Police in Michigan will be working with the state’s National Guard and the FBI to bolster security and beef up its show of force around the state’s capitol over the weekend, amid threats of potential violence at the capitol building on Sunday, according to a department statement.
The heightened visibility of law enforcement comes as federal authorities sound the alarm over anticipated demonstrations at capitols in all 50 states, and urge local law enforcement to report threats of violence from extremists like those seen storming the U.S. Capitol last week in President Trump’s name.
Michigan State Police Chief Joe Gasper said in a statement on Friday that law enforcement would be “prepared to ensure law and order” in advance of the demonstrations.
The police statement comes as Michigan Gov. Gtetchen Whitmer (D) said on Monday that a decision by the state’s capitol commission to ban the open carry of firearms in the state’s Capitol building had not gone far enough.
The threats of violence in the swing state, which was embroiled in Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss, also follows a foiled alleged plot to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor last year, after Trump attacked Whitmer’s efforts to increase safety measures in her state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Michigan authorities said the increased presence of uniformed officers, some of whom were deployed to posts as early as Monday, was a response to reports that “an unknown number of demonstrators” would gather on the state’s Capitol grounds on Sunday, just three days before Joe Biden is set to be sworn in as the nation’s 46th president.
“We remain hopeful that those who choose to demonstrate do so peacefully, without violence or destruction of property,” Gasper said.
I live in hope that our police forces now understand that Trump and his supporters are not your friends, you are his lackeys.
No disrespect meant because I do support our police but they must understand unless you agree with him,100%, you will be thrown under your squad car.
Remember that question from 2015?
“What have you got to lose?”
Got to hand it to these MI clowns. Being foaming-at-the-mouth angry and stupid 24/7 is just plain exhausting. Yet they have the persistence of termites.
Are they gonna have enough wingnuts to go around? Fifty sufficiently frothing armed mobs is a lot to put together, unless you have the Insurrection Family Plan.
They reach into their pocket, find something hard, pull it out, and it’s black.