Sarah Anthony: to ban or bear arms

Brut America

When heavily armed protesters entered her place of work, her life changed.   State Representative Sarah Anthony, the first Black woman to serve in her Michigan district, shared her journey with Brut reporter Léo Hamelin - Brut.

Transcript

00:00Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.

00:03We won't stop. We won't stop. We won't stop. We won't stop.

00:08When I signed up for a job in public service,

00:11it shouldn't be a matter of life or death.

00:14Man dispatch your mask. Man dispatch your mask.

00:20It shouldn't be me risking my life

00:23in order to serve this community that I love.

00:30But April 30th was a little bit different.

00:32Filthy rats! You're filthy rats!

00:36Rats have infiltrated America!

00:39It's not a matter of if something happens.

00:42In this climate, it's a matter of when.

00:49Freshman state rep Sarah Anthony was at the front row

00:52of a year of unrest in Lansing, Michigan.

00:54From the large rallies against the election results

00:57to heavily armed anti-lockdown protesters

01:00storming the Capitol in April,

01:02to a recent terrorist plot to kidnap

01:04Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

01:07It all happened on Anthony's district.

01:09For Brute, she told me how she now fears for her life

01:12and what she's doing to protect it.

01:18Much of the hatred that has been coming from the White House

01:23and other leaders from these very fringe-right groups

01:27are very misogynist and very racist.

01:30I have always been taught by my parents

01:33how just the nature of my skin color

01:36in many circumstances and environments makes me a target.

01:43I thought she was very gifted.

01:45She's, even as a child, she was very excellent.

01:50She was honor roll in school, author of the year.

01:55She just excelled in everything she did.

01:58Here's Sarah with Governor Whitmer.

02:01That's when I was running for office.

02:03She was running for office.

02:04She doesn't just carry the title of state rep,

02:08but she really do the work.

02:12I don't think she's easily intimidated by anything,

02:18you know, that comes along, adversity and so forth.

02:20I think she's equipped for that.

02:22I think that she's made for that.

02:34You know, I love when the school children come here

02:37to learn about the history of our state.

02:40They come here to just watch government at work.

02:44I sit on this side of the aisle.

02:46Our Democratic colleagues sit over here.

02:49The Republicans sit there.

02:50Where you're standing is where, you know,

02:54many of the protesters on April 30th were yelling at us

03:01and brandishing their weapons.

03:03Open the door!

03:05Open the door!

03:06Open the door!

03:07This is not a building!

03:09To understand what happened that day,

03:11I spoke to Michelle Gregory, a 29-year-old mom

03:14and member of the Home Guard Militia.

03:15She said the reason why hundreds of people

03:17came into the Capitol bearing arms

03:20was not only to protest COVID restrictions,

03:23but also because of what happened the day before.

03:26So the 29th, me and my compadre here,

03:31and another lady, her name's Jennifer,

03:33we walked in and we were going to record our legislators

03:36because the biggest thing was people wanted to know

03:39what the legislators were doing that week.

03:41We have a First Amendment, right,

03:43as well as the Michigan Open Meetings Act

03:46where we are allowed to be here

03:47as normal citizens filming our legislators.

03:57What the?

03:57They won't let us in.

03:58The bellahook is coming in the gallery.

03:59That's illegal.

04:00It is illegal.

04:01That's illegal.

04:02This is our public building, Mr. House,

04:03so please call the cops.

04:05Here's my trespass.

04:07Let's go.

04:08Nope, you're not Capitol Police.

04:09Here's over here.

04:10Let's go.

04:11You are not allowed to touch me!

04:12Let's go.

04:13You are not allowed to touch me!

04:14You are not allowed to touch me!

04:15You are not allowed to touch me!

04:18You are not allowed to touch me!

04:19You are not allowed to touch me!

04:20You are not allowed to touch me!

04:21You better let go, sir.

04:22In essence, I'm kind of glad it happened

04:24because a lot of people were like,

04:25holy crap, like they really don't want us

04:27to know what's going on.

04:29And so that's when, you know,

04:30thousands of people showed up the next day,

04:32April 30th, where we stormed the Capitol.

04:35And I always laugh when they say that.

04:37And there was no storming.

04:38We were very polite.

04:40We were just loud.

04:48Let us in!

04:49Let us in!

04:51Let us in!

04:52Let us in!

04:54Let us in!

04:56Let us in!

04:57Let us in!

04:59Never in a million years would I think

05:01that I would have to walk through

05:03an angry, screaming crowd waving Confederate flags

05:07as I went to work.

05:08Heil Hitler!

05:10Heil Hitler, the winner!

05:13The winner!

05:13Heil, the winner!

05:15Heil, the winner!

05:15You're a tyrannous pirate!

05:17Terror on me!

05:19Terror on me!

05:20Terror on me!

05:22Terror on me!

05:24And something in me just broke.

05:26I mean, it's just like a very unnerving feeling

05:28to have so many just absolutely angry and ridiculous

05:34people just yelling and screaming at you

05:36while you're trying to go into work.

05:39If anyone has an answer to, again,

05:41what Confederate flags, aborted babies,

05:43and AK-47s have to do with the stay-at-home order,

05:46please contact me directly.

