Organized agitators have infiltrated multiple Iowa protests in the past week, inciting violence in connection with what were intended to be peaceful demonstrations, protest organizers, …
Organized agitators have infiltrated multiple Iowa protests in the past week, inciting violence in connection with what were intended to be peaceful demonstrations, protest organizers, police and city officials say.
There have been clashes with police in Des Moines, Waterloo, Coralville and Sioux City. Two people were shot and killed Sunday during a protest in Davenport, and two other people were wounded, including a police officer ambushed while driving in an alley early Monday morning.
Police have not identified the groups they believe to be inciting the violence in Iowa. But they say they have seen similar tactics at multiple events that have occurred in the state since the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African-American man who pleaded that he couldn’t breathe while a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck. The officer was fired and has been charged with third-degree murder.
Some of the disorder appears to be connected to anonymous posts on social media. Last week, for example, the Des Moines Register identified posts urging people to “hit” the Target at Des Moines’ Merle Hay Mall, claiming it was somehow complicit in the death of a black teenager who was last seen alive leaving his job there in January, and whose body was later found in the Des Moines River. A demonstration that started in the parking lot of the store Sunday night gave way to vandalism, looting and clashes with police.
In another post, a person using the Facebook handle “Get Gwop Steveo” called for violence, including setting a police station on fire, about six hours before the Davenport shootings. The chat string proposed gathering at a shopping center parking lot in that city, where violence later broke out.
Devell Carl Lewis, one of six people arrested in an alleged ambush shooting that wounded a Davenport police officer early Monday, had shared the Facebook post around 5:15 p.m. Sunday — about five hours before police say the violence began outside NorthPark Mall and a Walmart.
“The incidents of this last night were not about promoting justice and they were not about honoring the memory of George Floyd,” Davenport Mayor Mike Matson said during a news conference Monday. “Instead, they were intended to create chaos and purposely inflict damage throughout our community.”
Des Moines police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek and two Des Moines civil rights activists who have tried to lead peaceful protests in recent days — state Rep. Ako-Abdul Samad and Calvetta Williams — described scenarios in which groups of people strategically park vehicles loaded with riot supplies, including backpacks full of rocks or bottles and masks, near the sites of demonstrations.
They said members of the groups move briefly to the front of crowds and stir emotion with incendiary chants before some throw objects such as rocks.
