美国国家公共电台 NPR FACT CHECK: Is Left-Wing Violence Rising?

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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Far-right pundits¹ are seizing on this week's shooting at a congressional baseball practice as an example of what they say is a rise in the left-wing violence in the U.S. Experts who monitor domestic terrorism had been warning about the potential for left-wing radicalization as a backlash to President Donald Trump². But as NPR's Kirk Siegler reports, they're hesitant to call it a trend at this point.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE³: Lately here on the West Coast we keep seeing theatrical⁴ street confrontations⁵ between far right and far left - Berkeley, Portland, and just last night on the campus of The Evergreen⁶ State College in Olympia, Wash.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Move it. Move it.

SIEGLER: It takes dozens of police in riot gear to keep these two groups apart. The right-wing group came to protest what they see as campus' overly liberal ideology⁷. Their leader is a guy named Joey Gibson. And just a few minutes in he's nursing a bleeding eyebrow⁸.

JOEY GIBSON: You know what you get in these hardcore liberal areas? They threw a can, hit me right in the face.

SIEGLER: Gibson is talking about a large group of leftist protesters often called antifas, short for anti-fascists. They wear black and hide their faces. And they never give their names, especially when my colleague, Martin Kaste, asks why they're carrying sticks.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Can I ask what the sticks are for?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2 AND UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: No.

KASTE: I can't ask what the sticks are for.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: I mean, you can, but I'm not going to tell you.

KASTE: OK.

SIEGLER: The antifas say they're here to counter what they see as the right's violence and creeping fascism. This masked student gives his name as Felix. He says given the current political situation violence is to be expected.

FELIX: You know, people are desperate, and they see the government turning back into the aggressive Reaganomics and racist⁹ undertones and rhetoric¹⁰. So once they start kicking, like, you know, 25 million people off the health care then you're going to start seeing riots.

SIEGLER: The idea that some on the far left are openly condoning¹¹ violence is a red flag for extremist group monitors like J.J. MacNab. She says the clashes between antifas and far-right protesters on the West Coast are increasingly volatile¹².

J J MACNAB: This is a dangerous game. People are going to die. No one's died yet, but it's just a matter of time.

SIEGLER: Antifa's membership appears to be growing beyond its traditional West Coast base while also embracing other leftist ideas beyond just fighting white supremacists. MacNab says white supremacists are widely condemned¹³ - and deservedly - for their violent tendencies. But she worries antifa is getting a pass with violence just because they're attacking racists.

MACNAB: Attack them with words. Don't come in with sticks with nails in them.

SIEGLER: On the far right, activists¹⁴ are trying to exploit the idea that groups on the far left like antifa are the ones inciting¹⁵ the violence.

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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler.

SIEGLER: This online video was produced by the National Rifle Association.

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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: To smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully¹⁶ and terrorize the law-abiding.

SIEGLER: The actual data tell a much different story. Mark Pitcavage tracks domestic extremism for the Anti-Defamation League.

MARK PITCAVAGE: The far left is very active in the United States, but it hasn't been particularly violent for some time.

SIEGLER: According to the league's data, in the past 10 years 2 percent of all murders associated with extremist ideology came from the left. Seventy-four percent came from the extreme right, including the mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina, last month's deadly stabbings on a Portland commuter¹⁷ train. Pitcavage says you have to go back to the 1970s to see a real cycle of deadly violence from the left.

PITCAVAGE: But because of the controversial nature of the Trump presidency¹⁸ and some of the things that have occurred over the past six months there legitimately¹⁹ is a chance that we could see more violence from the left. And, you know, that should concern everybody.

SIEGLER: Domestic terrorism experts say that concern is only heightened by the fact that in the current polarized country what's considered mainstream²⁰ and what's considered fringe is getting more blurry²¹. Kirk Siegler, NPR News.