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trumptweet :

So pathetic to watch the Fake News Lamestream Media playing down the gravity and depravity of the Radical Left, looters and thugs, ripping up our Liberal Democrat run (only) cities. It is almost like they are all working together?

Not being an American, I am unsure what "Liberal Democrat run cities" are. I will guess those having a Democrat mayor, but am willing to be corrected.

Irrespective of your politics and whether you call them protests or riots, are there currently "large street gatherings" only in Democrat run (only) cities?

[Update] I have found These are all the cities where protests and riots have erupted over George Floyd’s death, but don't know whether all/any of them are "Liberal Democrat run cities".

Mawg says reinstate Monica
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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/108931/discussion-on-question-by-mawg-says-reinstate-monica-is-there-currently-riots-lo). – Jamiec Jun 05 '20 at 10:06

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No.

Cities are generally democrat-leaning - 35 with democratic mayors vs 13 republican in the 50 largest cities.

But cities with republican mayors also had protests which resulted in property damage. An incomplete list of examples:

tim
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    Most cities have councils or commissions in addition to mayors, though. Going strictly by the party of the mayor seems a bit misleading. That would be kind of like saying Massachusetts is Republican-run because the Governor is currently a Republican, even though Massachusetts is one of the bluest states in the country and their State Senate is 34-4-2 D-R-I and their House is 126-31-1. Miami, for example, is an extremely blue city, despite the fact that their (officially non-partisan) Mayor's office is currently held by a Republican. – reirab Jun 03 '20 at 15:45
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    Wait, that should actually be just 34-4 for the MA Senate example. The other two are vacant, not independent. At any rate, the point remains. – reirab Jun 03 '20 at 15:58
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    @reirab Calling Massachusetts democrat-run would be a stretch though. Same with cities with republican mayors, so this doesn't seem relevant regarding Trumps claim about " Liberal Democrat run (only) cities". But eg [Jacksonville City council](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville_City_Council) currently has a republican majority. – tim Jun 03 '20 at 16:01
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    [Tulsa](https://ktul.com/news/local/protests-continued-overnight-in-tulsa-more-businesses-damaged) also has a Republican mayor. Nodding to @reirab, the City Council is non-partisan, but the city itself has voted for the Republican candidate in at least the last 3 presidential elections, so its *electorate* is majority Republican. – T.E.D. Jun 03 '20 at 19:33
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    San Diego is democratic, but only by about 10% with 20% NPP. Jacksonville's spit pretty close. Oklahoma City is Republican by about 10% though. I think I can stop here as one clear example will suffice. – Joshua Jun 04 '20 at 01:24
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    @TorstenSchoeneberg That's always the issue. It's obviously a broad characterization, not a statement of hardened fact. Broad assessments to see if the characterization is fair would make the best answer. Trump said "only Democrat", plainly false as Tim shows, but maybe a fair exaggeration if we get into specific proportional definitions of "riot" and "lawlessness". But the fact that most major cities are Democrat majority seems very relevant. It's easy to fall down a rabbit hole on this stuff, rather than bring clarity to the issue. –  Jun 04 '20 at 05:32
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    IIRC populous cities in the US skew heavily democrat anyways, so it would only be natural that the cities riots are happening in skew democrat. – Jared Smith Jun 04 '20 at 13:03
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    Can this be compared to the number of major cities that are democrat run? In other words, is the number with looting which are democrat run higher or lower than you would expect if the cities were chosen at random? – Simd Jun 04 '20 at 13:15
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    @Anush are you seriously suggesting we perform a statistical analysis to determine the veracity of a claim that was almost certainly pulled out of thin air? – Max Jun 05 '20 at 13:26
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    @Max Thin air or not, millions of people believe it. –  Jun 05 '20 at 14:00
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    @fredsbend Yes. In this case it just involves counting. – Simd Jun 05 '20 at 14:52
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    Notable addition, FWIW: Huntington Beach, California, with a predominantly Republican council and legislative representation -- famous for permitting protests to "open the state" during the pandemic and cracking down on protests against police brutality: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/santa-ana-huntington-beach-impose-curfews-after-violence-looting/2371689/ – jeffronicus Jun 05 '20 at 14:56
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As tim's answer says, the direct answer is No, rioting is occurring in some non-democrat cities in the US. I wanted to expand on that with how much is occurring in democrat versus republican cities.

For context (also as per tim's answer) out of the 50 largest cities, 35 are democrat and 13 are republican.

Using cities from this article which attempts to list cities.

Minneapolis [D]
Washington DC [D]
Los Angeles [D]
New York [D]
Boston [D]
Louisville [D]
Chicago [D]
Atlanta [D]
Houston [D]
Dallas [D]
Denver [D]
Seattle [D]
Phoenix [D]
Charlotte [D]
Columbia [D]
Detroit [D]
Kansas City [D]
St. Louis [D]
Ferguson [R]
Baltimore [D]
Tampa Bay [D]
Portland [D]
Richmond [D]
Evansville [R]
Memphis [D]
Columbus [D]
Omaha [R]

This is certainly not a list of all cities (it mentions but does not name some cities in California), but I have no reason to believe it is not a representative sample. Out of 27 cities mentioned, 24 are democrat and 3 are republican. Assuming the cities listed are not skewed by reporting bias, there is a trend toward rioting occurring more frequently in Democratic cities.

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    You might also consider that Republican controlled cities are less likely to have large Black populations (or rather that cities with large Black populations tend not to have Republican governments). – DJClayworth Jun 05 '20 at 18:08
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    I was making no claim about why this is the case, just getting data. Another possible reason is that democrat cities are more likely to protest police brutality, and there is a certain chance that any given protest turns into a riot. – rtpax Jun 05 '20 at 18:34
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    Another possible reason is that Democrat leaders are more likely to let rioting continue. We can do this all day, but that's beyond the scope of the question, and maybe even the site. @DJClayworth –  Jun 05 '20 at 19:18
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    How is the politics of the cities on this list decided? I think you should mention that "calling out the National Guard" is apparently how they decided who made the list. Not a bad metric for "lawlessness", I suppose, but it is a very specific thing. Among the top 50 cities not listed, is it correct to assume those cities have *not* had the National Guard deployed within their boundaries? –  Jun 05 '20 at 19:23
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    @fredsbend political affiliation was determined by the political party of the current mayor. The article doesn’t explicitly say that these cities had the national guard sent in, so I’m unsure if that’s true. It says 24 states had the national guard sent in, over 30 cities had riots, no connecting statement between them that I saw – rtpax Jun 06 '20 at 02:08
  • You need a baseline / control: most large cities are predominantly democratic. The data is therefore misleading. – Caleb Stanford Jun 06 '20 at 13:05
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    @6005 the second paragraph gives a baseline – rtpax Jun 06 '20 at 13:23