officials have blamed so-called outside agitators for stoking unrest as nationwide demonstrations against police violence have ruptured America this week, and experts say those claims echo a decades-old tactic to dismiss and delegitimize protests.

The protests started in Minnesota where George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Lawmakers in other states have also made similar claims about protests in their jurisdictions, including New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, whose daughter was arrested for protesting. .

"It's not beyond the pale for any of us to assume that this (outside agitators) could be a factor in the violence," said Yohuru Williams, dean of the College of Art and Sciences at the University of St.

"In a lot of communities, southern sheriffs and politicians would raise the spectre of outside agitators to deflect from the legitimate concerns of local activists," he said.

CT, 544 people had been arrested in the county in relation to the protests.

A total of 77 people arrested were from outside Minnesota, and 21 were listed as unknown.

The trope of outside activists instigating protests makes it easier for governments to respond to protests with heavy-handed tactics, says Heidi Matthews, an assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and co-director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University.

In Canada, the myth of the outsider who agitates has come up in connection with Indigenous protests, and in China, it has been cited in connection with protesters from the Uighur ethnic minority, Matthews said.

When looking at protests, it's a valid question to ask who is present and where they're from, she said.

1, and then 2., who actually have a different sort of political commitment or goal in being involved in the protests than local organizers or activists might have," said Matthews.

But the suggestion that it's not legitimate for people from outside of the nearby area to participate in protests ignores the nature of protests and why people are angry, she said.

Matthews said it's not uncommon for protest movements organize beyond just local areas

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