TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (WSVN) - A small number of demonstrators gathered outside Florida’s Capitol building, but it was a peaceful day in Tallahassee despite threats of unrest in all 50 states that federal authorities had been investigating.
7News cameras captured a quiet scene in the state capital, Sunday afternoon.
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said they’ve been ready for days.
“I hope nothing happens. I hope that we continue to have the peaceful days in Tallahassee that we always do and that we enjoy,” said Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, “but hope alone is not a plan, and we are prepared.”
The mayor said he’s aware the country is on edge in the aftermath of the violent events at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.
“We are very well aware of the tensions in American society today. We know that everyone is on edge, and we know that there are people that probably don’t have the best intentions toward our state Capitol,” he said.
If those people were in the area, they stayed away from the Capitol building, where police officers from multiple agencies roamed the grounds and watched from rooftops.
One of the few demonstrators, 19-year-old Greg Gandy, came with a message for anyone seeking to do harm..
“You were brainwashed by a fascist,” he said.
Gandy said that what what the world witnessed in Washington, D.C., and was threatened across the country, can be changed.
“We need to start loving each other, for one. We don’t need to see each other as different,” he said. ‘We need to see each other as people and not that we’re better or worse than each other.”
It remains unclear how long the state Capitol will be fenced, but Dailey said it will remain this way for as long as it takes.
“We are prepared, and we will continuously be prepared for as long as we need to be,” he said.
An executive order signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to protect the state Capitol runs through at least inauguration day on Wednesday.
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