The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says there were a hundred days of violence and destruction in cities across the country this past summer in response to the police killing of George Floyd. A study from the University of Connecticut found that perception is false.
Jeremy Pressman heads the Crowd Counting Consortium at UConn that collects publicly available data on demonstrations.
The study found there were more than 7,000 separate Black Lives Matter anti-racism events across the country in May and June. Ninety six percent of them had no property damage, and 98% had no injuries reported.
He says this year’s racial justice demonstrations were the most widespread in U.S. history--and there was little or no violence at most of them.
“What we found demonstrates that the protests are more peaceful," Pressman says, "[they] have been more peaceful during that time period than people often give them credit for, or talk about."
