Dozens of Heavily Armed Protestors Flood MI State Capitol, Try to Storm House Floor Ahead of Vote to Extend Lockdown
JEFF KOWALSKY, AFP via Getty Images.
Dozens of armed protestors, some carrying high-powered, military-style rifles, descended upon the Michigan state capitol on Thursday and tried to storm onto the House floor as the legislature debated a vote on extending the emergency lockdown for another 28 days.
One local reporter captured the protest on video, which showed the protestors spilling down a staircase and packing into a rotunda that led to the actual Michigan House floor. As the armed protestors chanted “Let us in!’ state police and the capitol’s Sergeant at Arms blocked the door. Protestors had to submit to a body temperature check to enter the capitol building, but many of those seen in the video were not wearing masks. Members of the public are allowed to carry firearms in the capitol if they are not concealed and their purpose is “lawful intent.”
Protest moves inside Michigan Capitol. Crowd attempts to get onto Hoise floor. Lots of Michigan State Police and House sergeants at arms blocking door. pic.twitter.com/4FNQpimP4W
— Rod Meloni (@RodMeloni) April 30, 2020
At least one Michigan Senate member tweeted a photograph of a few of the protestors in a balcony of the capitol and expressed her alarm at the prospect of heavily armed men yelling at her. Sen. Dayna Polehanki and her colleagues are set to vote on whether or not to extend Whitmer’s Covid-19 state-of-emergency lockdown, which expires at midnight on Thursday, for another 28 days.
Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them. I have never appreciated our Sergeants-at-Arms more than today. #mileg pic.twitter.com/voOZpPYWOs
— Senator Dayna Polehanki (@SenPolehanki) April 30, 2020
Many of the those at the protest outside the capitol were carrying signs specifically calling for an end to the stay-in-place quarantine orders put in place by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Whitmer has become a popular target of a small, but vocal minority who disapprove of her comprehensive business and travel restrictions and have expressed their outrage in the past while very publicly not following public health experts’ recommended social distancing guidelines. However, a new poll released on Thursday found her state’s constituents approve of the job she’s doing on the Covid-19 outbreak by a two-to-one margin.
