The Department of Homeland Security warned during the height of protests nationwide that there was a “high risk” of premeditated and random attacks against law enforcement officers and that “violent opportunists” would exploit lawful protests to target law enforcement operations, according to several DHS documents.
The warnings came between May 30 and June 2 — as protests in Minneapolis turned violent, forcing police to abandon a precinct, and as violent protests began to spread to Washington, D.C., and across the country. Amidst the warnings, President Trump activated the National Guard in Washington, D.C. and put active-duty troops to standby to protect the capitol — which his critics argue was a heavy-handed response.
However, the documents — which were DHS Intelligence Notes marked “unclassified” and “for official use only” and posted on Public Intelligence — documented violent opportunists around the country targeting law enforcement officers with firearms, bricks, Molotov Cocktails, bottles, rocks, fireworks, gasoline, laser pointers, burning wheeled dumpsters, and other weapons.
On May 30, 2020, DHS assessed that “initial violent looters and protestors were believed to be organic members of the local communities,” but that “domestic violent extremists are attempting to structure the protests to target specific symbols of state, local, and federal authority.” The day before, federal officer Patrick Underwood had been killed defending a courthouse in Oakland, California. The DHS noted:
We anticipate armed individuals will continue to infiltrate the protests movement. We further assess protest activities following incidents involving law enforcement’s use of lethal force pose a high risk of escalating to both premeditated and random attacks targeting law enforcement officers nationwide.
The next day, rioters in D.C., injured more than 50 Secret Service agents protecting the White House, injured five National Guard members, and set fire to a historic church just a block away, in addition to burning an AFL-CIO building and defacing national monuments.
On June 1, 2020, DHS assessed that “violent opportunists will continue to exploit ongoing nationwide protests as a pretext to attempt to disrupt law enforcement operations; target law enforcement personnel, assets, and facilities; and damage public and private property.”
DHS also noted that “well-coordinated groups had potentially compromised law enforcement radio communications” in Oregon and Minnesota, and “suspected anarchist extremists in Louisville, Kentucky, had cached weapons and supplies throughout the city prior to engaging in violent acts.”
“Items included baseball bats, water, milk (likely as a means to counteract the effects of tear gas), and other medical supplies,” the DHS note said.
That same day, Trump urged governors to get a handle on the violence in their states, which left a man in Dallas nearly beaten to death, small businesses destroyed, police officers hit in the face with bricks, and a Minneapolis police precinct overrun.
“We cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob,” he said. “These are not acts of peaceful protest. These are acts of domestic terror.”
On June 2, 2020, DHS assessed that “some violent opportunists have become more emboldened following a series of attacks against law enforcement during the last 24 hours nationwide.” They said:
This could lead to an increase in potentially lethal engagements with law enforcement officials as violent opportunists increasingly infiltrate ongoing protest activity. We also have received an increase in reports on shots fired during lawful protests nationwide — an indicator we associate with the potential for increased violence moving forward.
DHS noted that an officer was shot in the head the night before in Las Vegas by an individual walking alone, and that the officer was in critical condition.
It also warned that one indicator of violent opportunists’ plans to support attacks on law enforcement was the discovery of “materials used to employ ‘Black Bloc’ tactics for concealing identity.” “Black Bloc” tactics are taught in Antifa meetings and classes, according to a Project Veritas Undercover Journalist.
The documents do not mention “Antifa” explicitly, but warned of “anarchist extremists” and “violent opportunists.”
One note said:
DHS defines anarchist extremists as groups or individuals who facilitate or engage in acts of unlawful violence as a means of changing the government and society in support of the belief that all forms of capitalism and corporate globalization should be opposed and that governing institutions are unnecessary and harmful to society.
It also described “violent opportunists” as “illicit actors who may or may not hold violent extremist ideological beliefs, but seek to exploit opportunities in non-violent protests to engage in unlawful violence against federal, state, or local government and law enforcement personnel or facilities.”
On June 10, Rose City Antifa made clear its antipathy toward law enforcement in a Facebook page post:
We are opposed to the police, a violent institution of the white supremacist state founded with the explicit intent of patrolling enslaved African people, and today continues to target, harm, and murder Black people, POC, poor people, and other oppressed groups. We stand in solidarity with all those who call for the defunding, disarming, and complete abolition of the police and prison systems. As antifascists we know that our fight is not just against organized fascism, but also against the capitalist state, and the police that protect it. Another world is possible!
Justice for Breonna Taylor and all victims of police terror: Abolish police now!
Rioters have now overrun a police precinct in Seattle, Washington, and declared it an “autonomous zone.”
Breitbart News reached out to DHS several times to confirm the authenticity of the documents, but did not receive a response by deadline. Two sources associated with the DHS confirmed they were legitimate.
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