05:50And I was thinking to myself,

05:52am I gonna make it home okay?

05:54There was no exit plan.

05:55Any one of those protesters who was angry

05:58with my vote that day could have followed me home.

06:01And I just felt very vulnerable

06:03and felt very unprotected in that moment.

06:06When I was watching our state rep, Sarah Anthony,

06:09who's actually, you know, a Lansing-born, raised person

06:12that we elevated to that level,

06:14when I watched her shaking and crying on Facebook,

06:17I contacted Sarah Anthony and just told her

06:20how I felt about what was going on.

06:28Michael Lynn was one of the six Black and Latino

06:31and Latino-American men and women

06:33Michael Lynn was one of the six Black and Latinx

06:36gunmen and women who escorted Rep. Anthony to work.

06:40They're part of a local group advocating for minorities

06:42to use their Second Amendment right.

06:44When they stormed the Capitol,

06:46like, a lot of the sentiment was like,

06:48if we did that as Black people, we'd be killed.

06:50But I don't want that narrative out there

06:52because that keeps guns out of our hands

06:53and then that keeps us weak, right?

06:57When, you know, this photo went viral of Mike and I

07:01kind of walking into the Capitol building,

07:04I would challenge individuals

07:05who were angry about that photo.

07:08And I said, is it the guns or is it the skin color, right?

07:12Does gun ownership look different on me, on Mike,

07:18as it does, you know,

07:19folks who, you know, stormed our Capitol building?

07:21A violent group of militant men

07:23plan to kidnap the governor of Michigan,

07:26overthrow that state's government,

07:28and incite a civil war.

07:30For some context here,

07:32remember the protests of the COVID lockdown back in April,

07:36when armed militia members

07:37stormed Michigan State Capitol building

07:39with high-powered rifles?

07:41Well, at least one of the suspects in this new plot

07:44was there at the protest.

07:45I thought you were getting respectful petitions

07:48and realize nobody respects you.

07:50Nobody respects anything that you do.

07:53You guys are not first responders.

07:58These people were in our house.

08:01They were waving their guns that day.

08:04Some think that they were scoping out the place.

08:06And even in this day, right now,

08:09gunmen could come here and who knows what would happen.

08:14And so it's just, it's infuriating.

08:17And I just don't know what else can be done

08:21to change the minds of the people

08:24who can, at the drop of a hat,

08:27ban firearms in this building.

08:30One of the reasons

08:31I wanted to tell you Sarah Anthony's story

08:33is this testimony she gave,

08:35pleading for weapons to be banned at her place of work.

08:38She said it's one of the rare times in her career

08:41she got emotional.

08:48As the images of the gunmen's...

09:01Screaming outside the chamber

09:03begin to stream across the country and the globe,

09:06I sat at my desk, talked to Rep Carter,

09:10and prayed for peace.

09:12I remember seeing a missed call from my mom.

09:15She was worried that I wouldn't make it home.

09:17The presence of these weapons

09:19have not only created an environment of panic and anxiety

09:22for those of us who work here,

09:25but it also created a sense of fear

09:27and anxiety for those of us who work here.

09:30But it also caused many of my colleagues

09:32to feel pressure to vote a certain way

09:35in order to protect ourselves from violence.

09:38By not banning firearms in this building,

09:40you are telling me that my life does not matter?

09:44And I am sorry,

09:46but when those white supremacists come into this building,

09:48they are targeting people

09:49that look like Representative Carter and I?

09:52We are terrified.

09:54The Michigan State Capitol is one of the only ones

09:57in the country that does not ban guns.

10:00And it's a historical landmark,

10:01so ironically, you cannot go in with protest signs or flags

10:05because you could damage parts of the building

10:07or the paintings.

10:08But you can bring in semi-automatic weapons

10:11such as an AK-47 or an AR-15.

10:16Would you prefer that I wasn't in politics anymore?

10:19I would prefer that I wasn't in politics anymore.

10:21Would you prefer that I wasn't in politics anymore?

10:23Yes.

10:24Well, I still like the job.

10:25I'm not going to let people intimidate me

10:26out of a job I like, though.

10:29That's not Sarah.

10:30No.

10:32That's not Sarah.

10:33Mm-mm.

10:42After, you know, weeks and weeks and months of pleading

10:46to our Republican leadership

10:48to ban firearms in this building,

10:51I think that it has shaped how I see this position

10:56and how I see my position as a Black woman in this country.

11:03Nobody threatens these people, you know?

11:06Nobody, you've got some of those, like, fringe extremists,

11:09but that's in every group.

11:10We're not violent people.

11:12Nobody in that crowd is going to go run in there

11:14and start shooting people up.

11:16You know, I never thought that I would, you know,

11:18carry a bulletproof vest with me on the House floor.

11:22I usually have one now

11:24because I feel like I need it in order to be safe.

11:27I am not a gun person, right?

11:29I'm pro-Second Amendment, but I do have a firearm now.

11:33I've never wanted a firearm.

11:35Guns make me uncomfortable.

11:36These experiences this year have really shaped

11:39how I look at the Second Amendment

11:41and how I look at how systems that are normally designed

11:45to protect us often fail us.

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