'They gonna blame that on us': Videos show white protesters smashing windows and defacing stores as black protesters tell them they're endangering black lives

• As rallies opposing police brutality surge across the US, some demonstrators have defaced or destroyed property.
• In some of the videos circulating on social media, white people vandalize property or threaten to loot stores.
• In those video clips, black protesters can be seen objecting to their protest methods — saying it could endanger black lives if the police intervened.

Thousands of people across the US have flooded the streets to protest police violence in the wake of George Floyd's death.

But as protesters confront police brutality, some are concerned that some white protesters are being needlessly aggressive — and putting their black and brown peers in danger.

In several videos circulating on social media, white protesters deface or destroy property as black people tell them to stop. And they're revealing some of the tension between the factions of people taking to the streets.

'They gonna blame that on us'

One video shows a white woman defacing a Starbucks store, writing "Black Lives Matter" with spray paint.

A black woman filmed the incident, telling the white woman to stop.

"This is not a black woman who's putting 'Black Lives Matter,'" she tells viewers. "I just want you to know that ... y'all doing that for us and we didn't ask you to do that."

"Don't spray stuff on here when they gonna blame black people for this," she says. "They gonna blame that on us."

As violence and looting continue alongside the mostly peaceful protests across the US, some figures are blaming shadowy forces.

President Donald Trump has blamed some of the protests on antifa, an umbrella term for anti-fascists, and has sought to designate it as a domestic terrorist group even though US law doesn't allow for such designations. Attorney General William Barr has also blamed antifa and "groups of outside radicals and agitators" for "riots" at protests. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism head, John Miller, have also blamed violent incidents on outside agitators crossing state lines.

There is scant evidence that extremism at protests is being fueled by outside agitators. But that hasn't stopped some people from using videos to spread conspiracy theories.

Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin, a journalist at the right-wing publication Washington Examiner, reposted a video purportedly depicting "Paid #Antifa thugs" vandalizing the store — even though there is no evidence to suggest that the vandals were members of the movement. And Trump posted a video of a white protest organizer among a group of black protesters with the caption "Anarchists, we see you!"

Other videos circulating on social media show similar scenes to the vandalization of the Starbucks store, with white protesters appearing to act in opposition to the wishes of black protesters. In a video in Oakland, California, a crowd of people who appear to be mostly white smash the windows of a restaurant as a black woman with a megaphone pleads for them to stop.

In yet another video, a white protester in Baltimore appears to push into a metal barrier with police officers on the other side. A black woman tells him to stop.

"When you do that," she tells him, "they don't come after you. They come after us."

Moments later, at the same scene, a group of black protesters carried away a white protester reportedly "trying to riot."

In yet another video, in Minneapolis, white protesters can be seen throwing bricks into the windows of a building.

"Hold on, I'm trying to calm them down," a black protester tells the police offers aiming at them with guns.

In Brooklyn, New York, an additional video shows a similar scene. As some protesters tried to breach a Target store, black protesters formed a line in front of the entrance.

They could be heard yelling, "No! No! No!"

In another video in Brooklyn, a group of black protesters stopped a white protester from smashing bits of a sidewalk with a hammer and handed him over to the police.

Protesters don't all agree on tactics

But other social-media users, including many who were black, did not strongly disavow looting or the destruction of property. If the police don't value black lives they say, then why value a building or a handbag?

"Do I condone violence or looting? No, but I understand it," Karen Smith, a Twitter user, said. "We have been fighting this battle for so long and honestly it is exhausting."

A man named Juan, also on Twitter, agreed with Smith.

"Do I condone the looting and stealing of the mall stores and innocent businesses? No," he said.

"But im happy for THE PEOPLE, because they decided to stand up violently and why? Because MLK once said 'A Riot is the language of the Unheard.'"

"When people feel helpless, like there is nothing left to lose, like their lives already hang in the balance, a wild, swirling, undirected rage is a logical result," the New York Times columnist Charles Blow said. "You destroy people's prospects, they'll destroy your property."

• Read more:
• People are urging influencers and celebrities to support Black Lives Matter online or stop posting entirely
• George Floyd's death was 'caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression,' an independent autopsy found
• Thousands across the UK, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and Canada condemn racism and demand justice at global Black Lives Matter protests
• Nearly 60% of people left unconscious from neck restraints used by Minneapolis police officers were black, report finds