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During the northern summer, anti-Trump sentiment fused with anti-racist activism in the US, causing huge numbers of Americans to protest all around the country.

President Donald Trump has been voted out of office, but the issues at the heart of Black Lives Matter remain as critical as ever.

In fact, the high turnout for both sides in the election demonstrates two things: the power of the movement and the need for it to continue.

But where does Black Lives Matter go from here?

If you cant name the three Black women Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi who coined the phrase Black Lives Matter in 2013, theres a good reason for that.

Seeking to avoid what they saw as the mistakes of the Civil Rights Movement, they stayed low-key and used social media to facilitate local activists taking responsibility.

The 2020 US election has decisively demonstrated the power of this strategy, because it took varied local organisations to activate important pockets of Black voters, Latino voters, and young voters.

During the summers large protests, hundreds of thousands of people registered to vote, including a surge in Black voter registration.

Activists learned their tactics from a long tradition. Decentralised organisation, often led by women, has always been integral to African Americans campaigns for rights. The Civil Rights Movement succeeded because of the work of women such as Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer, which culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

But in 2013, a conservative-leaning Supreme Court ruled sections of the Voting Rights Act were unconstitutional. Nine states including seven in the south, where voting had been closely supervised by the federal Department of Justice were now able to limit the franchise.

In other words, those in power could resume discriminating against voters. So too could other states, now the threat of having such supervision imposed was removed. Voter suppression efforts, which were already a problem, have abounded since.

African American women were the backbone of the Democratic Partys 2020 electoral success.

Along with Kamala Harris successfully running for vice president, some 130 Black women ran for Congress with almost 100 on the Democratic side.

Democratic politician and activist, Stacey Abrams, also led a new organisation, Fair Fight. Together with other organisers, it made Georgia a swing state by registering roughly one million additional voters since 2016. Nearly two-thirds are voters of colour.

Read more: Before Kamala Harris, many Black women aimed for the White House

In Atlanta and cities elsewhere, such as Detroit and Milwaukee, Black voters registered and turned out.

Not all African American voters favoured Democratic candidates, of course, but the proportion was high enough to deliver key states to the party. Importantly, the proportion of Black women who voted for Trump was small and, in Georgia for example, it was under half that of Black men.

The Black Lives Matter movement is much more expansive in its aims than either defeating Trump or putting a Democratic president in the White House.

Joe Biden has heeded those aims, noting during the campaign and in his first speech as president-elect that one of the nations major challenges is systemic racism.

Surveys this year have also shown unprecedented sympathy for Black Lives Matter causes among white Americans. While support has fallen in the months since protests following George Floyds death in May, unexpected groups of white people have demonstrated a concerted commitment to protesting.

The record-breaking turnout for Trump, especially given the appalling failure to manage the COVID crisis, suggests the successes of Black Lives Matter have also generated a parallel backlash.

Trump certainly used the visibility of the protests to anchor his campaign around anti-Black Lives Matter rhetoric and sentiment. He tweeted LAW AND ORDER! many times, in his trademark all caps. When asked in the presidential debates about racism and racial inequality, he pivoted to this theme.

Read more: Republicans have used a 'law and order' message to win elections before. This is why Trump could do it again

Trump also railed against critical race theory and teaching history in schools that focused too heavily on racism.

Republicans joined Trump in attempting to frighten voters, by claiming Biden would heed the vision of Black Lives Matter activists to defund and abolish the police.

More than 70 million voters seem to have been persuaded or at least not dissuaded by Trump and Republicans racist dog-whistling.

Anti-racist organisers knew long before Biden was even picked as the Democratic candidate it wouldnt matter who won the White House, because true change comes only from grassroots activity.

The mission will be helped if the broad anti-racist coalition that seemed to emerge mid-year can be sustained, even without the galvanising presence of Trump in the White House.

In electoral terms, all eyes now move to Georgia, where it is likely that two run-off ballots will determine the balance of the federal Senate.

