As we covered Saturday, the first large-scale “Reopen California” protest occurred in Huntington Beach on Friday, much to the ire of California’s Karen crowd. As we also noted, what happened in Huntington Beach was the sign that Californians are at the tipping point and are ready to rebel against the totalitarians ruling the state.
Reopen California protests took place in two more California beach cities over the weekend, with more scheduled throughout the week. While estimates vary, between 100 and 300 people protested in San Diego Saturday.
Protest in downtown San Diego. Massive drive-by and about a hundred+ folks on the street and around the corner. pic.twitter.com/qqUKVuDhgQ
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) April 18, 2020
In addition to labeling the protesters as low-info racists, shutdown apologists are also terming the events as “thinly-veiled Trump rallies” or as being filled with rich white people in an effort to downplay them.
People make their priorities known in downtown #SanDiego during a protest against California’s stay-at-home order. The event was a thinly-veiled Trump rally, with what appeared to be as many signs about the president as there were about the #COVIDー19 pandemic. #photojournalism pic.twitter.com/SUFRa63T7F
— David Poller Photography (@PollerPhoto) April 19, 2020
It’s apparent that there are a lot of Trump supporters on these rallies, but if it’s true that all of the people at the rallies are Trump supporters the fact that hundreds of them are gathering in various cities in the state, openly supporting Trump, should be a wake-up call for progressives in the state.
Gov. Newsom issued a statement Saturday acknowledging the protesters’ First Amendment rights while encouraging them to “practice physical distancing,” and warning that he was going to make his decisions based on “science” and not by “politics.”
“I just want to encourage people that when you practice your free speech — which I don’t [just] embrace, I celebrate — just do so safely. This virus knows no political ideology. It doesn’t know if you are Republican or Democrat, supporting the president, opposing the president, so practice physical distancing.
“Make sure that you are not infecting others. Even if you feel healthy and have no symptoms, you can spread this.
“We are going to do the right thing, not judge by politics, not judge by protests, but by science.”
Sorry, Gavin, Californians have seen enough of your decisions that were apparently based on “science” and not “politics.”
Sunday’s protest location was Encinitas, a city in northern San Diego County. Former MLB player Aubrey Huff caught some video footage, saying, “This is what freedom looks like, bitches!”
This is what freedom looks like. Current situation in Encinitas, CA. But a friendly reminder to my fellow #coronavirus protesters. If you’re gonna demand the beaches opening back up don’t wear a mask. 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/vLUnSo6h6A
— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) April 19, 2020
As Encinitas started to trend on Twitter, Newsom’s office tweeted out a reminder that reopening would be based on his crazy, unachievable six-point plan:
California will be guided by science & public health, not politics. 📉
Governor @GavinNewsom outlined six critical indicators CA will consider before modifying the stay-at-home-order & other #COVID19 interventions. pic.twitter.com/bevIRaXCIN
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) April 19, 2020
While there haven’t been large-scale protests in Los Angeles (yet), more and more residents have been ignoring #SaferAtHome orders, as evidenced by traffic on the freeways.
the @MayorOfLA was just asked about traffic already creeping back in Los Angeles.. he’s urging people to be #SaferAtHome here are three of my morning commutes this week.. hitting the brakes each day on the 10 freeway @FLXWineCountry pic.twitter.com/TEEFraVXKe
— Pete Wilgoren (@WILGOREN) April 18, 2020
More #traffic on #LA #freeways. Hmmmmmmmmm #FridayThoughts #Friday #AprilSomething #cars #QuarantineLife #weekend #LosAngeles 🏎🚗🚓🚓🚕🚙🚑🚛🚚🛺🚌🚕🏎🚗🚒🚜 pic.twitter.com/FPqO28pDkz
— Chris Spinelli (@chrisspinelli2) April 17, 2020
As mentioned in prior articles, coronavirus infections in California and related hospitalizations and ICU admissions have been so far beneath projections that they’re not even in the same galaxy. The state has been shut down for a month and Newsom expects total shutdown for at least another month. It’s expected that nearly 2 million Californians will have filed for unemployment by the end of April, and as of April 19th there have been 1,100 coronavirus deaths throughout the state.
Californians are rightly fed up by the overkill response, and actions like this (perpetrated by the City of Los Angeles) don’t make it any better:
California is filling their skate parks with sand to make them unusable amid mandated lockdown.
There is no scientific or medical rationale for this.
This has nothing to do with a virus.
This has nothing to do with protecting people.
This is about power.pic.twitter.com/jXEaiPUk2e— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 18, 2020
Many counties, including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura, are enforcing mandatory mask use while outside your home, except for “people who are experiencing homelessness.”
San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies handed out 21 citations to people who were sitting in their cars watching the sunset.
He cited people for sitting in their cars and watching the sunset according to @KUSI https://t.co/0yxOmvCwNO
— Teri Peters (@hipEchik) April 6, 2020
This was deleted because so many were upset that people were cited for watching the sunset in San Diego. #SunsetlessInSanDiego pic.twitter.com/Skq7eTWiGV
— Michelle (@mrntweet2) April 5, 2020
Could, perhaps, some of this time, money, and energy be spent providing masks to homeless people and cleaning up homeless encampments, where the disease is much more likely to run rampant?
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