        Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Benton Grey

    Thank you for continuing to tell the truth and say what needs saying.

    Collapse
  5. Jaybrown

    The Dispatch comment sections are getting depressingly like all other comment sections. Just shouting at each other across the divide. I thought we were better than that.

    Collapse
  6. Jaybrown

    The claims that some significant percentage of Republicans believe this or that silly or incredibly stupid or terrifying thing misses the point that as of 3 - 18 May 2021, the Gallup party affiliation poll shows 29% of respondents self-identifying as Republican, up a bit from the previous two weeks. Although it is also interesting that the percentage identifying as Democrats has reduced significantly, while Independents have grown.

    Collapse
  7. Pohl

    There are a lot of remarks that exaggerate the threat of the 01/06 criminals. Words like “siege” and even “terrorist” ring very false given the inept behavior, for attackers, of many once they got into the Capitol. The historical significance seems to lie more in what politicians did that day. If the President had been inclined to pander to the BLM for a year, they’d be the criminals of 01/06. But it probably took a special brand of stupid to turn out as it did.

    Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    Will Bates

    I really don’t understand what is so hard about this topic. You don’t have to judge the protests themselves, just the people committing violence.

    In the summer protests, the violent looters were intermixed with the peaceful protestors (until nighttime). The peaceful protestors were fine( the violent looters should be prosecuted.

    In the 1/6 protest, the initial protest was fine. A little heated, maybe. But then people that pushed through and on cops and broke into the Capitol should be prosecuted. Now, the additional context matters here - the BLM protests were not committing a crime merely by being there, but the 1/6 ‘protestors’ were committing a crime just by being in the Capitol at that time (nevermind how they got there).

    So. Lets review:
    BLM protestors that didn’t commit crimes: good
    BLM protestors that committed crimes: bad

    1/6 protestors at initial event: good
    1/6 protestors at the initial event committing crimes: N/A did not exist

    1/6 protestors that broke into Capitol and didn’t commit a crime: N/A this is a self-contradiction
    1/6 protestors that committed crimes: bad

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Walt Hilker

    Another solid article, Jonah. Whether it's used by apologists to diminish the violence of the summer riots or the January 6 siege on the Capitol, "mostly peaceful" is a feeble distraction. Making such a claim is analogous to calling COVID "mostly benign."

    Collapse
  10. Kurt Von Fuchs

    I would love your thoughts Jonah on what should or could be done with 146 Republican Congress people who voted not to certify the election. Most are in safe districts and since their constituents seem to believe the election was stolen they're just doing what their constituent want

    Collapse
Load More