When CNN host Erin Burnett (OutFront, 9/22/16) interviewed Todd Walther, a spokesperson for the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police, Walther made the provocative claim that 70 percent of those arrested protesting the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott were from outside of Charlotte:

If you go back and look at some of the arrests that were made last night, I can about say probably 70 percent of those had out-of-state IDs. They’re not coming from Charlotte.

This figure was not challenged by Burnett, and was later even tweeted out by the CNN host:

Charlotte police sergeant tells me 70% of ppl arrested last night had out of state ID: “these are not protestors, these are criminals” — Erin Burnett (@ErinBurnett) September 22, 2016

So far it’s been retweeted over 4,000 times, and has served as a source for several right-wing and far-right media outlets, often backing up a trope that Black Charlotte/Mecklenburg Lives Matter is a mercenary goon squad directed by George Soros and the Democrats:

Who Is Behind The Riots? Charlotte Police Says 70% of Arrested Protesters Had Out-of-State IDs ( Zero Hedge , 9/22/16)

( , 9/22/16) Charlotte/Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police Spox: 70% of Arrested Rioters Have Out-of-State IDs ( Breitbart , 9/22/16)

( , 9/22/16) Charlotte Cop Offers Proof That Riot ‘Instigators’ Aren’t Local: 70% of Arrested Had Out-of-State IDs ( IJR , 9/22/16)

( , 9/22/16) Who’s Behind the Charlotte Riots? Police Say 70% of Arrests Are From Out of State Being Bussed In ( Free Thought Project , 9/23/16)

( , 9/23/16) Charlotte Police: 70% of Rioters Arrested Are Out-of-State “Instigators” (Fox News, 9/23/16)

Popular Fox News host Charles Payne cited the figure when calling for a “database and new punishment for these traveling criminal marauders”:

Reports 70% of arrested protesters in Charlotte had out of state ID

Need database and new punishment for these travelling criminal marauders — Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) September 23, 2016

This case offers a perfect example of why uncritically allowing police union officials to make unsourced assertions on national TV, and then repeating them as facts, is not a good idea.

First, it’s important to note that Burnett even muffs her sourcing; by citing a “Charlotte police sergeant,” she ignores the fact that he’s a union representative, and that union representatives are not operating in their capacity as police officers or spokespeople for the department. By conflating the two, she treated what was effectively advocacy on behalf of an individual officer as an official statement by a police department; while police departments are of course capable of being deceptive themselves, they are at least in theory accountable to a city council and mayor.

The claim, it turns out, is also wildly incorrect. The Charlotte Observer (9/23/16), a local newspaper, engaged in actual journalism by reviewing police records of those detained during Wednesday’s unrest. It found that roughly 21 percent of arrestees were from outside of Charlotte, most of whom were from nearby areas:

Of the 43 people arrested late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, 34—or 79 percent—live in Charlotte, the Observer found. Most of the others live elsewhere in North Carolina, including Albemarle, Gastonia and Greensboro. Three others were arrested Thursday night; of those, two were from Charlotte and the third had not been identified by mid-afternoon Friday…. “I didn’t quote facts,” Todd Walther, spokesman for the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police told the Observer on Friday. “It’s speculation. That’s all it was.”

In other words, he simply made it up. And Burnett, if she had any sense of history, should have known better. Setting aside the fact that as a rule, police shouldn’t be allowed to assert self-serving figures without follow-up questioning, the “outside agitator” line is a very common trope used by police and anti-protest pundits for decades. The objective is to treat unrest as a foreign invasion unconnected to organic, populist anger at the local government and police force. Indeed, it was routinely used by Jim Clark, the infamous sheriff of Clark County, Alabama, who in 1965 accused the Selma marchers of being mostly “agitators,” and 75 percent “pro-communist” or communist themselves:

#TBT 1965: Sheriff Jim Clark of Alabama talks about MLK’s marches, “outside agitators,” & the large communist presence at protests. pic.twitter.com/E3uqUJ82aT — Ash J (@AshAgony) September 23, 2016

The irony of the “outside agitator” cliche is that it applies more to the police, who often don’t live in the neighborhoods they ostensibly protect. As AlterNet’s Max Blumenthal noted after the Baltimore unrest in April 2015, over 70 percent of the Baltimore Police Department did not live in Baltimore—making the the police more “outside” than the protestors.

Burnett tweeted out a semi-correction late Friday evening, but only because the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Police officially confirmed the totals after the Charlotte Observer called them on the police union lie. But the damage has already gone viral on right-wing media, cementing an old smear of civil rights activists as brand-new conventional wisdom.

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamJohnsonNYC.

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