Updated: 12pm (AEDT)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania/Lansing, Michigan, US
Reuters
Law enforcement officers far outnumbered protesters at state capitol grounds on Sunday, as few Trump supporters who believe the President’s false claim that he won the 2020 election turned out for what authorities feared could be violent demonstrations.
More than a dozen states activated National Guard troops to help secure their capitol buildings following an FBI warning of armed demonstrations, with right-wing extremists emboldened by the deadly attack on the US Capitol in Washington on 6th January.
National Guard members stand guard outside the US Capitol ahead of US President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, in Washington, US, on 17th January. PICTURE: Reuters/Joshua Roberts
Security officials had eyed Sunday as the first major flashpoint, as that is when the anti-government “boogaloo” movement made plans weeks ago to hold rallies in all 50 states.
But by late Sunday afternoon, only handfuls of demonstrators had taken to the streets alongside much larger crowds of law enforcement officers and media personnel.
IN ATLANTA, SENATOR-ELECT WARNOCK PAYS TRIBUTE TO KING, REBUKES DEMOGOGUES IN SERMON
A day before the nation’s annual holiday celebrating life of Rev Martin Luther King, Jr, Senator-elect Raphael Warnock of Georgia returned to the pulpit at the church that was King’s spiritual home, calling for the nation to adhere to “God’s vision of equity”.
Warnock’s wide-ranging holiday message included a tribute to King and a remembrance of his last days organising an anti-poverty crusade before he was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.
“The tragedy is that the minimum wage had more purchasing power in 1968 than the minimum wage does in 2021,” he said at one point.
Warnock decried the pain and death of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he called the 6th January attack on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, “an unthinkable attack on the very house of the people by those who are driven by the worst impulses, stirred up by demagogues”.
Election victories over incumbent Republicans by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Warnock in Georgia ensured a 50-50 Senate split, positioning Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote for Democratic control. But Ossoff and Warnock cannot join the chamber until Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certifies the final vote tally. Raffensperger, a Republican, has said he could act as soon as Tuesday.
Warnock didn’t mention the outgoing President by name in his sermon but included clear criticisms of Trump as he named “crooked places” that he said God seeks to make straight. “You don’t like the facts? Just create some ‘alternative facts,’” Warnock said, referencing a term once used by a former Trump aide. “Just exchange science for fiction, or your own imagination.”
– Atlanta, Georgia, AP
“It was a non-event today and we are glad it was,” said Troy Thompson, spokesman for the Department of General Services, the agency that protects the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg.
On Sunday afternoon, police opened streets around the building that had been blocked off in anticipation of bigger crowds.
Only a few Trump supporters had shown up, including Alex, a 34-year-old drywall finisher from Hershey, Pennsylvania who said he had been at the 6th January siege of the US Capitol but did not storm the building. He declined to give his last name.
Wearing a hoodie emblazoned with “Fraud 2020”, he said he believed November’s presidential election was stolen and wanted to show his support for Trump. He noted the lack of protesters at the Pennsylvania capitol on Sunday.
“There’s nothing going on,” he said.
A similarly small group of about a dozen protesters, a few armed with rifles, stood outside Michigan’s capitol in Lansing on Sunday afternoon. One wore fatigue pants, a tactical vest and blue Hawaiian shirt, a trademark of the anti-government boogaloo movement.
“I am not here to be violent and I hope no one shows up to be violent,” said one man standing on the lawn in front of the capitol. The man, who refused to give his name, wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and waving a “Don’t tread on me” flag.
By early evening, the capitol grounds in Lansing were deserted.
Preparing for violence
The nationwide security scramble followed the attack on the US Capitol in Washington by a mix of extremists and Trump supporters, some of whom called for the death of Vice President Mike Pence as he presided over the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
The FBI and other federal agencies have warned of the potential for future violence leading up to Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, as white supremacists and other extremists seek to exploit frustration among Trump supporters who have bought into his falsehoods about electoral fraud.
Tens of thousands of security personnel from the National Guard and law enforcement agencies have descended upon Washington, DC, to bolster security ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony.
On Sunday, Capitol Police in Washington said they had arrested a woman at a security checkpoint on Saturday for falsely impersonating a police officer after she “presented what was identified as a military challenge coin, and stated that she was a law enforcement officer.”
The woman underwent a psychiatric evaluation before being transported to Central Cell Block, police said in a statement.
Downtown Washington was a ghost town on Sunday. Gun-toting National Guard soldiers in camouflage manned checkpoints across the city center, which was closed off to traffic with large military vehicles deployed to block streets.
It was not clear whether the FBI warning and ramped up security presence around the country might lead some protesters to cancel plans to go to their state capitols.
Following the 6th January violence in Washington, some militia members said they would not attend a long-planned pro-gun demonstration in Virginia on Monday, where authorities were worried about the risk of violence as multiple groups converged on the state capital, Richmond.
Some militias and extremist groups have told followers to stay home this weekend, citing the increased security or the risk that the planned events were law enforcement traps.
Bob Gardner, leader of the Pennsylvania Lightfoot Militia, said his group had no plans to be in Harrisburg this weekend, where the Capitol has been fortified with barricades and will be protected by hundreds of members of its National Guard.
“We’ve got our own communities to worry about,” Gardner said earlier this week. “We don’t get involved in politics.”
– With RICH MACKAY in Atlanta, Georgia, STEVE HOLLAND and JONATHAN LANDAY in Washington, DC.
