‘It sucks that people die.’ Group protests COVID-19 restrictions outside KY Capitol.
They came with signs denouncing “King Beshear.” They came with a microphone, a speaker and a shofar. They talked of “herd immunity” and the flu and their rights as Americans.
Some also came with face masks and most tried their best to space out on the Capitol lawn, but they eventually bunched up as they successfully disrupted Gov. Andy Beshear’s 5 p.m. coronavirus news conference by shouting outside the Capitol briefing room.
About 100 Kentuckians were protesting the restrictions Gov. Andy Beshear has put in place in order to stem the spread of a virus that has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and has killed more than 133,354 people, including at least 121 people in Kentucky. Among other things, the Democratic governor has closed all non-essential businesses in the state, prompting more than 500,000 Kentuckians to file for unemployment in the last month.
“It sucks that people die, but they do, we can’t stop that,” said Allison Atkinson, 44, of Clark County. “At this point we’re putting every Kentuckian in a place of vulnerability because they can’t feed their families.”
Atkinson was among the people who gathered behind the Capitol just as Beshear was readying for his daily news conference. She said she supported the governor initially, but for the past 10 days has felt the restrictions need to be eased.
Based on early indicators, the restrictions are working, Beshear has said. He points to the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases in Kentucky is increasing at a slower rate than most other states, even when adjusted for population size.
The protest was organized by Erika Calihan, one of the women who made unsubstantiated claims that voter fraud caused Beshear to win November’s election. While starting to mobilize people for a march from the back of the Capitol to the side of the Capitol, Calihan encouraged the business owners in attendance to ignore Beshear’s orders and open up anyway.
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet has been issuing closure orders to non-essential businesses that are violating Beshear’s order to close their doors to in-person services. At least 26 businesses across the state had been ordered to shut down as of last Thursday.
“Sometimes patriots have to stand and face the consequences,” Calihan said.
The very factors that have provided comfort to some Kentuckians as they hunker down at home — that many won’t die of the virus, that it tends to only kill the people who are medically vulnerable — were used by the protesters as ammunition. Some compared it to the flu, even though the flu has killed between 24,000 and 62,000 Americans since October 1 and COVID-19 has killed 27,850 Americans just since February 29.
Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, who has bristled against Beshear’s orders, was the only lawmaker who spoke at the protest, though at least five members of the House of Representatives poked their heads out and stood on the periphery of the protest.
“This is all going to come down to the people’s willingness to do what you’re doing here today right now and stand and say enough,” Maddox told the crowd.
While people milled around, several waved old American flags and the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag that has become a symbol of the Tea Party. Others wore shirts and hats supporting President Donald Trump. One speaker, Libertarian congressional candidate Frank Harris, spouted a conspiracy theory that the response to COVID-19 was unleashed to crash the economy in order to create a global currency.
Janice Jones, 67, of Scott County, brought a lawn chair and a printed sign that said “We need to reopen Kentucky.” She wore a cloth face mask.
Jones said she thinks the statistics about the coronavirus are overblown (currently, 6.86 percent of Kentuckians in her age group who have caught the virus have died as a result) and that she wanted to see the economy reopened. She said she’s frustrated that Beshear has not given a definitive timeline for when things will open again.
“People are losing their money by not being able to work,” Jones said. “I don’t think it’s necessary to do this.”
The protest concluded with loud chants and noise makers clanging outside the window where Beshear was giving his press conference. Calihan asked family groups to keep six feet of distance between each other.
They did not.
Inside, Beshear acknowledged he heard the protesters, saying, “everybody should be able to express their opinion,” but, “Hopefully [the protesters] are distanced from each other ... no one should be engaged in a mass gathering,” he said. “If they’re not social distancing, they’re spreading the coronavirus, and that’s really concerning.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 6:52 PM.