The boost to Abrams profile in the past week will be a boon for fundraising. Black Lives Matter organisers and Democrats will hope national attention also brings out reluctant voters and sustains the interest of first-time voters.

By the same token, Republicans will hope their own successful All Lives Matter rhetoric and tactics can provide sufficient ballast to win the two seats and retain control of the Senate.

In the medium-term, activists nationwide will continue to work to mitigate the varied forms of voter suppression, because these disproportionately affect voters of colour. The apparent closeness of the presidential election a mirage produced by Republican state legislatures decision not to count mail-in ballots until election day drew a great deal of attention to this widespread disenfranchisement.

Read more: Joe Biden wins the election, and now has to fight the one thing Americans agree on: the nation's deep division

The long-term targets of Black Lives Matter activists are harder to pinpoint. But they include police violence, incarceration levels, and the many other injustices that stem from systemic racism, whether in the United States or other countries, including Australia.

In all arenas, the dispersed nature of the organising and the key role played by African American women will remain absolutely vital.

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What now for Black Lives Matter? Whatever happens under Biden, the role of African American women will be vital - The Conversation AU

Bernice Bigham, a 75-year-old Louisville resident, wore a T-shirt into the voting booth that summed up her feelings. It read, in all caps, Black Voters Matter. On the back it said, Its About Us.

Im fearful, said Ms. Bigham, who voted for Mr. Biden. Every time theres a killing, Im calling around to make sure that my Black son and my Black grandsons are OK, and thats no way to live its awful.

And in Flower Mound, Texas, Brooke Wright, 39, often voted Republican because she opposed abortion, but this fall she voted for Mr. Biden. On down ballot races, she and her husband selected women and minority candidates.

Ms. Wright, who is white and goes to an evangelical church, had gone to her first Black Lives Matter protest this summer. Tears streamed down her face as she held a sign to support her husband, who is Black, and their two biracial young sons.

The protests made me want change so much, she said. I was ready to have the hard conversations with people who didnt understand why I didnt vote Republican anymore, instead of quietly staying out of those conversations.

There is also evidence that the protests helped Mr. Trump.

Downtowns tore all to hell, said Teresa Stidham, 43, a white Louisville resident, noting that the windows of many buildings in downtown have been covered by plywood for months. She said that she voted for Mr. Trump primarily because he would fight for the working class, but that the citys civil unrest was an important factor, too.

In Minneapolis, Adrian Anderson, a retail worker, said he was turned off by the vandalism and looting of businesses in the aftermath of protests over the killing of Mr. Floyd.

See the rest here:
Voters Say Black Lives Matter Protests Were Important. They Disagree On Why. - The New York Times

As it became clear that the votes cast on Election Day in several key states would take time to tally, President Trump started the drumbeat to stop the count before all ballots had been accounted for. But Democratic activists were prepared to rally for counter-demonstrations. In Pennsylvania, where officials had cautioned that ballot-counting would take longer than usual, protecting the states 20 Electoral College votes seemed especially crucial. Within hours of Trumps tweet, organizers in Pittsburgh held a Count Our Votes rally a combination block party and demonstration, organized with tools and knowledge built over the course of months or years.

The rally was coordinated by a group of local protest organizations, including One Pennsylvania, which covers a coalition of activists in the Keystone State. We flagged this as an issue ourselves six months ago, said Erin Kramer, One Pennsylvanias executive director. Together with fellow activist groups like 1Hood Power and Pittsburgh Protests, the group tapped into an established infrastructure.

For protests like Thursdays Count Our Votes rally, Pittsburgh Protests organizers use Signal ideal because of its disappearing messages function to spread the word, contacting smaller coalitions, reaching out to local journalists, and coordinating rides to and from events. They research counter-protests (often using privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo) and share their work privately with fellow organizers on Slack. Its a process that was stress-tested around Black Lives Matter protests this summer when the threat of police crackdowns and far-right reprisals made privacy and security of utmost importance.

