Latest update: December 29, 2022
Original post: July 1, 2020
Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 by Minneapolis police and the resulting waves of protests nationwide, tPP has fielded many requests to help provide a count of resulting felony cases. The early summer protests, riots, and sporadic uprisings resulted in over 10,000 arrests nationwide. The FBI later expanded that number to more than 13,600 (as of June 6, 2020). We have spoken with journalists, academic researchers, attorneys, community and prisoner support organizations, and many others.
tPP is focused on tracking felony cases of socio-political crime and violence, so many of these arrests likely fall within our project’s inclusion criteria. tPP tracks all types of ideological motives to study political violence. In this case, while the majority of cases are of demonstrators, some represent violence directed at demonstrators, or seemingly unrelated crimes described by State authorities (e.g., the DOJ, ATF) as ‘protest-related.’ Some of these cases will likely be excluded from our data set, but while they develop, we will continue to follow them. For example, we are including several federal cases where defendants are charged with only misdemeanors. Although this will disqualify them for later inclusion in the tPP dataset, we are including them to currently to assist those trying to track federal prosecutions.
Some have asked, ‘Why does the data set contain far-right crimes mixed in with those from demonstrators?’ Simply put, we seek to track all manners of political violence, regardless of ideology. Cases are eventually measured and coded on the basis of a defendants’ motive, ideology, etc., but in establishing these cases for preliminary tracking, we are simply asserting that the crimes have:
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- a.) a socio-political motive, and/or,
- b.) the federal government has labeled the crime ‘protest-related,’ ‘related to the civil disturbance,’ ‘riot cases, (see below)’ or through the use of other language which links the crime to the protests.
Many of these cases were sourced from a series of releases provided by the DOJ and made available to tPP. Cases which qualify for inclusion will be evaluated by coding teams and completed for 50 variables, but in the mean time, we are sharing a partial data table of the federal arrests we are tracking. In December 2020, tPP began adding non-federal cases related to the Summer-Fall protests as well.
You can view and download the data here
This information is free to use but please credit the Prosecution Project | tPP Twitter.
Note: Some cases remain sealed and all are developing, and as a consequence, some early coding may change when final court documents are reviewed. We will continue to update this list as information becomes available. This data is incomplete but provided for others to build upon.
If you have further questions about the data, or would like more information on the cases, their inclusion criteria, etc., get in touch.
45 thoughts on “Tracking federal and non-federal cases related to Summer-Fall protests, riots, & uprisings”
I am curious to know how many repeat offenders occurred due to bailouts / fail to prosecute / released. Etc. Failure to prosecute facilitates further crime.
Duh! Don’t ALL repeat offenses occur due to failure to prosecute the first time?!? 😉
No. You know they are repeat offenses because they were previously prosecuted for the same type offenses.
“Duh.”
If they are repeat offenders it means that they were arrested and convicted.
What is with the ‘Duh’.
I guess things are hard for you to understand.
Not necessarily. They could have been serving a term in jail or prison and gotten released, either from serving the whole sentence (rarely seen) or released on bail (most common type of release). We are too easy on the violent offenders the first time. As someone who has followed violent crimes for several decades, from crime scene to verdict, as well as being a former juror, I have seen the best and the worst of our system. I was a juror on an “assault on a peace officer” case a few months after the Rodney King verdict, and it was also in Los Angeles county. I was also called for grand jury service which has a whole other type of process than a regular jury. Unfortunately, they make it almost impossible to service because of the distance they are from many courts. I was supposed to go from N. Santa Barbara county to LA county for 2-1/2 mos. It is hard enough to get people to serve for variety of reasons and they make it even harder to participate in a really great and important legal process. As a grand juror, we would have the ability to call on witness and question them. It is an investigation to see if there is enough evidence to bring charges to someone or group. I hope I get to do that some day. I wish you and your loved ones, peace, joy, happiness, good health, and most of all, Love.
