Last Updated on February 7, 2018, 9:10 AM | Published: February 7, 2018
“Let’s get to work,” meant something different to three protesters in the House gallery as Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin closed her State of the State address Monday at the state Capitol.
Two different and apparently uncoordinated protests were staged from opposite sides of the House gallery as soon as the speech ended.
Brittany Warrior who was holding her epileptic five-year-old daughter began to shout.
“What about my daughter?”
“What about the sick people in Oklahoma?”
“What about Jaqie Angel [Warrior’s daughter]?”
But at that moment the second protest began.
Sydne Gray and Ashley McCray unfurled a large banner the size of a bed sheet over the gallery railing that read “Oklahoma, state of despair!”
One of them shouted “Water is life!”
Green-coated Sergeant at Arms staff approached the protesters with the banner and began to demand that they leave. They complied.
As though at a tennis match, heads snapped back over to Warrior as she persisted in her protest while Sergeant at Arms staff on that side of the gallery were ordering her to leave.
“You are a liar!” Warrior shouted looking down at Fallin.
Now louder, she repeated, “Liar! Liar!!”
Lt. Governor Todd Lamb began to call for the Sergeant at Arms staff to remove the protesters as some legislators began to boo. One voice from the House floor shouted “Take her out!”
Once Warrior was out in the hallway, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Andie Hamilton and a female Capitol Patrol trooper started talking to her.
“I don’t mean any harm,” said Warrior. “I’m just upset with the governor.”
Warrior said that her daughter has “severe intractable epilepsy” and needed cannabis-based drugs that are available in Colorado, but are still illegal in Oklahoma.
“I can’t afford to go to Colorado anymore and the governor just doesn’t care about my daughter. She won’t talk to me.”
Two female officers, one plainclothes OSBI agent and the other one of the uniformed Capitol Patrol officers talked to Warrior.
Once they moved out into the larger hallway two Capitol Patrol officers talked with Warrior and decided not to interview her further or bring any charges.
Special Agent Hamilton told Free Press that her job is to “investigate threats against public officials.”
But Warrior would not be charged for anything she did in the chambers.
“She [Warrior] has not made a threat against a public official,” said Hamilton. “She was just expressing opinion.”
Later Free Press learned that the two protesters with the banner were associated with a protest group active on Facebook as “Stop Plains All American Pipeline.”
The group has been protesting the building of more oil pipelines in Oklahoma. The argue that the pipeline is a danger to Oklahoma’s water supply and land.
Our attempts to reach the group or the two protesters for further comment were unsuccessful.
Read our larger report of the address and how local legislators responded to Gov. Fallin’s last State of the State address:
— Local legislators, Fallin, agree on criminal justice reform
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