Pittsburgh Protests, a coalition of Black organizers and activists in the western Pennsylvania city, is a hyperlocal group that formed after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It coordinates a listing of local actions by groups including One PA, Pittsburgh Feminists for Intersectionality, No Cop Money PA, and 1Hood Power. Over the summer, Pittsburgh Protests held weekly demonstrations around the city of Pittsburgh and advised volunteers on how to keep communications secure.

Zarah Livingston, one of the Pittsburgh Protest organizers, said the group is careful about what technology they use and recommend to communicate with each other. All the tech they use puts the privacy and security of their members first, Livingston said, with settings that allow history and data to be deleted in the event someones phone is compromised or confiscated at a protest.

I find Slack and Signal useful when Im trying to reach people I need to talk to immediately, when were moving quickly, Kramer said. Ive been surprised at how unhelpful Twitter and Facebook have been for organizing local protests, she added, pointing to the case of an area reporter who tweeted a story about Q and had his account temporarily blocked. The fact is that they cant differentiate between a conspiracy theory and someone reporting on a conspiracy theory, Kramer said of Twitter. However, Facebook is still useful for publicizing events like the protest, which was announced on One PAs Facebook page.

Kramer said a key to One PAs efforts is its intersectional approach, not limiting to just one group or cause, but connecting with smaller groups with a progressive agenda to help pool resources and amplify each others messages. It worked to build consensus among many smaller, like-minded groups, Kramer said, adding that she saw 2020 as the year that ideologically aligned groups pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-racism began coordinating among themselves and trusting each other.

So when it became clear last week that the president and his supporters were going to try to stop voting in Pennsylvania, 1Hood and One PA already had plans for Count Every Vote demonstrations in place. And in addition to tools like Slack and Signal, they used tools developed by national organizations for progressive- and left-leaning groups, specifically tailored for mobilization.

Mobilize, for instance, is a kind of Eventbrite for politics. It connects volunteers with events and organizers help with some of the logistics of coordinating them. It was used by most 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns, including President-elect Joe Bidens, as well as for Thursdays Pittsburgh protest.

At the national level, 2016 was a wake-up call for progressives who realized that they needed more digital tools to reach out to would-be voters, not just on Twitter and Facebook where trolls abound and messages can get lost, but in online spaces more tailored to funneling people who wanted to demonstrate or contribute to the organizations that needed their help.

Mobilize and payments processor ActBlue became the hallmarks of the digital organizing infrastructure built in the wake of the 2016 elections. That infrastructure was tested over the summer as thousands protested the death of George Floyd and pushed for police reforms. So by the time the election finally rolled around, left-leaning activists were braced for anything and were well-prepared.

Building networks that can be tapped for actions at a moments notice takes time and patience. Shaniqua McClendon, political director at Crooked Media, said its Vote Save America effort started in 2018 ahead of the midterm elections. When we started Vote Save America half of it was just about voter education and people getting the information they needed to vote, McClendon said in an interview with The Verge. But the other half of it was to get people plugged in.

Crooked Media, which produces the Pod Save America podcast, was founded in 2017 by former staffers in the Obama administration, partly out of their dissatisfaction with how the media covered elections, McClendon noted. But the other part was, they were always hearing about all these bad things happening in the news, but no ones ever telling people what steps they can take to actually change and affect these things.

McClendon, who has experience working on political campaigns, is sensitive to the notion that local groups on the ground may feel wary of people coming down from D.C. to tell them how to do their work. She said Vote Save America has built trust by relying on the local grassroots organizations and letting them take the lead. So people allow Vote Save America to be a partner to them, and they trust us because we have worked with other groups, she said.

