On high alert!

An armed protester stands outside the gates of the Austin Capitol, which remain closed.

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AUSTIN, TX

The threat of violent groups flocking to state capitals on Sunday in a series of demonstrations prompted governors to make a massive show of force and impose tight security measures on parliamentary seats across the country.

Fences, window boards, and lines of police and national guards transformed the look of the legislative chambers in the face of planned demonstrations ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

“The Department of Public Safety of Texas is aware of the armed protests planned this week in the Capitol State of Texas, and violent extremists who may seek to exploit constitutionally-sanctioned acts to carry out criminal acts, “said Steve McCraw, director of the agency.

More than 100 officers in riot gear were deployed to the Capitol in Austin this week, as legislators opened a new legislative session.

Even before the violence in the Capitol Some state headquarters had been the target of vandals and angry protesters in the past year.

Last spring, armed protesters entered the Capitol Michigan to oppose coronavirus quarantines and collided with police. People outraged by the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer squeezed his neck with his knee for several minutes, vandalized in several state capitols, including Colorado, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.

The security measures were intended to protect the government headquarters from the kind of violence registered on January 6 in the Capitol from the United States, where a mob that supported the president, Donald Trump, stormed the building as Congress was certifying the votes of the Electoral College.

The FBI has warned of the potential for an armed protest in the Capitol federal and all 50 state capitols starting this weekend. Some messages on social media announced marches for Sunday, although it was not clear how many people could attend. Some 25,000 National Guardsmen from across the country were scheduled to arrive during the week.

In the different states, some authorities said they had no concrete indications of demonstrations, much less violent.

PREPARED AUTHORITIES … IN CASE

However, many state authorities promised to be prepared just in case. They stated that they did not want the massive assault on the Capitol, in which a police officer of the Capitol and four other people. Dozens of officers were injured.

More than a third of the governors had asked the National Guard to help protect state capitols and assist local security forces. Several governors declared a state of emergency and others closed the capitols to the public until after the inauguration, and some state legislatures canceled their sessions or reduced their activity for the next week for security reasons. Texas was one of the states that closed its Capitol until the investiture.