Newspersons Michael Biesecker, Washington; Michael Kunzelman, College Park, Marlyand; Jake Bleiberg, Dallas; Alanna Durkin Richer, Boston; Ashraf Khalil, Washington; Brian Slodysko, Washington; Amanda Seitz, Chicago; and international security correspondent Lori Hinnant, Paris, analyzed all the arrests over the last two weeks in Washington and Minneapolis, concluding that there is little evidence of “antifa” or “radical left” protest groups provoking violence as President Donald Trump claimed. The story, rich with detail, described who the real protesters were. Among them: a balloon artist, a cellist and a law student. But it was the heft of the reporting – acquiring and scouring hundreds of records in a limited amount of time – that made the anecdotal aspects of the story all the more credible.
AP analysis: Little evidence of radical left in protests
Scott Nichols, aka “Amazing Scott,” a local balloon artist, poses for a photo- in his backyard in Minneapolis, June 5, 2020. Nichols doesn’t consider himself very political, but when George Floyd died, he felt compelled to join the protests a few blocks from his home. He was arrested during one of the protests and spent 48 hours in jail before he was released.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez