Sioux Falls Police chief: Rumors of out-of-state agitators being bused in appear to be 'false flag'

Tensions rose ahead of Sunday's protests against police brutality as rumors about agitators being bused to Sioux Falls from Fargo spread on social media.

Hours before the March for George Floyd rally to honor the man who died while in custody of Minneapolis police a week ago kicked off at Van Eps Park in downtown Sioux Falls, at least two business organizations took to social media to call on their members to prepare for possible riots similar to what is happening across the nation.

The Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. had received tips from an unnamed sources that protesters from outside of Sioux Falls planned to attend the rally and incite violence. That prompted business owners and volunteers to clear their areas of town of any loose objects that could be used as projectiles to break windows and cause property damage.

More:March organizers distance themselves from vandalism, clashes with police

"We're being told that buses are en route from Fargo for today's march downtown. DT businesses - please bring in any furniture, signs, etc. that could possibly be thrown through windows. Let's keep our city safe and peaceful!," the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce tweeted.

Sioux Falls Police Chief Matt Burns said Monday morning that authorities were looking for the buses and didn't find any evidence of them arriving and unloading protesters.

"In any event like this with this much exposure, there is lots of information floating around out there on social media," Burns said. "Some of it has some truth to it, and some of it is just a false flag. It appears at this time that that's what that was."

More:'You can't discredit all young people': Sioux Falls teens help with protest cleanup

The American Civil Liberties Union's South Dakota chapter criticized the post and subsequent deletion of it as a distraction from the issues peaceful demonstrators hope to shine a light on.

"When we focus the conversations on outsiders, we're missing the point," said Libby Skarin, campaigns director for the ACLU office in Sioux Falls.

Chamber president Jeff Griffin said the goal of sharing the information he received was to alert business owners of a potential for the march to devolve into destruction. And when that goal was achieved, the tweet was deleted so he didn't have to dedicate a staff person to "babysit" the comment section for unsavory and bigoted responses that had followed.

In hindsight, the chamber didn't need to specifically mention Fargo or the potential for outsiders to participate in the demonstrations in Sioux Falls, he said.

"Our intention was to get a message out so people could be prepared and protect their businesses," he said. "Adding where they were coming from was a mistake."

Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. President Joe Batcheller said the tip he received coupled with a separate call for demonstrations outside of the organized George Floyd rally that was making its rounds on social media that was accompanied with a photograph of a burning police car compelled him to urge the public to take action.

And because of it, downtown businesses were ready, he said.

"They provided me with that information and I felt like we needed to act on it. My message was picked up and it spread like wildfire," he said. "We averted some major disaster yesterday."