SOUTHERN OREGON — Unsubstantiated social media rumors are flying around the country, of out-of-town agitators disturbing peaceful protests and inciting riots.
Locally, dozens of residents took up arms, prepared to defend businesses, from Medford and Grants Pass to Klamath Falls and Coquille. But police say they don’t believe any busses of troublemakers ever came.
“That’s something that we don’t make light of,” Medford Police Chief Scott Clauson said.
Chief Clauson says they couldn’t find anything substantial to back up the claims.
“That was rumor. I had been hearing the same thing since Friday,” Chief Clauson said.
The department’s tactical information analysts comb through any tips from social media or anything in the rumor mill.
“Have yet to have a credible witness that buses brought anyone in,” Chief Clauson said.
With no substantial evidence, Medford police didn’t release anything to the public about the rumors.
“We didn’t want to fan the fire for something that we really didn’t have any credible information on,” Chief Clauson said.
While most law enforcement kept the unsubstantiated rumors in house, a few took a different approach and went public.
Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel released a statement to the community Monday, regarding the death of George Floyd and planned protests in town. In it he wrote, “Outsiders threatened to come to Josephine County in preparation of rioting. The threat spread fear and panic throughout our great county, but we responded. Law enforcement increased its presence. We stood side by side with our citizens and took a stand. ‘not here, not now.'”
The Coos County Sheriff’s Office also released a statement saying, “There are certain organizations that may attempt to use the peaceful protest as a cover to conduct unlawful and dangerous activities, that would threaten the community and public property.”
The Curry County Sheriff’s Office also got into the rumors, while admitting it had no idea if they were true. The agency posted to Facebook, “I don’t know if the rumors are true or not just yet but I got information about 3 buss loads of ANTIFA protestors are making their way from Douglas County headed for Coquille then to Coos Bay. I was told they are looking for a fight.”
With mostly peaceful protests in Southern Oregon, Chief Clauson says the rumors so far seem be exactly that: rumors.
“There were no reported incidents of damage. There was no damage to businesses, so no looting took place,” Chief Clauson said.
In larger cities, where there was violence, there were more rumors that ‘out-of-towners’ were the ones escalating riots. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler also said he heard that about the activity in Portland. But according to NBC affiliate KGW, available court records in Portland show the majority of people arrested during the protests were from the Portland-Metro area.
Oregon isn’t alone. Nationally, similar rumors spread. Minnesota’s governor said 80% of protesters were ‘out-of-state agitators.’ He’s since taken that statement back.
Fake social media accounts claiming to be Antifa spread rumors across the country, according to NBC News. Twitter says some of the posts were created by white nationalist groups.
“There’s a lot of emotion and passion behind this whole situation,” Chief Clauson said.
Chief Clauson says rumors are bound to gain traction with so much fear and frustration in the air.
“The death of George Floyd is bad enough in of itself and then when you have cities being destroyed around our nation, that causes a lot of concern, panic, people are worried,” Chief Clauson said.
Grants Pass Department of Public Safety didn’t respond to our interview requests, but told the Daily Courier, Medford police told the agency about the rumored threats and then it was passed along to the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Daniel denied our interview request.
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