Protesters demonstrate against stay-at-home orders that were put in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Huntington Beach, California. Photo / AP
Protesters demonstrate against stay-at-home orders that were put in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Huntington Beach, California. Photo / AP
Dave Litrell stood at a socially un-distant length from his fellow protesters on Saturday.
Some shook hands. Others hugged. More than a hundred people rubbed elbows and shoulders, their signs and flags touching, their faces unmasked. Litrell, 46, held his 6-year-old daughter as those surrounding him chanted to reopen theAmerican economy outside the state Capitol building in downtown Austin.
"I don't fear a potential pathogen," he said of the fast-spreading coronavirus that had compelled most governors to shut down their states, including the closing of nonessential businesses. "I think there's potential pathogens around us all the time, and for the most part, we're healthy."
Litrell, wearing a MAGA-style red cap reading "Make Austin Weird Again," is a bartender in Texas' capital city. At least he used to be. The restaurant where Litrell works has cut his shift to five hours a week, from 35. He started getting unemployment.
The pandemic has caused an overreaction of fear and an overreach of government power, Litrell said, and that is what brought him to the demonstration.
"It's sad how easily, with the snap of a finger, they'll just shut down society, and it's even more sad that most of the people just acquiesce," he said.
Polls show that most Americans support restrictions meant to combat the virus. But the modest crowd at the "You Can't Close America" rally was proudly defiant of the local and state stay-at-home orders they were violating simply by assembling. Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order states that all Texans shall "minimise social gatherings," and city and county officials in Austin have required people to wear face coverings in public.
A few of the demonstrators wore masks, but most did not. Not Litrell. And not Jax Weaver, 33, an out-of-work Austin photographer who went to the protest with her 7-year-old daughter.
"I'm not worried about catching the virus," Weaver said. "If we did catch the virus, I feel that we're healthy enough to fight it. And I think it would help us build immunity."
The rally rode a wave of similar protests at statehouses and in city streets this past week, with people also gathering on Saturday in Indianapolis; Carson City, Nevada; Annapolis, Maryland; and Brookfield, Wisconsin. As some governors expressed interest in reopening their states, some prominent local conservatives turned to Facebook groups and other social media to set up protests. Eric Moutsos, a former Salt Lake City police officer, organised a protest in his city for Saturday evening.
"Thank you government officials for your recommendations, but we're going back to work," Moutsos said.
The protest in Austin, whose Capitol steps are a frequent background for demonstrations, was small compared to past rallies there, with dozens of people assembling on a chilly and overcast day. At times, it was a cacophony of conservative anger and frustration.
There were Trump signs, flags, caps and T-shirts. There were loud chants of "Let us work! Let us work!" but also "Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!" — a reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases. People shouted conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. Alex Jones, founder of the website Infowars, described the spread of the virus as a "Chi-Comm globalist bioweapons attack," a reference to the Chinese Communist Party.
"America knows it's a hoax," Jones said of the pandemic.
The rally was organised by Owen Shroyer, host of a show on Infowars, which is headquartered in Austin and traffics in conspiracy theories. Jones used Infowars to spread the false narrative that the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a hoax or staged by the government to confiscate Americans' firearms. He has been largely banned by Apple, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which Infowars celebrates as a badge of honour.
State troopers and officers wearing N95 masks patrolled the event, but the sometimes loud demonstration unfolded peacefully, and there were no arrests. Beneath the extremist voices, there were Texans of all ages who were frustrated with the state's stasis but did not necessarily support Jones or his ilk.
A group of children held up their homemade sign — "Open our school: Education is a God-given right" — while others waved placards reading "Shut down the shutdown." Nicole Adkins, 37, a stay-at-home mother and Army veteran who lives near San Antonio, held a sign that said "Flatten the Fear."
It was the first protest Adkins had ever attended. The day before, the governor had announced his plan to reopen Texas, and Adkins was disappointed that Abbott was taking a gradual approach. He said he was reopening the state's parks on Monday but requiring all visitors to wear face coverings.
"It's a park," Adkins said. "Viruses don't float through the air. You're not going to catch it walking in a park, so there's a lot of misinformation."
Adkins and others were convinced that the government and the news media were lying to the public about the dangers of the virus, or at least exaggerating the risks. Standing together in a crowd, mask-free and well within the 6-foot social-distancing zone, was a physical manifestation of their anger and suspicion. They denied they were being reckless, and viewed the shutting down of society as a kind of hysteria, regardless of the numbers of infections and fatalities being reported.
Sandra Riley, 77, a retired real estate agent who lives in Austin, was one of the most covered-up protesters on the steps of the Capitol, but her outfit had nothing to do with safety. It was political theatre.
She was wearing a purple-tinged sheet that covered her head and her entire body. She cut out two holes so she could see. The sign around her neck read "Feel safer now?"
"The message is that they've gone too far," Riley said. "So Big Pharma can take over, give us all vaccinations and make us all stupid and sit home on our couch and comply. There's an underlying agenda that most people don't see."
She was not worried about getting infected despite her age, which makes her more vulnerable to the virus. "I take care of my body and exercise," she said. "I'm not the least bit worried."
