Stay-at-home order protests planned for Kansas City, Topeka, Jefferson City next week
Demonstrations like the “Operation Gridlock” event that brought traffic to a standstill in Lansing, Michigan, on Wednesday are planned for next week in Kansas City, Jefferson City and Topeka to protest local and state COVID-19 shutdown orders.
Similar protests that call for reopening the country for business sooner rather than later are set for this weekend in Denver, Phoenix, Nashville and Tallahassee, Florida, among other cities.
Newly formed Facebook group pages are also promoting Operation Gridlock events next week in the state capitals of California, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.
It’s not immediately clear whether the protests are a spontaneous reaction to the Michigan protests or are being coordinated in some way. Most if not all of the people who administer or post on those Facebook pages espouse conservative political beliefs and claim that government is overstepping its bounds by ordering Americans to stay home and businesses to close to avoid spread of the new coronavirus.
A flyer advertising the noon protest Monday in downtown Kansas City singles out Mayor Quinton Lucas for criticism.
“Mayor Lucas is driving us out of business, stomping on our freedom and Constitutional rights, and ruining people financially,“ begins the text superimposed over a photo of City Hall. “It is time for this to end.”
It goes on to encourage people to “flood the streets of downtown Kansas City and demand that businesses be allowed to open up, people allowed to work, and lives returned to normal.”
The message ends, in all caps: “WE WILL NOT TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!”
The flyer was circulating on Facebook before Lucas announced Thursday that he was extending the city’s stay-at-home order by three weeks, until May 15.
It’s unclear who is sponsoring the Kansas City protest.
Mick Brennan, a cattle rancher in Richmond, Missouri, who grew up in Kansas City and whose family still lives here, saw the flyer online somewhere, he said, and reposted it on his Facebook page Wednesday.
“We need to get our City opened back up,” he wrote.
In a phone interview Thursday, Brennan said he felt Lucas overstepped his authority and needlessly put people out of work to protect against a disease whose threat to the public Brennan feels has been overstated.
“He has absolutely no power to do that whatsoever,” Brennan said of the shutdown extension. “I’m going to show up Monday. I think it’s important that we are there.”
According to the city charter, Lucas does have powers under a declaration of emergency to shutter businesses, set curfews and take other measures to protect the public.
He and other leaders say the restrictions to limit spread of the coronavirus remain necessary.
“The community’s compliance with social distancing and stay-at-home orders has been effective in flattening the curve in the absence of wide-spread testing, but more work remains,” Jackson County Executive Frank White said in support of extending the period to May 15. “Public health officials estimate the anticipated peak of infection in the Kansas City metro at the end of April.”
Brennan said he will be cruising through downtown in a mud-spattered Jeep with 37-inch tires. His dad will be cheering him on.
”I think Lucas acted too quick,” Michael Brennan said by phone. A salesman at a car dealership in the Northland, the elder Brennan said the restrictions should have been loosened north of the river, where there have been fewer COVID-19 cases.
“You’re already killing the economy. You just got too many people who were put out to pasture for another month.”
The Jefferson City protest is set for noon Tuesday. One of the organizers is Josh Schisler, a former registered lobbyist for conservative causes who lives in Kansas City and who several years ago was a staffer for Republican members of both houses of the Missouri General Assembly.
“People from across the political spectrum are sick and tired of this illegal lockdown,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page Thursday morning.
Unlike some others who oppose the restrictions because of the damage it’s doing to the economy and people’s incomes, Schisler said he believes that stay-at-home orders are putting those most vulnerable to catching the disease at greater risk.
Many of them can no longer get supplies delivered to their homes, he said, and are putting themselves at risk by going out to get supplies at the supermarket.
“The whole goal of the protest is to speak out for the people who are the most vulnerable,” he said.
Some who plan to attend the protest have other concerns, such as losing income from being laid off.
Meeting with the news media Thursday afternoon, Gov. Mike Parson said he does not object to the demonstration.
“If they want to come to the Capitol and protest, and they abide by the (social distancing) orders, they have every right to do that,” he said.
But Schisler made no promise that protesters would stay six feet apart and laughed at the notion of social distancing, which he said led to more illness and death in New York City than had the stay-at-home orders not been put in place.
Another group involved in the Jefferson City event, End the Stay, is advising its members to keep their distance from each other..
The Kansas City Area Preparedness Network says it is hosting next Thursday’s gridlock event at the Kansas Capitol.
As of Thursday afternoon, 57 people said they were going and 273 claimed to be interested in attending the “Open Up Kansas and Lock Down the Governor!” protest set for noon next Thursday.
“I’ve invited all my conservative friends on FB. Will invite more by text and word of mouth!” one commenter wrote.
Asked about the Topeka protest, Gov. Laura Kelly said she welcomes free speech demonstrations as long as they stay within the maximum under her statewide order prohibiting no more than 10 people to gather in one place.
Thousands of Michigan’s protesters got around that state’s ban on large crowds by staying in their vehicles and clogging streets that haven’t seen much traffic since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order.
But many protesters did get out of their cars and trucks and march around the capital. Some wore caps and clothing celebrating President Donald Trump and paid little attention to social distancing norms while chanting “We will not comply” and “Lock her up,” in apparent reference to the governor.
The protest was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which says it was formed because the GOP had been going too far to the left and associates itself with what it calls ”Trump loving Americans who are sick and tired of the political establishment and the political machine that is solely focused on tearing down our President and his agenda.”
On MSNBC Wednesday, Whitmer said the protest could backfire by spreading the disease even more in a state that has the fourth most coronavirus cases in the country.
“This small group that came together without masks on, passing out candy with bare hands to children, who were congregating together, brandishing their weapons, having posters of being anti-choice,” she said, “this was a political rally. It was a political rally that is going to endanger people’s lives because this is precisely how COVID-19 spreads.”
Elsewhere, rally organizers are trying to minimize the politicking and focus on personal liberties.
In Kentucky on Wednesday, about 100 protesters could be heard chanting “we want to work” as Gov. Andy Beshear held a press conference.
Many opponents of stay-at-home orders complain that the threat of the virus has been overblown, or say it is some kind of hoax.
But the administrator for the Operation Gridlock Kentucky site explained on that group’s Facebook page that he would not tolerate any discussion that minimized the seriousness of the disease.
Another ground rule: no partisan political discussions.
“This is a pro-constitution area,” the post said. “Anyone of any party can become a tyrannical-despot. Let’s fight the unconstitutional tyranny regardless of which party implements it, and leave our campaigning at the door. “
The Star’s Kevin Hardy, Allison Kite and Jason Hancock contributed to this story.
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 7:09 PM.
