AUGUSTA, Georgia – Law enforcement agencies are on high alert in the capitals of Georgia and South Carolina while the FBI warns of possible armed protests there before Joe Biden took office as president.
The South Carolina Department of Public Security increased security last week, according to Maj. Dwayne Brunson of the Bureau of Protection Services.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it is aware of the reports of planned protests and is monitoring the possibility.
“We are also in communication with our partners and will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure safety and security,” said GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles.
A SWAT team from the state police patrolled the Georgia Capitol on Monday, while lawmakers met for the first time since protesters stormed the US Capitol.
In South Carolina, Brunson said his agency continues to work with state and local law enforcement agencies.
“We are staying in a state of greater security and surveillance and monitoring developments in the state and across the country,” he said.
South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division spokesman Tommy Crosby confirmed that his agency had received an FBI alert about plans for “possible armed protests in state capitals across the country,” including Columbia.
“We are and have been in constant communication with our federal, state and local partners on this information and are prepared to provide any assistance needed as needed,” said Crosby.
Neither SLED nor the FBI provided specific details about the possible protests.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said the governor “has great confidence in South Carolina law enforcement agencies”.
Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said his department is working with state and federal partners “to monitor and get involved in gathering information related to events leading up to and including the day of inauguration.
What lays ahead?
An internal FBI bulletin has warned since Sunday that protests across the country could start later this week and extend into Biden’s inauguration on January 20, according to two police officers who read details of the memo to the Associated Press. Investigators believe that some of the people are members of extremist groups, officials said. The bulletin was first released by ABC.
The FBI issued at least one other bulletin – they go to the national police on the matter – before the DC riot last week. On December 29, he warned of the potential for armed demonstrators targeting legislatures, the second official said.
The FBI said it is not focused on peaceful protests, but “on those who threaten their safety and the safety of other citizens through violence and property destruction”.
Mark Pitcavage, senior researcher at the Anti-Defamation League Extremism Center, said officials in capitals and other major cities other than Washington should prepare for the possibility of violent protests next week.
“A lot of people were excited about what happened last week,” he said. “State capitals are a natural place where people may want to appear, especially assuming they think there may be a large presence of police and military personnel in DC because of what happened last week.”
Pitcavage tracks militias, white supremacists and other far-right extremists, but said the siege of the Capitol demonstrated the emergence of a new movement of “Trumpist extremists, so involved in the cult of personality around Trump that they may be willing to break the law. or engage in violence just in support of Trump and whatever he wants. ”
The conversation about armed marches next week is not limited to Trump’s “radicalized” supporters. The events in the state capital on January 17 appear to have been promoted by supporters of the “boogaloo” anti-government and pro-weapons movement. Boogaloo’s followers advocate a second civil war or the collapse of society and do not adhere to a coherent political philosophy.
Posts on social media sites also promoted a “Militia March” on the day of Biden’s inauguration. Pitcavage said the event, apparently organized by a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist “QAnon”, seems unlikely to attract a massive crowd.
Javed Ali, a former senior FBI intelligence officer who teaches counterterrorism courses at the University of Michigan, said it could be a challenge for police to identify the line between people exercising their constitutionally protected rights to bear arms and freedom of expression. and those that represent “a real operational threat. “
“The FBI simply cannot sit passively on websites, forums and social media platforms, waiting to see who will present a direct threat against just someone who is being highly radicalized,” he said. “There has to be an investigative predicate for the FBI to initiate even the lowest form of investigation.”
From reports by WRDW / WAGT, WIS and The Associated Press