The protester from Michigan, who showed up with an axe and a doll with a noose around its neck isn’t a virus denier. Instead his problem is with the restrictions on public gatherings and the emergency powers given to Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
James Chapman says that what he was protesting when he brought the brunette doll with a noose hanging from his 13-star Betsy Ross flag and a fishing rod to a protest last week. He stated the doll represented Whitmer.
Chapman said the noose is “one size fits all” for anyone not standing up to Whitmer, including the “RINOs” who need to be cleaned out. Chapman is running for a state seat.
Chapman feels a deep connection to the Revolutionary War that’s inspired him to take on an aggressive style of protest that includes depicting violence against political leaders.
“The First Amendment protected (these) forms of protest. It’s something the original patriots did,” he said. “They not only hung them in effigy, but they burned them in effigy.”
Chapman’s rap sheet includes being guilty of assault with intent to do great bodily harm in 1990, along with a firearms charge that ended with a 3-10 year sentence. In 2015, he was on probation for stalking. In 2018, he served 6 months for resisting a police officer when Chapman argued with and attempted to stab an acquaintance, and then jumped into a lake to evade officers.
The criminal record, Chapman said, makes him the most-qualified candidate for the state House Judiciary Committee, should he win the 21st district.
Chapman says he has a plan to wipe his record clean by visiting Trump when he visits a nearby Ford plant on Thursday.
In exchange for a clean record, he plans to give Trump the fishing rod and noose as a gift.
There were no arrests and no injuries during the scuffle last week in the protest after Michigan State Police intervened. A woman attempted to take the doll from him, and someone stole his axe.
See this story at MLive.