Protests erupt and businesses reopen in US in defiance of lockdowns
Businesses in the US are re-opening in defiance of lockdown orders with one California county defying state restrictions, amid continuing protests.
Protests have erupted and businesses across the US are reopening despite shutdown orders as backlash continues against strict stay-at-home orders to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Businesses from restaurants to hairstylists in California and other parts of the US have already abandoned the lockdown and begun reopening in defiance of restrictions.
It comes as hundreds of flag-waving protesters gathered at the state government’s buildings and along a famed Southern California beach to protest closures.
In the Californian capital, Sacramento, police lined steps outside the Capitol building, as protesters waved signs that said “Defend Freedom” and broke into “U-S-A” chants.
Most of them were not wearing face masks intended to deter spread of the virus.
A small plane circled overhead, displaying a banner carrying an image of California governor, Gavin Newsom’s face and the slogan, “End his tyranny.”
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Joe Ranciato from Roseville, California, showed up to the protest inside a homemade “socially distancing cage,” made with plastic pipes and duct tape.
“I’m really fed up with what’s going on,” said Ranciato, 58. “I don’t like my freedom to be put in jeopardy.”
There were about a dozen organised rallies in Californian cities including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
In downtown Huntington Beach, known for its world-renowned surf break, people waved American flags from their car windows and carried signs reading “Open Cali now”.
A plane buzzed overhead with a sign reading “Fire gruesome Newsom! Open California.” While the beach was officially closed by Mr Newsom’s order, people continued to walk on the sand and on a popular bike trail in a park overlooking the shoreline.
Police across the state appear to have taken a largely hands-off approach with protesters, despite the fact they were violating stay-at-home requirements and not following physical distancing recommendations.
Mr Newsom, a Democrat, has gained support for many of his actions during the outbreak but his beach closure was condemned as political overreach by Republican politicians, especially those in Orange County, where the Republicans hope to regain significant ground lost to Democrats in recent elections.
“At a time when California is granting early release to high-risk sex offenders and other dangerous inmates due to COVID-19 concerns, the implicit threat to punish beachgoers and surfers who violate the order is absurd,” Republican state Senator Patricia Bates said.
Governor Newsom acknowledged the building anxiety while repeatedly teasing the possibility the state could begin relaxing some aspects of the restrictions next week.
“We are all impatient,” the governor said during his daily briefing, adding “We have to be really deliberative on how we reopen this economy.”
Mr Newsom noted the state just passed 50,000 confirmed infections and 2000 deaths but that hospitalisation statistics are heading in a better direction and that has him hopeful.
“We can screw all that up. We can set all that back by making bad decisions,” he said.
On Friday, Modoc County, a rural county in California that is home to about 9,000 people, became the first to open for business, ignoring state restrictions.
The county is “moving forward with our reopening plan,” the county’s emergency services deputy director Heather Hadwick said.
There are no reported COVID-1 cases in the county and schools were not opening Friday, although it was an option for districts that could accommodate preventive measures, she said.
“Our residents were moving forward with or without us. We really needed to create guidelines for them so that they could do this in the safest way possible,” Ms Hadwick said.
The county notified California Governor Gavin Newsom about its reopening plan but said it never heard back from him. His office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Country Hearth Restaurant and Bakery general manager Janet Irene said three customers came in for breakfast.
She said her regular customers had been very cooperative with orders that had allowed her to only serve takeout since March.
“Since we’re a sit-down restaurant, people were constantly asking to be able to sit in the restaurant, and it was really, really difficult during this time to deny that,” she said.
A variety of businesses from restaurants to hairstylists in other areas also opened their doors in individual acts of defiance.
The moves underscore the Governor’s challenge as California enters its seventh week under stay-at-home orders, with only businesses deemed essential allowed to operate.
ACTS OF DEFIANCE ACROSS AMERICA
There were also protests in other areas of the country and acts of defiance from individual businesses.
Restrictions were still in place in Arizona, but warnings from police and health officials didn’t stop Debbie Thompson from serving food Friday inside her Horseshoe Cafe in Wickenburg, a town of 6,300 people about 105 kilometres west of Phoenix.
Cheered on by a few customers, Thompson was not arrested, but she later received a call from the state Department of Health Services telling her to stop violating Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order.
In Illinois, more than 100 people chanted and carried signs in front of the Chicago’s Thompson Center, where Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has an office, to call for an end to the statewide lockdown.
RESTAURANTS RE-OPEN IN SOME AREAS
In other parts of the US, more than a dozen states let restaurants, stores or other businesses reopen Friday.
People in Louisiana could eat at restaurants again but had to sit outside at tables 10 feet (3 meters) apart with no waiter service.
Maine residents could attend church services as long as they stayed in their cars. And a Nebraska mall reopened with plexiglass barriers and hand-sanitising stations but few shoppers.
“I feel like I just got out of jail!” accountant Joy Palermo exclaimed as she sat down with a bacon-garnished Bloody Mary at the Gretna Depot Cafe outside New Orleans.
Texas’ reopening got underway with sparse crowds at shopping malls and restaurants allowing customers to dine in, though only at 25 per cent capacity in most places.
A video posted on social media showed a city park ranger in Austin getting shoved into the water Thursday while asking people in a crowd to keep two metres apart from each other. Police charged a 25-year-old man with attempted assault.
In much of Colorado, people could get their hair cut and shop at stores again, though stay-at-home orders remained in place in Denver and surrounding counties.
Wyoming let barbershops, nail salons, gyms and daycare centres reopen. In Maine, golf courses, hairdressers and dentists opened.
Hotels near South Carolina beaches opened and state parks unlocked their gates for the first time in more than a month.
Outside Omaha, Nebraska, Jasmine Ramos was among a half-dozen shoppers wandering the open-air Nebraska Crossing mall. Most wore masks.
“I do think it’s a little soon, but it’s kind of slow and there aren’t a lot of people here, so I’m not too worried,” Ms Ramos said.
In the hardest-hit corner of the US, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said schools and colleges will remain closed through the rest of the academic year.
In Washington state, where the nation’s first COVID-19 case was confirmed in January, Governor Jay Inslee said Friday that he is extending the state’s coronavirus stay-at-home order through at least May 31 and that he will ease the restrictions in four stages.
In Utah, Shani and Sergei Oveson were excited to resume dine-in seating at their small Salt Lake City restaurant, which has seen an 85 per cent drop in sales since mid-March.
Their place, the Ramen Bar, had only half the normal seating capacity because of social-distancing requirements.
“We’re really excited to be open, but at the same time we’re scared that the virus will reignite and we’ll have to close again, which would be so hard for us,” Shani Oveson said.
“Owning your own business can be so scary financially, we have to risk getting sick to survive.”
President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s hoping the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States will be below 100,000, which he acknowledged is a “horrible number.” Trump’s predictions of the expected US death toll have changed over time, with his earlier 60,000 projection now being eclipsed.
But he said at a White House event that “maybe millions of lives” have been saved by shutting down the economy.
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