As America was gripped by nationwide protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, a curious post began to spread online in the country’s north-west.
“There is a tonne of these Mercedes transport vans with European license plates headed to Spokane right not. WTF is going on?” the Facebook post said.
“Call police,” someone replied.
The post about the mysterious vans came after a night of looting by a small number of protesters in the city of Spokane, Washington.
A Nike store was ransacked, the windows at the local bank were shattered and several small businesses were vandalised.
But Spokane officials claimed that rather than locals, outside agitators were responsible for the violence and theft.
“This is not our African-American community. This is a group of Antifa socialists who have hijacked this movement — and it’s sad,” Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told local media.
The Sherriff’s accusation came on the same day US President Donald Trump blamed Antifa — an umbrella term for loosely defined far-left groups — for inciting violence during demonstrations.
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The FBI says there is no evidence the protest movement was hijacked by Antifa or any other “extremist” group.
Later, Spokane Police tried to walk back the Sherriff’s comments, acknowledging the looters were mostly “homegrown”.
But it was too late.
Terror spread across state lines
Fifty kilometres across the state border in the Idaho city of Coeur d’Alene, rumours of a potential Antifa invasion began to swirl.
The picturesque lakeside community sits on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and has a population of just over 50,000.
Images of smashed windows and burning buildings during protests were covered extensively by US media and shared widely among those living in regional areas like Coeur d’Alene.
