"Pandemic-weary Americans were already angry — about COVID-19 deaths, lockdown orders and tens of millions of people out of work."

"The pandemic has hit African Americans harder than whites in the U.S., and the killings of black people by police have continued over the years even as the topic faded from the national stage. But there are signs of people with other disparate motives, including anarchist graffiti, arrests of some out-of-state protesters, and images circulating in extremist groups that suggest the involvement of outside groups.... President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Bar and others have said the left-wing extremist group antifa is to blame.... An antifa activist group disseminated a message in a Telegram channel on Saturday that encouraged people to consider Minnesota National Guard troops 'easy targets,' two Defense Department officials said. The message encouraged activists to steal 'kit,' meaning the weapons and body armor used by the soldiers.... Others have seen evidence of right-wing extremists. J.J. MacNab, a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, has been monitoring chatter about the protests among anti-government extremists on social media platforms. She has access to dozens of private Facebook groups for followers of the loosely organized 'Boogaloo' movement, which uses an ’80s movie sequel as a code word for a second civil war. She also has been poring over images from the weekend protests and spotted some 'boogaloo bois' in the crowds, carrying high-powered rifles and wearing tactical gear. 'They want to co-opt them in order to start their war. They see themselves as being on the side of protesters and that the protesters themselves are useful in causing anarchy,' MacNab said. She also sees signs that the Three Percenters militia movement appears to be taking an interest. Megan Squire, an Elon University computer science professor who tracks online extremism, saw images of at least four members of the far-right Proud Boys group on the periphery of a protest Saturday night in Raleigh, North Carolina...."

From "Officials See Extremist Groups, Disinformation in Protests" (AP/NYT).