Michigan lawmaker hires her own armed guards, to protect her from hate mongering racists. GOOD FOR HER!
"A Michigan lawmaker returned to the state Capitol on Wednesday with an armed security detail following a coronavirus lockdown protest at the building last week attended by white supremacists and militia groups.
Rep. Sarah Anthony, a Democrat whose district is in the capital city, Lansing, told Yahoo News in an interview that her security detail, made up of local black and Latino activists, came together because the armed protesters bearing white supremacist symbols represented a “different level of terror.”
According to Anthony, the April 30 protest was different from prior coronavirus protests that have occurred at the Capitol in recent weeks because many of the demonstrators stormed inside the building and were armed. Anthony also said some of the protesters “had Confederate flags and swastikas,” which she found “extraordinarily triggering for me as an African-American woman.”
“It was a very intimidating environment,” Anthony said. “I've just never experienced being so frightened and so intimidated in my life.”
Anthony posted a video to Facebook, which she filmed as the protests raged outside. Members of her community responded and, when Anthony returned to the Capitol on Wednesday for the first time since the demonstration, she was escorted by a group of six black and Latino activists who carried their own guns.
Large conservative organizations have helped back the anti-lockdown demonstrations, which have taken place in at least 18 states around the country. Though the demonstrations are focused on pressing to lift coronavirus safety measures in order to boost economic activity, they have also attracted a wide variety of groups dedicated to other causes, including militia members, gun-rights activists and white supremacists.
Even as the White House has issued social distancing guidelines and described the measures as necessary, President Trump has expressed support for the protests, calling the demonstrators “very good people” and urging Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to “make a deal” with them.
Anthony claimed one of her fellow lawmakers wore a bulletproof vest due to their fear of the armed protesters, many of whom streamed into the Capitol and angrily confronted officials. Dayna Polehanki, a Democratic Michigan state senator, similarly claimed that scared colleagues were wearing bulletproof vests in a tweet posted during the protests on April 30.
“Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them,” Polehanki wrote.
For Anthony, the guns and hate symbols weren’t the only dangerous elements of the protests. She said many of the demonstrators ignored the social distancing and mask guidelines, getting extremely close to her and “yelling and screaming” in her face, raising concerns of potential coronavirus spread.
“I am a woman and, you know, heavy, large men yelling and kind of approaching, it really is frightening,” said Anthony, adding, “As an elected official ... I have pretty thick skin. You kind of have to in this job, but we’re in the middle of a pandemic and I am particularly ... unnerved by it because I have seen the impact up close of this coronavirus.”
Michigan has been a coronavirus hot spot, and Anthony said she knows multiple people in her Lansing district who have died from the outbreak.
Anthony said she was disturbed by the fact that the Michigan State Police did not do more to separate lawmakers from the armed protests. She also claimed some officers were “posing in photos” with the protesters.
A spokesperson for the Michigan State Police did not respond to requests for comment."
