Anxious U.S. Sees Subdued Weekend After Girding for Unrest
State Capitols Fortify Against Armed Threats Before Inauguration
(Bloomberg) -- Smothered in security ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, the U.S. and state capitals remained mostly peaceful Sunday despite law enforcement’s concerns about widespread protests and violence.
Officers from the federal Bureau of Prisons patrolled the sidewalks along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, which connects the White House and Capitol Hill, the scene of chaos on Jan. 6. Workers erected extra fencing around FBI headquarters. The National Mall, typically a flurry of tourist activity, remained in full lockdown as stunned Washingtonians said the barriers, checkpoints and National Guard troops resembled a scene out of wartime Iraq.
Across the country, most protests were subdued, even in places where demonstrators came with weapons -- like in Michigan, one of six states where the FBI had warned last week of the potential for large-scale, armed unrest.
“I’m out here essentially to be peaceful and also show people that even armed protesters can be peaceful,” said a protester who called himself Preacher outside the state capitol in Lansing. Carrying an assault rifle and several magazines of ammunition on his chest, he said he supported President Donald Trump but refused to give his real name.
“The majority of us are peaceful and condemn the riots at the Capitol building,” he said, adding that the turnout was thin because many right-wing groups had advised people to stay away.
In recent days, some armed groups called on members to overwhelm law enforcement. But they may have been spooked by authorities’ response to the Capitol seizure, said Jared Holt of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. With more than 100 of those who attacked the Capitol arrested, purported plans to attack state capitols have been replaced with calls for peaceful protest.
In both publicly accessible social media channels and private platforms, users were expressing a commitment to avoiding physical conflict. Holt and other researchers are hopeful that Sunday’s muted protests portend well for Wednesday’s inauguration.
“Even in extremist communities, there’s a really big push to discourage attendance at state capitol protests,” he said. “I can’t pretend to have a crystal ball, but what we’re seeing play out so far today is reassuring.”
The crowds who turned out in Michigan on Sunday to oppose Biden’s inauguration were small -- fewer than 100 people -- compared with those that gathered in May to protest quarantine orders by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who also was the target of a kidnapping plot foiled months later.
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, a Democrat, said he was pleasantly surprised the protest was tame, but stressed that police and the National Guard will remain on duty.
“We heard people wanted to inflict chaos on our city, and we wanted to be prepared,” Schor said in a telephone interview. “I’d rather be over-prepared. Up to now, I’m glad we have a nonviolent protest. We’ll stay vigilant.”
In Salem, Oregon, a handful of armed demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol on Sunday morning. Conditions remained civil even when counterprotesters showed up, according to the Oregonian newspaper.
At a small protest in Salt Lake City, shouts of “You are redcoats!” were directed at Utah National Guard and police stationed at the Capitol, according to local TV station KUTV. One of the 20-some demonstrators, some of whom were armed, said through a bullhorn: “We do not support keeping the dictator Donald Trump in office.”
In Madison, Wisconsin, National Guard troops armed with automatic weapons, shields and body armor deployed near the Capitol. A man who drove a vehicle up the steps of the building was arrested overnight for driving while intoxicated, but no political motivations were cited in the incident.
In Georgia’s Capitol in downtown Atlanta, an expected armed militia rally never materialized after the building was heavily fortified with National Guard troops and vehicles parked in front of all entrances. And an expected march in the city by gun-rights supporters didn’t occur.
As a gentle snow fell Sunday in Montpelier, the capitol of Vermont, troopers patrolled a mostly deserted landscape by the gilded dome of the statehouse.
About 50 counterprotesters gathered at City Hall, They were hardly a fearsome presence, according to a reporter from the Burlington Free Press. The demonstrators waved at passersby and ate pancakes.
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