McClendon said when she joined the team in 2018, Crooked Media co-founder Jon Favreau told her, We have all these people and they are willing to do whatever we recommend to have an impact so we need to start harnessing that and using it a bit more strategically, she said. She pointed to the efforts around saving the Affordable Care Act in 2017. The podcast hosts and others told listeners to call Congress and tell their representatives they didnt want to see the ACA repealed. So many people called that they ended up shutting down the Congressional switchboard.

So I think kind of the big lesson is our people, our audience, McClendon said. They are primed and ready to take action. They just need a little bit of direction on what is the most impactful thing they can do with their time.

Traditional social media like Facebook and Twitter, however, arent built for organizing and long-term power building, Mobilize CEO Alfred Johnson told The Verge. Mobilize launched in 2017 with the goal of harnessing some of the enthusiasm that fueled large events like the Womens March in 2017.

It was immediately clear that there were not effective ways of moving online audiences into discreet, effective actions, Johnson said. Over the past three years, Mobilize has been used by more than 4,000 organizations, with about 4 million volunteers on 13 million shifts, or actions, he added.

The mistake people often make is they think the election is the end, when the reality is, you have to take a longer view of organizing to make change over a period of many years, Johnson said. You may win along the way, but you need to sustain movements, and keep them growing.

Presidential campaigns, Johnson said, typically build all of their digital tools and tech in-house, but those tools usually die when the campaign ends. The digital campaign built by Hillary Clintons team for the 2016 race, for instance, was entirely unusable for other campaigns, he said. Thats the value of tools like Mobilize and ActBlue: They persist across electoral cycles and can keep organizing the things that matter.

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the push to organize online, Johnson said. Until March of this year about 75 percent [of events] were in person, and when COVID happened essentially 100 percent our activity went into virtual events, he said. Organizing was fundamentally changed, it flipped into this mode where everything had to be virtual which was an enormous catalyst. He admitted he was concerned that when COVID hit, mobilizing might shrink to nothing. But the volume exploded, he said, with 12x the amount of volunteering in 2020 as in 2018.

McClendon said she felt hopeful after hearing President-elect Bidens speech on Saturday, in which he thanked the organizations that helped him win. I think he is well aware that the people who turned out in Black communities in Georgia and Milwaukee, and in Detroit thats what made the difference for him, she said. What Democrats have to figure out now is whether theyll continue to only go after white, working-class voters or center their work around the Black and brown communities that helped Biden win, she added.

Vote Save America now has its sights set on the two runoff elections for Georgias Senate seats, working with Stacey Abrams who McClendon and Johnson both agreed was a key factor in making Georgia a battleground state in 2020 and her Fair Fight voting rights organization as well as the campaigns of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

McClendon said Vote Save America has worked to push the idea among its volunteers that just because they cant vote for a particular candidate in another state doesnt mean the election doesnt affect them. If the Senate and House arent controlled by Democrats, it makes it harder for Biden to deliver on a lot of his campaign promises, she noted.

So we explain how all of this is interconnected and from the top of the ticket all the way down to school board race, McClendon said. We have to care about all of these elections, so thats how we plan on getting people excited.

Read more:
Count Every Vote got its power from the Black Lives Matter movement - The Verge

Sun slants through the buildings on Elk Avenue in Crested Butte, turning cottonwood fluff into floating sparkle. The surrounding hillsides glow green and rise up into red-hued peaks, some of which still hold bright, white snow. Its a real-life snow globe scene, and Chloe Bowman stands at the center of it, suspended in the surreal. She stares at 200 of her community members lying on the hot pavement in front of the post office with signs in hand that read Black Lives Matter.

Bowman, 26, was born in Colorado Springs to Ghanaian parents and has been a resident of the Gunnison Valley since 2012. With the help of friends, she organized a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Crested Butte on June 27 and was shocked by the turnout.

The event occurred 33 days after George Floyd died of asphyxiation under the knee of a police officer. His death sparked one of the largest movements in U.S. history.

