Armed Protests? False Alarm to Reinforce a False Narrative

RALEIGH – The armed protests everyone was told to anticipate, the ones that inspired governors and the feds to militarize their capitals like the Green Zone of Baghdad, they didn’t really happen. As in, at all.

Here’s the slightly confused reaction of the Leftist rag, INDYweek, who no doubt craved an opportunity to prove just how dangerous and evil Trump supporters were:

“There was a heavy police presence in downtown Raleigh Sunday in anticipation of possible armed right-wing extremists protesting outside the capitol, but things remained quiet through the early afternoon.

Any protesters that may have arrived kept a low profile, outnumbered by members of the press and the Capitol Police. 

When the INDY arrived downtown at about 11:00 a.m., police had begun setting up barricades around Salisbury Street in front of the Sheriff’s Department and Wake County Courthouse. Up the street at the capitol, dozens of heavily armed officers were scattered around the building, and more patroled the area in unmarked cars. 

A group of five potential protesters were spotted near the state’s records center and appeared to be eating snacks before dispersing. 

By 2:00 p.m. there was still no action of note, aside from typical dog walkers and joggers downtown. The cops paced the intersection of Salisbury Street with zip-tie cuffs and “less lethal” weapons. “

Oh no! Not the snack-eaters!

Yes, the alarm was false, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was unintentionally so.

After the advent at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the FBI sent out word that ‘chatter’ they were picking up indicated imminent armed protests in D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Right away, the ‘threat’ was used to feed into the narrative of dangerous, violent, unhinged Trump supporters in a continuation of the January 6 smear campaign and purge.

Local and national news anchors breathlessly reported on the building security apparatus around this state capital or that one, how many national guard soldiers were being split between State X and Washington, D.C., and interviewing security leaders about just how tense it could get if bullets start flying.

But conservatives around the country never bought into it. Even groups otherwise described as ‘paramilitary’ or ‘right-wing extremists’ did not hesitate to disavow the ‘planned armed protests’ and tersely admonished members to stay away.

As Sunday came and went, the most notable factor was how few, if any, protests actually materialized. Was this due to the deterrent provided by the over-saturation of military and police? Or was this because the notion that a nationwide revolt of gun-toting Trump supporters planned to violently descend upon state capitals was never anything more than an intentionally manufactured fantasy, entertained only to serve the Left’s narrative?