Yes, that’s why Donald Trump will try to overthrow our country again. Why all the crooks that he pardoned will do it again.
I’m glad you’re paying attention.
No they do not. A lot do but not all
All of them. If you’re a demonrat you get away with it and the VP will bail you out. But if you’re a republican you’re going under the jail.
bull
Have you included the Capitol riots in your data?
Yes.https://theprosecutionproject.org/january-6th-capital-protests/
That’s prob the 367 federal case they’re taking about cause idk if any they indicted participating in the Antifa and BLM overthrow of our country
I very simple google search produces a DOJ statement last September (I think that was before the Capital riots?) that states 300 people were charged with Federal crimes. This fact, coupled with the statement that “Antifa and BLM overthrow of the country” (what were they doing to “overthrow” the country?) shows that many people don’t bother to live in a world of facts. What they assume has become fact.
this is a stupid opinion. They were obviously trying to overthrow law & order and were malicious in their attacks. How were they not trying to overthrow the state of our current society? Isn’t that in their mantra? To destroy and disrupt traditional western society as well as instill a new socialist regime? Don’t most BLM leaders profess to be “trained Marxists”? Do you believe that the January 6th “riot” was enacted with the intent to overthrow the government? If so, you have no legs to stand on here & should probably reassess as to whether or not YOU live in a world of facts. What a good little minion you are though for parroting Pelosi & Kamala La Mala’s talking points.
They were trying to end murders committed under color of law. Your attempt to broad-brush hundreds of thousands of sincere, lawful protesters with the stain of seeking to overthrow the government is based in ignorance, perhaps. Read more. Suppose less.
Trump is trying to overthrow our democratic republic.
Yeah right. Mr Bullhorns overthrowing the government.
Absolutely the January 6th “INSURRECTION” was intended to overthrow our government. They disrupted the Peaceful transfer of power, in the hopes of “PREVENTING” the transfer of power. If you actually watch other news forums instead of just conservative media and Tucker Carlson (who lies about everything and just spews hate and conspiracy theories and never speaks on facts but on opinion to distort reality) you will see all the “FACTS” coming to light about how Trump was doing everything in his power to remain in power. Lying about the election being stolen for months even before the election itself. It’s laughable that anyone still believes that this was not an insurrection to overthrow the election. Hell, Trump himself has stated that he was trying to overthrow the election. But of course the right wants to deflect and discuss protests of BLM against police brutality and the killings of 100’s of POC by police, in hopes of laws to prevent police brutality, and compare it to Jan. 6th White Supremacists, Neo-Nazi’s and Anti Government Malitias. It’s disgusting that those are the ones Trump considers Patriots. It shows blatant racism against BLM. Remember when he passed a law that anyone who violated Federal property should be given 10 years in Federal Prison. Yet, here you have all those Insurrectionists who violated our countries CAPITAL building and defiled it and vandalized it and yet he is calling to pardon those lunatics. You have no leg to stand on if you are living in the cult world of Trump conservatism. Fox and other Conservative News media are hiding all the FACTS of that day and only showing what they want you to believe. Tucker Carlson wants to say it was Antifa, BLM, the Feds, if that was the case, why is Trump and Marjorie and other Republicans fighting to pardon them etc. You know they would never stand up for anyone in the BLM protests that were arrested while peacefully protesting. You need to assess whether you live in a world of facts when Trump at every turn was trying to steal this election and the TRUTH has been coming out for months but Fox will not show any of it. Just like Fox doesn’t show all the video footage of how violent it was. They want you to think it was peaceful and people were walking orderly like a tourist visit. Treason, Sedition, Insurrection. All involved should be removed immediately and banned from ever running for office ever. America is a DEMOCRACY, if you want authoritarianism or a dictatorship, you should move to Russia or North Korea.
What did Trump do to overthrow the government. Sure would like to see that!!!!!