Between 15 million and 26 million participated in Black Lives Matter demonstrations in thousands of cities and towns across the country. Many took place in rural, majority-white areas like Gunnison County, where, according to 2019 Census estimates, 87% of residents identify as white, 9.6% identify as Hispanic, and 0.6% identify as Black or African American. For comparison, the 2019 Census estimates 60.1% of U.S. residents are white; 18.5% Hispanic or Latinx; and 13.4% Black or African American.

MORE: What happened when Black Lives Matter arrived in Colorados deeply conservative Eastern Plains?

As it has in countless communities across America, the movement offers a unique opportunity to examine the social realities in Gunnison County. Bowman understands her communitys desire to remain open-minded and rebellious, and that locals feel fierce pride in how they look after each other. She also recognized the opportunity for people to reinforce these values by standing up for her and other people of color in the Gunnison Valley.

However, she said, the silence here was deafening.

While Bowman, a preschool teacher, never considered herself an activist, she felt it was time to address the much-avoided topics of racial injustice and privilege within the community and no longer wanted to tolerate Gunnison Valley as a refuge from racism.

We get to pick and choose what we care about, thats the blessing of being here, Bowman said during her speech at the rally. But here in this little world we choose to live in, its more important to talk about the trails that youre biking than the heavy stuff on the news. This community has a heart that bleedswhy is this bleeding heart on reserve for us and only us?

Bowman says racism in the Gunnison Valley occurs in many forms, from uncomfortable stares to backhanded compliments like you are actually very articulate. There also are acts of active discrimination, like not getting a job because someone distrusts the color of your skin, even if you are more qualified than other applicants. She says visitors and residents of color have shared frustration at repeatedly getting pulled over by the police for no apparent reason or being followed around in retail shops under suspicious eyes.

The illusion that we dont have racism here, Bowman says, makes it even more painful because it is so easily disguised and excused.

Racial injustice resides in the historical foundations of the valley, making it harder to see clearly today. For example, the lands on which residents live, work and play were violently stolen from the Ute people who were forcefully relocated when white settlers arrived. In the U.S., due to accumulated discrimination and lack of access to opportunity, net worth of a typical Black family is $17,150, approximately one-tenth of the wealth held by a typical white family, according to a Brookings report released in February. That kind of economic disparity makes it impossible for most people of color to even contemplate living in Crested Butte, where the median property value is around $1.4 million.

Still, the community is generally friendly, welcoming and non-violent, which is part of the reason Bowman has fallen in love with it and wants to stay. The peaceful protest in Crested Butte, accompanied and supported by local marshals, contrasted sharply with footage of police in riot gear that same day at a Denver vigil for Elijah McClain (another unarmed Black man killed while in police custody).

What shelters the valley from harsh realities of racism is also what makes it the perfect place to have tough conversations around race.

Elizabeth Cobbins, who organized the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Gunnison on June 2, has similar, complex feelings around the privilege that comes with living in the Gunnison Valley. As a Black woman, she says that even though she doesnt have white privilege, she benefits from and is protected by it here. Yet when the whole country was talking about George Floyd and this community was not, she felt she had to act.

I was like, no, I live here in Gunnison, too, I wont be silent just to make people feel comfortable, said Cobbins, who was the multicultural affairs program coordinator at Western Colorado University at that time.

Because racial conversations are not common in the valley, Cobbins said she had no idea how people would receive the event. When several hundred people arrived, including the entire Gunnison City Council, leaders from Hispanic and Latinx communities, and local business owners, she thought, Do you see the amount of allies you have here? There are people in this community who want to do the work.

The demonstrations in the Gunnison Valley have resulted in small successes and conversations that have rippled out beyond what Cobbins and Bowman ever imagined.

Gunnison Valley Against Racism, a Facebook group with more than 800 members, has furthered conversations by posting various resources and opportunities for direct action. In one case, the group helped gain support for a petition calling for the firing of a Gunnison County Sheriffs Office corporal after he made comments on Facebook that threatened violence toward Black Lives Matter demonstrators. An official investigation resulted, but the corporal resigned before it was completed.

