On Monday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, one of the most draconian governors during the height of the pandemic, issued this incredible statement saying he had no plans to encourage social distancing rules on ‘anti-racism’ protests.

From National Review:

“I can’t imagine what it would look like if we said to people, ‘Actually, you have to stay in. You have to ignore systemic racism — I’m sorry, just ignore it. Stay in,’” the governor said during his daily coronavirus briefing. “I can’t imagine what that looks like as it relates to public safety.”

The governor attended protests in Hillside and Westfield, two of the more than 130 protests across New Jersey over the weekend in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer knelt on his neck for close to nine minutes, persisting even after Floyd lost consciousness.

While the governor acknowledged there was a risk from such protests he said that “many” protesters wore masks.

“We cannot let what happened across New Jersey this weekend be undone by an outbreak,” Murphy said. “What all these numbers tell us is that the spread of Covid-19 continues to slow and that is again why I encourage everyone who took part in a march or a peaceful protest this weekend to get tested.”

Now remember this is the same guy who didn’t care if locking you down prevented you from providing for your family or cost you the business that was your life’s work. This is the guy who didn’t consider the bill of rights in locking people up for attending a religious service. This is the same guy not in favor of lockdown protests where people were arrested for protesting.

New Jersey Governor @PhilMurphyNJ on arresting 15 people in a synagogue:

“I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this.”

Wow, @GovMurphy: Bad answer. pic.twitter.com/L6i3ufM19j

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) April 16, 2020

This is the same guy who sent state police to arrest people at a gym that reopened and shut it down, despite the fact they were masked and practicing social distancing.

Here’s Murphy on the lockdown protests in April:

Although Murphy said he is supportive of residents’ right to protest, he said Tuesday, as they chanted outside, that he wishes they would “do it at home” or “virtually.” The claims of fascism against him, he said, are “ridiculous” because “we’re trying to save lives.”

“I worry about anybody congregating right now. We cannot have people doing that,” Murphy said.

Translation: protests we approve of are cool, those which we don’t, “we cannot have people doing that.” Rights depend on what Democrats decree.

I hope everyone who was arrested or sanctioned in New Jersey hears this and relies upon it in fighting their charges/fines as to the complete arbitrary nature of the state’s actions.