by ButterflyEffect

Some historical context of the term "outside agitator":

"I want to be very, very clear: The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), whose city is the epicenter of the protest, said Saturday. “They are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything we have built over the last several decades.”

"Every single person we arrested last night, I’m told, was from out of state," St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III (D) said, "What we are seeing right now is a group of people who are not from here."

Their comments were echoed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), who said, "about 20 percent are Minnesotans, and 80 percent are outside."

Arrest records tell a very different story. Investigative reporter Brandon Stahl reviewed 69 arrest records from Minneapolis-based police "for rioting, unlawful assembly and burglary-related crimes from Friday to Saturday." Of those, 56 were from Minnesota, and five were "unknown." There were just eight arrests of people from other states. In St. Paul, 12 of the 18 arrests were Minnesota residents. A city spokesman acknowledged his error and said the mayor "went with the information he had at the time."