Armed anti-quarantine “protestors” issue Facebook death threats against Michigan’s governor
Right-wing militant crazies are now advocating violence against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in advance of their next planned rally.
A small faction of protestors reportedly instigated and funded by shadowy conservative groups — groups launched by billionaire oligarchs including the Koch family and the Mercer family, the folks behind the infamous political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica that leveraged data siphoned from Facebook to help Trump win the 2016 election — are protesting against coronavirus pandemic restrictions in Michigan that are designed to protect the lives and safety of others.
The protestors see the public health initiatives as unconstitutional restrictions on their freedoms to infect anyone they please — responsibility to others in society be damned — and they have taken their grievances against their inability to work and earn a living as most businesses remain shuttered.
Michigan loonies caught national attention when they showed up at the state’s capitol armed to the teeth and invaded the legislature, without firing shots, but also without the police reprisals that would have surely have faced any other group that wasn’t comprised primarily of lily-white rednecks.
Now reports are emerging that dozens of residents of the Wolverine state are using Facebook — in violation of the social media platform’s explicit rules prohibiting it — to promote violence and mobilize armed rallies against Governor Whitmer.
Ahead of an armed rally planned for the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, this coming Thursday, groups are promoting violence against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Facebook, in violation of the social media company’s policies. #mileg
https://t.co/KxoIWS0wzT pic.twitter.com/XG20HOBiFO
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 11, 2020
According to the Detroit Metro Times:
“Metro Times gained access to four private Facebook groups that can only be seen by approved members. The pages, which have a combined 400,000 members, are filled with paranoid, sexist, and grammar-challenged rants, with members encouraging violence and flouting the governor’s social-distancing orders,” the publication wrote.
After being contacted by the Metro Times, Facebook deleted one group, Michigan United for Liberty, from its platform entirely and deleted selected posts advocating violence from a second group.
The social media giant announced last month that it would delete any content posted on its pages that incited people to flout social distancing regulations. It continues to review the other groups brought to its attention by the Metro Times.
“We removed one group for violating our policies and will remove any other violations as we continue our review,“ a Facebook spokesperson told the news outlet.
Given that the major thrust of many of the posts is the advocacy for the assassination of the state’s Democratic governor, let’s hope that they are reviewing the groups as rapidly as possible.
The Detroit Metro Times provided a sampling of the types of posts found on the pages of the groups it infiltrated.
“’We need a good old fashioned lynch mob to storm the Capitol, drag her tyrannical ass out onto the street and string her up as our forefathers would have,’ John Campbell Sr. wrote in a group called ‘‘People of Michigan vs. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,’ which had nearly 9,000 members as of Monday morning.”
“Steve Doxsie had the same idea: ‘Drag that tyrant governor out to the front lawn. Fit her for a noose.’”
“’Either President Trump sends in the troops or there is going to be a midnight lynching in Lansing soon,’ Michael Smith chimed in.”
“Others suggested she be shot, beaten, or beheaded.”
“’Plain and simple she needs to eat lead and send a statement to the rest of the democrats that they are next,’ James Greena, of Fennville, wrote.”
“Chris Rozman said, ‘She needs her ass beat. Most of these politicians need a good ass whooping. Just. Punch there lights out.”
“When someone suggested the guillotine, Thomas Michael Lamphere responded, ‘Good ol’ fashioned bullets work better, but I like the enthusiasm.’”
“”Wonder how long till she’s hit with a shotgun blast,’ Chris Parrish wrote.”
“Matthew Woodruff had another idea: ‘Can we please just take up a collection for an assassin to put that woman from Michigan down,” he asked.”
With another armed rally planned to return to the Michigan state capitol building this coming Thursday, tensions, and fears of an outbreak of violence, are running high.
“”We could’ve taken over the capital last time if we wanted,’ Chris Coffey said. ‘This was just a display. Next time won’t be!’”
“’If she thinks the last protest was bad she hasn’t seen anything yet,’ DonnaCookie Grady warned.”
“’We haven’t had any bloodshed yet, but the populous is counting to three, and the other day was two,’ Dave Meisenheimer wrote in Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine, which has more than 385,000 members. ‘Next comes watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants.’”
“Gordon Chapman says he’s going to the Thursday rally and hopes demonstrators are ‘armed to the teeth.’”
“’Voting is too late we need to act now,’ Chapman said,” accroding to the Metro Times.
For more examples of the violent rhetoric emanating from right-wing lunatic circles, you can read the full account in the Detroit Metro Times here.
In the meantime, government authorities need to keep a close watch on an increasingly threatening group of domestic terrorists advocating for a second civil war that they’ve sacrilegiously named “the boogaloo” — an oddly-appropriated name derived from a style of 1960s-era Latin music of which the primarily racist members of these groups likely are unaware.
With the U.S. president egging the protesters on rather than sending in federal troops to contain the violent threat, the likelihood of a violent incident marring this Thursday’s protest is high.
The bipartisan Michigan State Capitol Commission met today to discuss a firearms ban in the legislature, which surprisingly doesn’t exist currently.
“There are legislators who are wearing bulletproof vests to go to work,” Whitmer said in an ABC News interview last week. “No one should be intimidated by someone who’s bringing in an assault rifle into their workplace.”
As the rule of law in America disintegrates in a country ruled by a president with no regard for it, America longs for a return to normalcy, not just a return to the pre-COVID-19 routines, but to a time when insane and violent terrorists couldn’t storm a state capitol to try to use the threats of violence to achieve their political aims.
That Governor Whitmer hasn’t called in the National Guard and locked up the armed intruders in coronavirus-filled prisons demonstrates her ultimate restraint. Perhaps she should escalate her warnings to the protestors to the same level that they’ve escalated their threats against her.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Steve Neavling at Detroit Metro News.
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