Hundreds of Ohio National Guard members in Columbus and D.C. ahead of protests

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — City and state leaders set their plan in motion Thursday to ensure peace in downtown Columbus in the week ahead.

Hundreds of people from the national guard and local law enforcement will be in place to protect peaceful protesters and property. This comes after mob violence was put on display by rioters at the U.S. Capitol last week.

Thursday the Ohio Statehouse was surrounded by metal fencing, and the windows boarded up. Some nearby businesses boarded up their windows as well.

Gov. Mike DeWine took the actions of the violent mob as a warning.

"We have already seen violent people, you want to call them anarchists, whether you want to call them domestic terrorists who infiltrated the crowd in Washington, who are out there and we know they're out there,” DeWine said.

For reasons he couldn't share with the public, DeWine said there is a heightened sense of concern. He ordered state buildings in downtown Columbus to close Sunday through Wednesday.

State and local law enforcement will be out in full force with the backing of the Ohio National Guard.

“Just as we will protect peaceful protesters, we will also just as vigorously resist violence,” DeWine said.

Precautions of a much larger scale are underway in Washington D.C. Ohio is sending around 700 National Guard members at the request of the federal government. That includes a specialized unit, the Homeland Response Force.

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“They do what's called consequence management. So, if there were a major event there this unit can do very high level, high skilled, searched and rescue,” Maj. General John Harris said.

Harris said this unit was requested by the federal government as well.

"Looking at what happened in our nation's capitol, it’s important to have force there from the beginning and not have to bring force in,” DeWine said.