I think Cody is referring to the attacks on innocent people to suppress their willingness to voice there concerns with the direction that Democrats were taking the country. ANTIFA is the opposite of what they claim they are authoritarian and seek to suppress free speech. The Nazi Brown Shirts did the same thing they would beat people up in a bar if they heard them saying anything bad about the Nazi Party. ANTIFA were frequently videoed beating senior citizens who had done nothing at all to provoke it.
And, yeah, the first word of my reply should be “A” not “I”. Not sure what happened there.
how were those riots going to overthrow the government ahahaha Lol
Antifa BLM were not attempts to overthrow the Goverment the Jan 6 insurrection was
I want to know how many actually are charged and if it’s more than a misdemeanor.
You can get this information by downloading the CSV file as it lists all federal and non-federal cases were currently tracking and the charges.
Read the article then. They show how many were indicted.
So do I. I can’t find the answer. I want to know how many served time. And if any where held in jail without bail. I’m so sick of the double standard.
I was under the impression that these prosecutions were to be handled by whatever jurisdiction in which they occurred. Where was the Jan. 6 riot?
While some cases began in other jurisdictions, most are being prosecuted by the District Court in DC.
The spreadsheet does not seem to include the final sentence. Knowing if a convicted person serves one month of probation or ten years in prison is important in determining if justice was served.
The vast majority of cases have not reached the sentencing stage. The sheet is being updated as cases are negotiated, pled, and sentenced. We will continue to issue updates until all cases are completed.
The motivations for the different activities were completely differrent while violence is never justified the protest by Atifa and BLM were definately justified . the Jan 6 insurrection had no justification whatsoever.
WHAT?!? You do not believe that Jan 6, 2021, was the WORST threat to our Democracy and Liberty EVER?!? That the people inside would certify a FRAUDULENT ELECTION?!? The people outside were – just trying to prevent that…
Yes the FBI had over 80 agents encouraging. The Capitol police also removed barriers and invited people in. The plan was to characterize it as a threat and call it an insurrection to cover for the fact that the had illegally changed the voting so much that they were able to get a demented idiot who hid from the public elected. The FBI did numerous things because they had illegally surveilled Donald Trump and didn’t want him to win with a Republican Congress. That’s why they lied to media outlets to sensor the Laptop story. Donald Trump is a very clean guy. He has been investigated to the point I would call it torcher and lied about by people who should be in Jail for multiple offenses for example Joe Biden and his family should be indicted for numerous schemes of influence pedaling and selling out our country.
I have a request, Michael. Would it be possible to maintain a running tally of the total number of arrests made for the riots along with the tracking of the number of those people who’ve had their charges dismissed without any punishment or even prosecution at all? In other words, a person who pleads out but doesn’t even get community service or ankle monitoring wasn’t held truly accountable, and would be in the same category as someone whose charges were dropped completely.
Given the number of cases the team is tracking (as the Capitol is only a small part of what we’re doing), I don’t see us being able to host another measure of the same data. That being said, we are making more frequent updates to our public-facing data and continue to code the not-for-release data daily. Also, since the data we release is standardized, individuals can use it to provide additional means of tracking. As we said, we offer this material for others to build upon.
Wasn’t J6 the biggest massacre of unarmed protesters in US since Kent State in 1970? Four died: Ashli Babbitt,, Rosanne Boyland, Benjamin Phillips and Kevin Greeson. The last two were the initial deaths and happened when cops recklessly fired destructive devices deep into the crowd. IN FRONT of the Capitol. A crowd gathered in front of the Capitol doesn’t seem like a threat to the Holy Sacred Temple of Democracy requiring lethal force. There are videos showing Rosanne Boyland being trampled in the Capitol Tunnel as the cops advanced into the crowd and then being beaten in the head repeatedly by a woman cop while lying unconscious on the ground. . Seems more likely she died of blunt force trauma than due to the medication she took daily according to the pathologist. See tayler hansen substack for the relevant videos and commentary.