Free Staters Spearhead Protest Against COVID-19 Lockdown in NH

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4 years ago

Unrest: an inevitable response to government overreach

While police in New Hampshire have not been arresting or fining people for being outdoors without a mask or gathering in groups of more than 10, as several other states have done, residents have nevertheless gathered in a series of protests against their governor’s order to shut down “non-essential” businesses. 

ReopenNH lockdown protest at the statehouse steps in Concord, NH (Image Source: Free Talk Live)

Since Governor Chris Sununu declared a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, unemployment has risen to 15 percent in a state that is known for having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. Under Governor Sununu’s emergency orders, restaurants are restricted to only offer takeout and delivery service, causing many eateries who rely on dine-in service for much of their revenue to shut down completely. 

Free Staters join locals to protest a swift erosion of individual liberties

ReopenNH.com

A few Free State Project participants have responded to the growing frustration with the economic damage caused by the governor’s shutdown and restrictions on the private sector. The response began when (non-FSP affiliates, but liberty-oriented) Carolyn McKinney, J.R. Hoell and Free Stater Andrew Manuse launched an online petition, aptly named Reopen NH, demanding that Governor Sununu repeal the shutdown before any further economic mayhem occurs. At the time this article was published, the online petition managed to collect 5,900 signatures. They launched ReopenNH.com, as well as a Facebook group and a Facebook page by the same name.

The momentum continued as the three organized a protest on the steps of the state capitol building in Concord, which attracted roughly 300 attendees. McKinney, Hoell, and Manuse held a second protest two weeks later which attracted even more attendees - up to 500 according to sources who attended the protest. Both protests have garnered the attention of both regional and national press. 

Residents have had enough

Soon after the first Reopen NH rally at the state’s capitol, Manchester resident and Free Stater Jason Gerhard organized a similar, but smaller rally in front of Manchester City Hall. As the largest city in the state, Manchester’s economy has been hit especially hard, with its once bustling downtown now dotted with closed storefronts. Gerhard has since held a second demonstration in front of City Hall.

Sign reads, "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees. This is not freedom!" (Image Source: Fosters.com)

Gerhard has personally experienced economic hardship as a result of the governor’s emergency orders, starting when he lost his job at a tattoo parlor. “[Sununu] should have kept true to the state’s heritage by letting businesses and consumers decide their level of involvement,” said Gerhard, who described the governor’s approach as “authoritarian-like”. “Choosing winners and losers in the economy is not what the people of New Hampshire put him in office to do.”

Economic freedom isn't the only thing at stake here

Free Stater Jack Shimek, who is one of the co-organizers for Health Freedom NH, has attended all four Reopen NH rallies, has co-organized the rallies in Concord, and encourages New Hampshire residents to join in the protests. Shimek has not lost any work as a result of the governor’s emergency orders, but his ability to visit his family in Connecticut has been severely hampered by the much harsher restrictions imposed there. “I haven’t seen them in six weeks, so that’s been tough,” he said.

“Traditionally, only sick people were encouraged to stay home, and they weren’t mandated to do so by law ,” said Shimek, “No need to wreck the economy.” While the focus of Reopen NH is specifically an economic one, Shimek explained how the governor’s orders are also a health freedom issue. “The people in the health freedom movement are for science, and specifically scientific integrity, he said. “The reason that state governors have reacted so strongly is because of a lack of scientific integrity, which has allowed for a completely hysterical and overblown impression of the severity of the outbreak when science has shown that COVID-19 is no more threatening than the seasonal flu.” As for the future, Shimek plans to attend every Reopen NH rally “until we get our freedom back.”

Written by 2010 Free State Mover, Daniel Cuevas

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4 years ago

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4 years ago

we are on lockdown too i live in east africa today on my cuntry 100 new corona cases and 1 person dead....corona move badely on next month on africa

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4 years ago

This makes me happy that people won’t back down 😂🤗😊😌 Thank you so much for this post it made my day..

