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!
04:18You 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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