While troops with long guns patrolled a newly erected security fence around much of Capitol Hill on Saturday, some neighbors were delighted with the tighter presence in security, while others were concerned about the level of violence while police and the National Guard troops blow up ahead of possible violent rights and nationalist rallies Sunday.
Dr. Julia Skapik, 41, who lives near the Capitol, said the intensified police activity made her feel safer and sent a strong message to prospective rioters: ‘There is no opportunity here, so do not even try. ‘
Some of her neighbors have left the city, she said, while others climbed into their homes and slipped lost bricks into their backyards, fearing they might be thrown by potential attackers after the deadly uprising last week by Trump extremists encouraged by the outgoing president.
“I would rather be here because what the federal government has to do is much more than the states,” she said.
Neighbor Edna Boone, also a health worker, stood next to her and said she had a need to send a message, but that she was also upset by violent display and unable to sleep as convoys still night arrives.
“It’s disturbing,” Boone, 57, said.
The FBI last week warned law enforcement agencies across the country that right-wing groups are planning to hold Sunday protests in Washington and the state capitals. Flyers circulating online encouraged people to gather at noon, “armed at your discretion.”
On Saturday, Democratic leaders from four congressional committees said they had contacted the FBI and other agencies and opened a review of the January 6 attack on the Capitol to determine what was known in advance about threats, or whether the information was adequately shared, and whether foreign influence played any role.
Commercial airlines, according to a Justice Department bulletin, have been following a recent increase in passengers examining firearms while traveling to the Washington area.
More than 25,000 national troops were dispatched this week to secure the U.S. Capitol. Governors in California and more than half a dozen other states have also deployed National Guard troops to protect their capitals. In Oregon, state legislators delayed a session that would begin Tuesday with at least two days, citing security issues.
Some national right-wing groups, including the Boogaloo Bois, Proud Boys, Eed Keepers and Three Percenters, have sent warnings to followers not to attend weekend protests. Group members speculated online that the protests were ‘false flags’ offered by federal officials, who had already filed criminal charges against numerous participants in the Capitol uprising.
“The domestic enemies of the Constitution are doing everything in their power to set up false flag events across the country at the moment,” Owart Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes wrote on the group’s website. ‘They WANT you to come armed to the state capital where their paid provocateurs can wrap innocent patriots into a theatrical holiday. Do not give them what they want. ‘
More than 25,000 national troops were dispatched this week to secure the U.S. Capitol.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
Rhodes has told Oath Keepers and other militias to rather “gather” outside the state capitals in a friendly ‘red’ province where you have a patriotic constitutional sheriff, land commissioners, magistrate. ‘
A channel called Boogaloo Intel Drop, created after the attack on the Capitol on Telegram, sent a message to more than 8,000 followers saying, “No, we’re not going to tell you to ‘on the XX’ day to show up and not to do XX ‘”because it would be’ fed ‘- warn federal officials.
Others, such as the Telegram channel Proud Boys Uncensored – with more than 35,500 fans – praised Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego veteran who died in the siege of the Capitol, and spurred further uprising.
“The mistakes the patriots made at the Capitol were that they did not go far enough,” they wrote. “If they are aggressive towards you, it is ‘the law’ and if your anger turns to zero representation or vote, they call it terrorism.”
Federal authorities have charged people in several states with threats or attempting to break security around the expected protests over the weekend.
Late Friday, Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, of Front Royal, Va., Was stopped with an unauthorized pass at a U.S. Capitol safety point and arrested after authorities loaded a 9-millimeter pistol and more than 500 rounds of ammunition. found in his pickup. , with stickers that read: “Assault life” and “When they get to your guns, they first give you bullets.”
Beeler appeared in DC Superior Court on Saturday, where a judge ordered him to stay away from Washington and released him on his own admission.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed an executive order activating the National Guard in the capital Tallahassee, hours after the FBI arrested a local man on charges of threatening violence there over the weekend. Daniel Baker, 33, a veteran of the military, is charged with transmitting a threat of kidnapping or injury.
“This arrest serves as a message to anyone who intends to incite or commit violence … if you represent a threat to public safety, we will come to you, we will find you and you will prosecuted, “said Lawrence Keefe, a U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, in a statement.
John E. Dailey, mayor of Tallahassee, thanked DeSantis for activating the national guard.
“If we have learned anything from last week’s events, we can not dare to be prepared for the potential threat of those who want to attack the citadel of democracy in our state and who may have been encouraged by last week’s events. Dailey wrote on Twitter.
On Saturday, police set up barricades in front of the state Capitol in Florida and blocked nearby streets. Both Republican and Democratic legislative leaders have urged their staff to work remotely in the coming days.
In Texas, Troy Anthony Smocks (58) of Dallas is charged Friday with the transfer of threats after he traveled to Washington last week and allegedly posted on Parler that he would return armed for the inauguration and take action.
‘Smocks threatened that he and others’ would hunt these cowards like the Traitors who are each, and ‘specifically’ threaten RINOS, Dems and Tech Execs ”, according to court records.
The Texas Department of Public Safety closed the state Capitol in Austin from late Friday to Wednesday because of what the director calls it: “violent extremists who may want to take advantage of constitutionally protected events.” On Saturday, state troops and Texas State Guard troops surrounded the site as a small group of protesters gathered on the nearby sidewalk, some armed.
“We are here to protect democracy,” said Rocky Reno, 42, dressed in a camouflage vest and an AR-15-style rifle, along with other self-described “peacekeepers.” “There is no doubt that this election was stolen.”
Helicopters ran overhead from time to time, but the scene remained calm.
In Washington, the Eighty Percent Coalition, an alliance with President Trump, withdrew their request for a permit to protest near the Capitol Saturday afternoon, but some Trump supporters still came to the area.
Trump supporter Milosh Jecmenic, a truck driver who divides his time between Washington and Miami, visited the security fence in Black Lives Matter Plaza to take videos and photos of him near a handful of anti-Trump protesters.
Jecmenic, 36, a Serbian immigrant with a protective mask of the American flag, said he was unarmed, not affiliated with a group and not a fanatic. ‘But he also defends those who stormed the Capitol, saying they have the right to protest. He noted that buildings were also damaged during Black Lives Matter protests.
Jecmenic said he had a room in a nearby hostel and planned to stay through the inauguration to protest.
“I think there are people in the city who are going to show up,” he said. “Some things are worth fighting for.”
Hennessy-Fiske reports from Washington, McDonnell of Austin and Lee of Tallahassee. Times staff writers Del Quentin Wilber in Washington, Richard Read in Olympia, Wash., Jaweed Kaleem in Phoenix and Molly O’Toole in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.