In more symbolic gestures, many organizations in the Valley have offered statements of support. When Crested Butte Mountain Resort posted that they stand in solidarity (with the Black community), I about fell over, Bowman laughed. I never thought I would see that here, ever.

Rob Katz, the CEO of Vail Resorts, wrote a letter acknowledging that Black people continue to struggle with the very real impacts of racism in their daily lives. He admitted that people of color do not have the same opportunity to experience an activity that many people here orient their lives around, and said, in some ways, these issues might feel removed from the ski industry to some, it might not feel like our problem. But that is the problem.

That lack of diversity, he wrote, is not only a moral and societal issue, but a business issue, recognizing that the industry needs to broaden its base to more skiers of color if it wants to survive.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2044, less than half of the country will be white. According to a report by the National Ski Areas Association, visits by people of color have remained fairly stagnant in the past decade and are not tracking with the growth of minority populations in the U.S.

Karen Hoskin, owner of Montanya Distillers, wants to move beyond symbolic gestures. After in-depth research, she wrote a comprehensive anti-racism plan for the Gunnison Valley. She found that here, like other ski towns, expensive housing and seasonal work disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) because of biases and lack of access to loans and other economic safety nets.

Hoskin believes that every organization and institution in the valley has the opportunity to create more pathways toward inclusion. She identifies approaches like housing support programs, targeted messaging to communities of color and start-up funds for BIPOC-owned businesses.

Town councils in the valley have yet to implement more inclusive policies, though Crested Butte made Juneteenth an official holiday, unanimously voted to paint Black Lives Matter on Elk Avenue, made an official proclamation condemning racism, and offered diversity, equity and inclusion training to all town staff, including the Marshals office.

Town Council member Will Dujardin said the painting of Black Lives Matter in September was a starting point and statement of the towns commitment to anti-racism work. However, much more was revealed in how badly some wanted to avoid the topic. Social media exploded, and while there was a lot of applause from locals and visitors, there also were comments like I cant believe you destroyed this beautiful town, and Im never spending money here again.

Despite the blowback, Bowman and a committee of community leaders including representatives from Vail Resorts, local government, businesses and nonprofits are working toward various efforts to make the valley more accessible to Black, Indigenous and people of color. A few of the many efforts will include more diversity in hiring practices, collaboration with BIPOC-led outdoor groups, diversifying youth education, and inclusive community messaging.

As residents of communities that market access to the outdoors and perhaps best understand the benefits of getting outside, Bowman and Cobbins agree that a direct way to combat racism is to share this privilege and the peace that comes with it. Like skiing, mountain biking, climbing, hunting and angling industries have also remained mostly white while the face of America becomes increasingly diverse.

Opportunity outweighs everything, Bowman said. As a mecca of mountain sports, we could seek out people the way Adaptive Sports Center seeks out people, she explained. She said the valley could become a leader in diversifying the outdoors not by focusing on bringing more people here, but by bringing different types of people here.

To do this, Bowman believes people in the community must better understand the barriers that exist and learn how to help remove them. Positive platforms, such as Melanin Basecamp and Diversify Outdoors, contrast sharply with the many ways people of color are made to feel they do not belong in the outdoors. Some examples include microaggressions on trails, social acceptance of racist language, and lack of mentorship.

MORE: Shifting cultural winds amplify calls to rename Colorados peaks, valleys and creeks

Jalen Bazile, an outdoor educator and avid mountain biker based in Denver, visited this summer and said he loves visiting, yet is critical of Crested Butte. I felt like a guest trying not to overstay my welcome, he posted on Instagram of his visit. While he said he loves the landscape and trails, he asks who this last great mountain town is for? Bazile said he felt like he was constantly being watched and judged as if he was on the other side of the glass at the zoo.

