In reality, the protests happening at this time could be interpreted as a group of protesters reacting to the police declaring war on them. The Washington Post created an incredible reconstruction of the week’s events by stitching together cell phone video lining up times and locations for the week following the death of George Floyd.
Regardless of what you may have heard about the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, even a brief look at this recreation will likely cause you to look at these protests in a different way.
It’s a common refrain from some of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and their Republican allies that the Justice Department is treating them harshly because of their political views while those arrested during BLM protests were given leniency. Court records tell a different story. An Associated Press review of court documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death shows that dozens of people charged have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison. The AP found that more than 120 defendants across the United States have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of federal crimes, including rioting, arson, and conspiracy. More than 70 defendants who’ve been sentenced have received an average of about 27 months behind bars. At least 10 received prison terms of five years or more.
A study by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) found that over 93% of the Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful.
The dissonance between the rhetoric of Capitol rioters and their supporters and the record established by courts highlights both the racial tension inherent in their arguments—the pro-Donald Trump rioters were largely white and BLM’s protesters were more diverse—and the flawed assessment at the heart of their claims.
Conservatives have sought to equate the attack on the Capitol with the Black Lives Matter protests, accusing Democrats of being hypocrites for not denouncing the violence after Floyd’s death as loudly as the Jan. 6 insurrection.
President Donald Trump, on his first full day in office of his second term, decided to grant clemency and pardons to people convicted of assaulting police officers during the 2021 attack on the Capitol and suggested there could be a place in American politics for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S.
The demonstrations after Floyd’s death were largely peaceful calls to address racial inequality and police brutality that occasionally turned violent. In some cities, protests descended into chaos after dark, with people smashing windows, looting stores, setting fires, and assaulting officers.
How The Media Continues To Shape Public Opinion
Liberal media outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC largely focus on the attack as a dangerous attempt to subvert democracy, emphasizing the role of Trump’s rhetoric in inciting violence. They frame the attack as an existential threat to American democratic institutions and the rule of law.
For the right, the event was seen as the culmination of widespread dissatisfaction with the 2020 election and an expression of frustration at what they perceive as a stolen election. Even after winning the 2024 election, Trump continues to champion the false narrative that he was the true winner of the election in 2020.
Conservative outlets like Fox News and Newsmax tended to emphasize the role of election fraud claims in fueling the protests, framing the Capitol attack as an expression of frustration with a rigged political system. Their false narrative of the 2020 election continues to this day. Even after losing a lawsuit that forced Fox News to pay $787.5 million because of their lies in their coverage of the 2020 election, they continue to create a false narrative of daily events, leading to massive disinformation that informs the right’s vision of the political landscape.