During a June 9 interview with The Root, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was asked, “How do you respond to people who say if there were a group of black men who stormed the state Capitol, that they would have been dead.”
According to a video, Whitmer responded: “I understand why people say that and I don’t disagree.”
On May 6, a group of openly armed individuals including some who were African American accompanied State Rep. Sarah Anthony into the state Capitol building, according to the Lansing State Journal. The armed individuals with Anthony came as a response to the earlier appearance of openly-armed white individuals at anti-lockdown protests at the Capitol on April 15 and May 1. The armed protesters who were white entered the Capitol building on May 1.
The Detroit News reported that about 50 people showed up at an anti-police brutality protest on May 28. That protest at the Capitol also included many openly armed African Americans.
None of the armed African Americans who came to the state Capitol were shot or killed by police.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.