In an interview, Bazile said people of color bear the brunt of the awkwardness that white people have when they dont interact with non-white people often, and when this happens repeatedly, the feeling of not belonging can become overwhelming. He is a member of the Black Foxes, who describe themselves as an international collective of unapologetically Black cyclists and outdoors-people that are reclaiming our narratives and roles in the outdoors.

Bowman worked with the Black Foxes and organized an unofficial gathering in September that brought 20 Black, Indigenous and bikers of color to recreate in the valley. After their visit, the attendees expressed tangible feelings of empowerment that come from gathering with other people of color in the outdoors, Bowman said.

Bowman said she looks forward to partnering with other groups, like the National Brotherhood of Skiers and Outdoor Afro, to get more skiers, bikers and hikers of color into the mountains.

What better than to be one of the only ski towns that fights for Black people, she said.

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Original post:
Black Lives Matter protests in Gunnison County showed people of color they have more allies than they realized - The Colorado Sun

Here are the biggest takeaways from a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, taken after the final presidential debate. USA TODAY

As protests over police brutality and racial justice broke out this summer, often resulting in harsh responses from law enforcement,police officers across the country have been accused offavoring a violent extremist group that took to the streets to oppose thosedemonstrators.

The latest example of acozy relationship between law enforcement and the far-right Proud Boyshappened in the nation's capital last week when the Metropolitan Police responded to astabbing involving members of the Proud Boys and an associate.

Provocateur Bevelyn Beatty and the chairman of the Proud Boys, who was with her, told police they wereboth stabbed by people associated with Black Lives Matter in a street fight earlythe morning after the presidential election. The Metropolitan Police Departmentrepeated their claim to media outlets, leading toheadlines around the country claiming Black Lives Matter had attackedthe Proud Boys.

There's no evidence Black Lives Matter hadanything to do with the incident. Police officials havesince walked back their initial statements, saying it's unclear whether anyone involved was affiliated with political groups.

The department'swillingness to echothe accusationsof the Proud Boys is anotherexample of law enforcement's deference tothe group, said Michael German, a former FBI special agent who is now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justices Liberty andNational Security Program.

Million MAGA March: Trump supporters plan rallies in Washington DC, experts warn extremists may attend

More: Who are the Proud Boys? Far-right group has concerned experts for years

Hundreds gather during a Proud Boys rally at Delta Park in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 26. The OK sign is interpreted by some as a symbol of white supremacy.(Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

This group has been involved in all kinds of violent activities, and it seems that law enforcements response to them has been reluctant,German said.That sends a message to far-right groups that their violence is sanctioned by the police.

Meanwhile, law enforcement has clamped down on protests organized by Black Lives Matter and similar groups, he said.

The Proud Boys, which championsa mishmash of prejudicialideas tied to its slogan of "Western chauvinism,"has gotten more attention since itwas mentioned in a presidential debate in September.

Many Proud Boys espouse white supremacist and white nationalist views, though the grouphas some nonwhite members. Members all maleare proud of their tough-guy image.Events promoted by the Proud Boys often end in brawls, and they've been seen attacking people.

'Stand back and stand by': Donald Trump sidesteps call to condemn white supremacists and the Proud Boys were 'extremely excited' about it

The group ramped up its activities this year in responseto the police accountability protests spurred bythe May killing of George Floyd by aMinneapolis police officer. Energized by its leaders' claims that radical leftists were engaged in a"Marxist takeover,"Proud Boys took to the streets to oppose the protestersand arranged their own pro-police and "patriot" marches.

A counterprotester confronts members of the Proud Boys and other right-wing demonstrators during an "End Domestic Terrorism" rally in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 17, 2019.(Photo: Noah Berger, AP)

In September, a group of Proud Boys protesting in Philadelphia was given a police escort, according to The Daily Beast. Video of the rally shows members of the group shaking hands with a police officer.

