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Sorting Out Claims of Extremist Involvement in US Protests is Challenging

Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON - The series of nationwide protests the past nine days over
   the death of African American George Floyd while in the custody of
   Minneapolis police have drawn a hodgepodge of outside agitators.

   They range from anarchists to anti-fascists, radical environmentalists,
   white supremacists, anti-government militiamen and just straight-up
   opportunists.

   All have been seen in numbers small and large at mass gatherings across
   the country. But sorting out their precise involvement in the
   demonstrations -- and the related violence, burning and looting -- has
   presented a challenge to law enforcement officials and researchers.

   Muddying the picture, politicians, officials and activists have played
   up the presence of one group over another.

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