While long-armed troops patrolled a newly erected security fence around much of the Capitol on Saturday, some neighbors were satisfied with the presence of tougher security, while others were concerned about the level of strength as the police and National Guard troops were spreading ahead of a possible violent far away – nationalist rallies and rights on Sunday.
Dr. Julia Skapik, 41, who lives near the Capitol, said that the intensified police activity made her feel safer and sent a strong message to the alleged troublemakers: “There is no opportunity here, so don’t even try.”
Some of her neighbors left the city, she said, while others closed their homes and moved stray bricks to their backyards, fearing they would be hurled by potential attackers after last week’s deadly uprising on the Capitol by encouraged pro-Trump extremists by the outgoing president.
“I prefer to be here, because what the federal government needs to bring together is much more than the states,” she said.
Beside her, neighbor Edna Boone, also a health worker, said she understood the need to send a message, but was also disturbed by the show of strength, unable to sleep as the trains continued arriving every night.
“This is disturbing,” said Boone, 57.
The FBI alerted public security agencies across the country last week that right-wing groups planned to hold protests in Washington and state capitals on Sunday. Leaflets circulating online encourage people to meet at noon, “armed at their personal discretion”.
On Saturday, Democratic leaders of four Congressional committees said they had contacted the FBI and other agencies and opened a review of the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill to determine what had been known in advance about the threats, whether the information was properly shared and whether foreign influence played a role.
Commercial airlines have tracked a recent increase in the number of passengers dispatching firearms while traveling to the Washington area, according to a Department of Justice bulletin, and several airlines have announced that they will not allow passengers to dispatch arms.
More than 25,000 National Guard soldiers were sent to protect the US Capitol this week. The governors of California and more than half a dozen other states have also sent National Guard troops to protect their capitals. In Oregon, state legislative leaders delayed a scheduled session to start on Tuesday by at least two days, citing security concerns.
Some national right-wing groups, including Boogaloo Bois, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, sent warnings to followers not to attend the weekend protests. Group members speculated online that the protests were “false flags” staged by federal officials, who have already filed criminal cases against several participants in the Capitol insurrection.
“The domestic enemies of the Constitution are doing everything they can to set up false flag events now, across the country,” wrote Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes on the group’s website. “They WANT you to come armed to the state capital, where your paid bullies can involve innocent patriots in a staged false flag event. Don’t give them what they want. “
More than 25,000 National Guard soldiers were sent to protect the US Capitol this week.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
Rhodes told Oath Keepers and other militias to “meet” outside state capitals “in a friendly ‘red’ county where you have a patriotic constitutional sheriff, county commissioners, county judge”.
A channel called Boogaloo Intel Drop, created on Telegram after the attack on the Capitol, sent a note to more than 8,000 followers saying, “No, we are not going to tell you to ‘show up on the 20th and make the 20th'” because that would be “feedposting ”- alerting federal authorities.
Others, like the Telegram Proud Boys Uncensored channel – with more than 35,500 followers – praised Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego veteran who died in the Capitol siege, and called for more insurrections.
“The mistakes that Capitol patriots made were that they didn’t go far enough,” they wrote. “When they attack you it is ‘the law’ and when your anger boils over having no representation or zero voice, they call it terrorism.”
Federal authorities have accused people in several states of making threats or trying to breach security around the protests expected over the weekend.
Last Friday, Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, of Front Royal, Va., Was stopped with an unauthorized pass at a U.S. Capitol security checkpoint and arrested after authorities found a loaded 9mm gun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition in his truck, which had stickers with the words “Assault life” and “If they come to get their weapons, give them the bullets first.”
Beeler appeared at the DC Superior Court on Saturday, where a judge ordered him to stay away from Washington and released him on bail.
In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order activating the National Guard in the capital Tallahassee on Friday, hours after the FBI arrested a local man on charges of threatening violence this weekend. Daniel Baker, 33, an Army veteran, was charged with transmitting a threat of kidnapping or injury, accused of posting a “call to arms” online on Thursday, according to court records.
“This prison serves as a message to anyone who intends to incite or commit violence … if you pose a threat to public security, we will come after you, we will find you and we will prosecute you,” Lawrence Keefe, public prosecutor the Northern Florida District, said in a statement.
Tallahassee Mayor John E. Dailey thanked DeSantis for activating the National Guard.
“If we learn anything from the events of the past week, it is that we cannot risk being unprepared for the potential threat posed by those who wish to attack the citadel of democracy in our state and who may have been encouraged by the events of the past week. ”. Dailey wrote on Twitter.
On Saturday, police set up barricades in front of the Florida State Capitol and blocked the nearby streets. Republican and Democratic state legislative leaders have asked their teams to work remotely in the coming days.
In Texas, Troy Anthony Smocks, 58, of Dallas was accused Friday of transmitting threats after he traveled to Washington last week and reportedly posted on Parler that he would return armed for inauguration and take action.
“Smocks threatened that he and others would ‘hunt down these cowards as the traitors that each of them is,’ specifically threatening ‘RINOS, Dems and Tech Execs’,” according to court records.
The Texas Department of Public Security closed the state capitol in Austin from Friday to Wednesday due to what its director called “violent extremists who may try to exploit events protected by the constitution”. 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, wearing a camouflage bulletproof vest and carrying an AR-15 style rifle, along with other self-styled “peacemakers”. “There is no doubt that this election was stolen.”
Helicopters periodically passed over, but the scene remained calm.
In Washington, the Eighty Percent Coalition, an allied group of President Trump, withdrew its request for authorization to protest near the Capitol on Saturday afternoon, but some Trump supporters were still in the area.
Trump supporter Milosh Jecmenic, a truck driver who divides his time between Washington and Miami, visited the security fence at Black Lives Matter Plaza to shoot a video and take photos of himself near a handful of anti-Trump protesters .
Jecmenic, 36, a Serbian immigrant who wears a United States flag protective mask, said he was not armed, was not affiliated with a group and was not “a fanatic”. But he also defended those who invaded the Capitol, saying that they had the right to protest. He noted that during the Black Lives Matter protests, buildings were also damaged.
Jecmenic said he had a room in a nearby hostel and planned to stay until the opening to protest.
“I think there are people in the city who are going to show up,” he said. “There are things that deserve to be fought for.”
Hennessy-Fiske reported from Washington, McDonnell from Austin and Lee from Tallahassee. Times Del Quentin Wilber team writers in Washington, Richard Read in Olympia, Wash., Jaweed Kaleem in Phoenix and Molly O’Toole in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.