Philadelphias police commissioner saidthe claimthat the city's police are overly friendly with the Proud Boys is ridiculous.

In Portland, Oregon,police were criticized for allowing Proud Boys to descend on the city for an August rally, wearing body armor and carrying weapons. Last month in Salem, Oregon,police allowed Proud Boys to flout a law against drinking alcohol in public as they carried weapons in a park.

There have been hints of deeper connections between the Proud Boys and law enforcement. Last year, a Connecticut police officer retired after his membership in the organization became known. In 2018, a sheriff's deputy in Washington state was fired for being photographed wearing a Proud Boys sweatshirt.

On Nov. 4, hours after the department's initial statements on the stabbing,Metropolitan PoliceChief Peter Newsham said there was no evidencethe assailants were associated with Black Lives Matter.

At 2:30 in the morning, when our officers are trying to gather information on the scene, that information is preliminary in nature and oftentimes, unfortunately, it changes, Newsham said.

By then, news outlets around the country hadspread theallegation, sparkingoutrage from the local Black Lives Matter chapter.

A video of the altercation, postedto social media, showsmembers of the Proud Boys and Beattyscuffling with unknown individuals.

During the fight, at least two peopleand Beatty were stabbed and taken to a hospital for treatment, according to the police department.

Beatty gained notorietythis year after vandalizing Black Lives Matter murals in New York.

When police officers showed up at the scene of the fight,they quickly loaded members of the Proud Boys into a cruiser and began searching for the suspects, according to Beatty and Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys. Heclaimedhe was stabbed too.

A motorist holds a homemade anti-Proud Boys sign during an anti-fascist and anti-Trump march Sunday in New York. The march was organized in response to the concurrent MAGA Drag, a car caravan in support of Donald Trump.(Photo: Kevin Hagen/AP)

I got in a cruiser with a police officer because I was trying to identify the suspects, Tarrio said in an interview. We drove up and down the street trying to find them.

German, the former FBI agent,said it's astonishingthat police drove around with Proud Boys after the stabbing. Its poor police procedure, he said. You dont put witnesses in a car and drive around;youre just damaging the case you have.

But aMetropolitan Police spokesman said it's not unusual at all."Identifying all parties involved is part of the investigative process, and it is not uncommon for officers to canvass an area with the victim of a crime, spokesman Dustin Sternbeck wrote in an email.

"Your allegation that we favor any individual during a criminal incident is not accurate and dangerous rhetoric," he wrote.

Donald Trump now insists he doesn't know who the Proud Boys are. "Whoever they are, they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work." Trumps' changed tone comes after he refused to condemn the white supremacist group. (Sept. 30) AP Domestic

Some of the news outlets that reportedBlack Lives Matter was implicated in the stabbing have deletedor rewritten those stories. But headlines across the countryportrayed itas a clash between far-right and far-left extremist groups.

In the tense hours after the polls closed, when the winner of the presidential electionwas not yet known, thats exactly the sort of unfounded claim that could have sparked larger clashes, said J.J. MacNab, a fellow at George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism.

When you have two sides itching for violence, you have to be really careful.

Its inflammatory and thats a problem, MacNab said. When you have two sides itching for violence, you have to be really careful.

Tarrio and other Proud Boys have long sought to portray the group as friendly with law enforcement. In an interview, he boasted about his close ties to the police, saying it's only natural thatpolice officers communicate with the group.

Were not screaming, What do we want? Dead pigs! at protests," he said."Theres no conspiracy here. Were open to working with law enforcement, whereas the other side wants to kill police.

German said the cozyrelationship between the Proud Boys and the police spells trouble for future clashes.

"There's still a perception among law enforcement that this is a friendly group," he said. "That just means even more violent people will be attracted to engagein these protests, and that will end badly."

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How police handled a DC stabbing is yet another sign of how law enforcement favors extremist group Proud Boys - USA TODAY