Armed protesters demonstrate against Covid-19
lockdown at Michigan capitol
Police and capitol staff held back protesters – some
armed with rifles – attempting to enter floor of legislative chamber
Lois
Beckett
@loisbeckett
Thu 30 Apr
2020 23.54 BSTLast modified on Fri 1 May 2020 08.06 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/30/michigan-protests-coronavirus-lockdown-armed-capitol
Hundreds of
protesters, some armed, gathered inside Michigan’s state capitol on Thursday as
state lawmakers debated the Democratic governor’s request to extend her
emergency powers to combat coronavirus.
A tightly
packed crowd of protesters, some carrying rifles, attempted to enter the floor
of the legislative chamber, and were held back by a line of state police and
capitol staff, according to video footage posted by local journalists.
“Let us in!
Let us in!” the protesters chanted, as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder inside
the statehouse. Few of them were wearing face masks.
Some of the
protesters shouted anti-government slogans, including comparing the state’s
Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, to Hitler.
One
Democratic state lawmaker posted a photograph of men with rifles standing in a
gallery yelling down at lawmakers below. “Some of my colleagues who own bullet
proof vests are wearing them,” the state senator Dayna Polehanki wrote on
Twitter.
Thursday’s
protest in Lansing, Michigan’s capital, was much smaller than the 15 April
“Operation Gridlock” protest when supporters of Donald Trump organized
thousands of people to publicly demonstrate against what they said was the
overreach of Whitmer’s strict stay-at-home order.
Many people
at Thursday’s “American Patriot Rally”, including militia group members
carrying firearms and people with pro-Trump signs, appeared to be ignoring
state social-distancing guidelines.
Members of
the Michigan Liberty Militia were at the protest, armed with guns, and one
member said that the group was there as a “security detail” for the event
organizers, MLive.com reported. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors
American extremist organizations, includes a “Michigan Liberty Militia” among
its list of extreme antigovernment groups.
Police
allowed several hundred protesters to peacefully enter the capitol building
around 1pm, where they crammed shoulder-to-shoulder near the entrance to
legislative chambers.
The slow
reopening of state economies around the country has taken on political
overtones, as Republican politicians and individuals affiliated with Trump’s
re-election promoted such protests in electoral swing states, such as Michigan.
State
legislative approval of Whitmer’s state of emergency declaration, which gives
her special executive powers, was set to expire after Thursday.
Late in the
day, the Republican-led legislature refused to extend the state’s coronavirus
emergency declaration and voted to authorize a lawsuit challenging Whitmer’s
authority and actions.
The
governor, unfazed, responded with orders stating that an emergency still
exists, while declaring new 28-day states of emergency and disaster.
The
declaration is the foundation for Whitmer’s stay-at-home measure, which will
remain in effect through 15 May, and other directives aimed at slowing the
spread of the coronavirus.
Whitmer
accused GOP lawmakers of “putting their heads in the sand and putting more
lives and livelihoods at risk. I’m not going to let that happen”.
“Governor
Whitmer, and our state legislature, it’s over with. Open this state,” Mike
Detmer, a Republican US congressional candidate, told the crowd. “Let’s get
businesses back open again. Let’s make sure there are jobs to go back to.”
People had
their temperature taken by police as they entered. Inside, they sang the
national anthem and chanted: “Let us work.”
Police made
only one arrest at the protest, Lt Brian Oleksyk, a Michigan state police
spokesman, said. A 35-year-old male protester was arrested for assaulting
another protester outside of the capitol building. While there was “a little
bit of pushing” by protesters inside the building, Oleksyk said, “after
verbally protesting for an hour, things calmed down.”
Michigan’s
state senate minority leader, a Democrat, said the protesters had threatened
Capitol police staff, press and lawmakers. “This protest wasn’t about the
stay-at-home order, it was an opportunity for a small group of folks – very few
of whom were engaging in social distancing or wearing masks – to show off their
swastika posters, confederate flags, nooses hanging from cars and signs calling
for murder,” said Jim Ananich, a Democrat who represents the city of Flint, in
a statement.
A
spokeswoman for the Michigan senate minority leader confirmed that at least one
lawmaker on Thursday “chose to wear a bullet-proof vest”.
It is legal
to openly carry firearms inside Michigan’s state capitol building.
Other
speakers at the event, which had different organizers than the Operation
Gridlock protest, questioned the deadliness of Covid-19. They also said
Whitmer’s stay-at-home order violated constitutional rights, and urged people
to open their businesses on 1 May in disregard of her order.
Local news
outlets reported that Facebook had repeatedly taken down event listings
advertising Thursday’s capitol protest. “Events that defy government’s guidance
on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson said,
confirming the removal.
The mayor
of Lansing, Andy Schor, said in a statement on Wednesday that he was
“disappointed” protesters would put themselves and others at risk, but
recognized that Whitmer’s order still allowed people to “exercise their first
amendment right to freedom of speech”.
Whitmer has
acknowledged that her order was the strictest in the country, but she defended
it as necessary as Michigan became one of the states hardest hit by the virus,
having already claimed 3,789 lives there.
Protesters,
many from more rural, Trump-leaning parts of Michigan, have argued it has
crippled the economy statewide even as the majority of deaths from the virus
are centered on the south-eastern Detroit metro area. Many states, including
Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Ohio, have already moved to restart parts
of their economies following weeks of mandatory lockdowns.
Agencies contributed to this report
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