Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said the anti-government movement in the U.S.
“It is all of our building and every one of us should be able to go in there and feel safe.” “The Legislature needs to act to protect everyone at the Capitol,” she said. Whitmer told the AP she is concerned about the safety of lawmakers, visiting schoolchildren, media and others. Shirkey told reporters: “There is no way in a country like ours that you can legislate and get rid of all risk.” “From the evidence I’ve read, a magnetometer or similar equipment would not have stopped what was planned,” John Truscott said. A panel member noted that legislators have authority over certain areas of the building including the voting chambers. Republican leaders are having further discussions about guns with a commission that maintains the Capitol. “I pray we use our God-given common sense to make a law banning guns from this building. But what about next time? Because there’ll be a next time,” said Sen. “We literally dodged death this time - this time. By July, the men had shifted to targeting Whitmer’s official summer residence or her personal vacation home before settling on the latter, according to authorities. The federal complaint alleges that Fox in June said he needed 200 men to storm the building and take hostages, including Whitmer, and that several individuals talked about using Molotov cocktails to destroy police vehicles. “Like many politicians, he has spoken out when he disagreed with policy.” The state’s Republican Senate majority leader, Mike Shirkey, “does not condone violence, does not embrace violence and has never advocated in support of violence,” spokeswoman Amber McCann said. GOP leaders have denounced such tactics while saying many people protest safely and responsibly.
Such protests have attracted a range of people, including openly armed Second Amendment backers and members of paramilitary groups dressed in tactical gear - particularly early in the pandemic when some demonstrators displayed Confederate flags, misogynistic anti-Whitmer signs and threatening images. Officials have not indicated whether law enforcement monitored the anti-lockdown protests in April and May. Some of the men involved in the alleged plots were members and leaders of Wolverine Watchmen, which authorities described as “an anti-government, anti-law enforcement militia group.” Federal authorities became aware in March about an initial plan by Wolverine Watchmen to target and kill police, according to court papers. There have been Republican lawmakers and at least one sheriff at the protests, she said, “who fraternize with these domestic terror groups, who egg them on, who encourage them, who use language that incites them. “I’m not surprised - and anyone who is just hasn’t been paying attention,” Whitmer told The Associated Press by phone on Friday. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor
“Several” of the 13 men arrested in the plots against the state government were seen at Capitol protests this year, the state attorney general’s office said.Ī man whom the FBI identified in court papers as a leader in the alleged plot, Adam Fox, attended an “American Patriot” pro-gun rights rally at the Capitol on June 18 to recruit members of anti-government paramilitary groups to attack the Statehouse, according to a federal complaint that cites a recording from a confidential informant.
Some lawmakers and staffers reported feeling intimidated. It has also prompted renewed calls from Democrats for a gun ban in the building - an effort that so far has failed even after they reported feeling threatened by rifle-carrying men who entered the Statehouse.Īt least one man accused of aiding in the surveillance of Whitmer’s home as part of the alleged scheme to kidnap her stood in the Senate gallery on April 30 as majority Republicans refused to extend an emergency declaration that was the underpinning of Whitmer’s stay-at-home and other restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The revelation has sparked scrutiny of rallies that were organized by conservative groups opposed to the Democratic governor’s orders and egged on by President Donald Trump. Gretchen Whitmer’s coronavirus lockdown this past spring were some of the men now accused in stunning plots to kidnap her, storm the Capitol and start a “civil war.” Among the armed protesters who rallied at the Michigan Capitol against Gov.
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