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Which U.S. cities had the highest number of arrests during the 2020 protests?
Executive Summary
The available tallies and reports show that Los Angeles recorded the single highest number of arrests during the 2020 protests, followed by New York, Dallas, and Philadelphia in several published counts; nationwide arrest totals vary across datasets from about 10,000 to over 16,000 depending on methodology [1] [2] [3]. The largest city-level shares reflect intensive enforcement of curfews and low-level public-order violations, while independent reviews and federal filings show most protest-related arrests were for nonviolent misdemeanors, not felony violence, although hundreds of federal charges did target serious crimes in a smaller set of cases [4] [5]. This analysis extracts the core claims, compares competing datasets, and flags what each source includes and omits so readers can judge which counts best answer “which cities had the most arrests.”
1. How the claim first took shape — city rankings that grabbed headlines
Media tallies and early compilations established a simple narrative: Los Angeles led the country in protest arrests, accounting for more than a quarter of reported national arrests in one AP count, with New York, Dallas, and Philadelphia also among the highest [1]. That AP tally was an early, widely cited snapshot conducted while protests were still unfolding and relied on municipal reporting and press accounts. Municipal reporting practices vary dramatically—some cities reported arrests by protest-related incidents, others bundled curfew violations and unrelated disturbances—so those early rankings captured real enforcement patterns but reflected differences in local reporting and timing that affect direct comparisons [1] [2].
2. Numbers diverge — why national totals range from ~10,000 to 16,000
Several organizations produced national counts with materially different totals: the Prosecution Project and ACLED-style projects recorded roughly 10,000–12,000 protest-related arrests or demonstration events, while the MCCA cited a higher figure—over 16,000 arrests—in its review that used law-enforcement submissions and broader event definitions [3] [6] [2]. These discrepancies reflect methodological choices: whether counts include Canada alongside U.S. events, whether they count only arrests directly tied to specific demonstrations, whether they include subsequent felony prosecutions, and how they treat aggregated municipal statistics. Because city rankings depend on the base dataset, a city that ranks first in one count may shift places in another depending on inclusion rules [2] [3].
3. What were people being arrested for? The dominant picture of nonviolent offenses
Detailed reviews from major outlets and the MCCA show the majority of protest-related arrests were for nonviolent misdemeanors and low-level public-order offenses such as curfew violations, failure to disperse, and trespass. The Washington Post review of over 2,600 detained individuals in 15 cities found a preponderance of misdemeanor charges and that most arrestees lived locally, while the MCCA and other datasets reiterate that only a minority of arrests were later charged as felonies [4] [2]. This pattern matters because headline arrest totals do not equate to mass violent criminality; they capture broad use of arrests as an enforcement tool during intense, rapidly changing public-order situations [4] [2].
4. Federal cases and high-profile prosecutions changed the conversation but not the distribution
The Department of Justice announced prosecutions of more than 300 individuals across 29 states and D.C., focusing on serious offenses including arson and attempted murder in a subset of incidents; these federal charges received intense coverage but represent a small fraction of total arrests [5]. The Prosecution Project and similar trackers document thousands of local arrests but far fewer felony prosecutions reaching federal courts, signaling a separation between widespread municipal enforcement and targeted federal criminal cases pursued where alleged conduct met federal statutes or involved interstate acts [3] [5]. The federal focus amplified perceptions of violence but did not change the underlying city-level arrest rankings derived from municipal tallies.
5. What datasets omit and why city-level answers remain imperfect
All major counts acknowledge important gaps: inconsistent municipal reporting, different temporal windows, and choices about which incidents to count ( peaceful gatherings that turned disorderly vs. distinct violent episodes). The Crowd Counting Consortium and ACLED emphasize the overwhelming peacefulness of most demonstrations even as they document thousands of events [6] [7]. The MCCA and Prosecution Project provide broader arrest numbers but aggregate across jurisdictions in ways that obscure some city-to-city distinctions [2] [3]. Therefore, while Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, and Philadelphia consistently appear among cities with the highest arrest totals, readers should treat rankings as method-dependent signals rather than definitive measures of comparative civic unrest.
6. Bottom line for readers deciding which source to trust
If you want a quick city ranking of arrests during the 2020 protests, the AP-style municipal tallies that place Los Angeles at the top are accurate within their scope but sensitive to reporting practices; for understanding legal outcomes, federal DOJ filings and prosecution trackers are more relevant though they cover far fewer individuals and focus on serious crimes [1] [5] [3]. For assessing the overall character of demonstrations—scale, peacefulness, and geography—ACLED, Crowd Counting Consortium, and the Washington Post reviews provide complementary context showing vastly more peaceful participation than violent incidents [7] [6] [4]. Choose the dataset whose definitions match your question: raw enforcement counts for where most arrests occurred, prosecution trackers for who faced serious charges, and event datasets for the broader protest landscape.