Rebecca Kasen has seen and heard things in recent years in and around Michigan’s capital city that she never would have expected.

“It’s a very weird time in our lives,” said Kasen, executive director of the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing.

Last November, a group of people were captured on surveillance video early one morning mocking a “Black Lives Matter” sign in the front window of the center, with one of them vandalizing its free pantry. That same fall, Women’s Center staff reported being harassed.

A couple of blocks down East Michigan Avenue, Strange Matter Coffee, which supports progressive causes in the community, has been confronted by “First Amendment auditors” outside its storefront. Some toted guns or cameras, sometimes chanting slogans supporting President Donald Trump, gene

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