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4 years ago

So true. No matter how any of us feel about COVID19 and the personal precautions we either do or do not choose to take, the fact of the matter is that we (US citizens) cherish our rights and have seen them slowly erode since the beginning of the surveillance state. I surely hope that the FISA reauthorization bill gets vetoed by President Trump. Doing so would remedy one of the largest ever violation of rights by a government upon a people.

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4 years ago

Nice post

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4 years ago

Nice article men, is good know about the things that happen on other sides.! greatings for u from Venezuela.

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4 years ago

this cries increasing day by day... missing old life

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4 years ago

The people are tired. Freedom cannot be taking by for and yet Covid19 still out there.. Please stay safe. It shall soon be over.

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4 years ago

Kudos for leading protest for a just cause! You people are highly saluted for the courage and resistant to government's high-handedness in NH. Good job done!

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4 years ago

The people in the health freedom movement are for science, and specifically scientific integrity, he said. “The reason that state governors have reacted so strongly is because of a lack of scientific integrity, which has allowed for a completely hysterical and overblown impression of the severity of the outbreak when science has shown that COVID-19 is no more threatening than the seasonal flu.” TRUE TALK

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4 years ago

I agree 😂

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4 years ago

You are right on many counts here, except for the "no more threatening than the seasonal flu." This is simply not true. COVID can produce some really nasty symptoms and ravages the organs (specifically the lungs) in a way that the flu does not do, even when it develops into pneumonia. Secondly, the fears come in to COVID19 in areas where the infection was rapidly spread early on. In those cases, health systems were overwhelmed. Whereas if the virus killed the same number of people over a longer amount of time, the healthcare systems would not be so strained, people would stop dying from non-COVID illnesses because they would start returning to the hospital/doctor for management of chronic conditions. The seasonal flu does not respond this way, but even during bad seasonal flu systems, the healthcare system demonstrates signs of stress.

I think that SARS-CoV2 is was engineered to spread, replicate, and target certain demographics of people at certain times.

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4 years ago

seems like someone is making a move help your self people

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4 years ago

hardly time we ar passing... i hope it will be gone from earth very soon.. allah will protect us.. by the way nice article..

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4 years ago

Hoo!! Man your articles are very interesting.Iam started liking you writing.I became you fan

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4 years ago

corona virus is very dangerous virus.we should aware about this.I hope we overcome rapidly from this virus.stay safe...

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4 years ago

Yep time to open up economies. Democrat governors collapsing their states. And mental health and suicides big issues.

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4 years ago

Kudos to you for mentioning mental health and suicides. What I have failed to see people mention is the people who are addicted to opioids and other drugs. This is a huge population that needs to be able to access their recovery medications, like buprenorphine and methadone, and has the potential to lead to massive relapses in needle-using addicts. Such would be another public health emergency that would greatly exacerbate COVID. Period. But no one talks about in the corporate media...

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4 years ago

When it comes to suicide I side with the nike slogan of "Just do it" we are paying for too many EMOs. Supposed to accept each other, when trannys cant accept their original self.

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4 years ago

Thank you for this articule man ! Hope every one is safe out there. Waiting for new posts.

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4 years ago

It has reached the point of where people need to stop asking for freedom and simply just take it back.

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4 years ago

In the United States, we do not have to ask for freedom. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Freedom goes with Liberty. The government cannot give us these rights, they are "inalienable." The constitution and bill of rights do not give us these right. What these documents actually serve to do is to RESTRICT government imfringement or encroachment.

Freedom is never given back after it is taken. It always has to be taken back forcefully.

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4 years ago

Yet another one trying to take advantage of the COVID situation for profit. Kudos.

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4 years ago

You just became one of my favorite read.cash authors. I'm so glad that I came across this article. Without people to stand up for our unalienable rights, the government will infringe upon them every single time. The protesters against the COVID lockdowns are simply saying "Give me Libery or Give Me Death," which is one of the founding rallying cries of our pre-revolutionary nation.

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4 years ago

The numbers of deaths they predicted were completely overblown. And Dr. Ferguson wasn't even following his own quarantine orders. This guy has been wrong about BirdFlu, SwineFlu, etc...and every time it hasn't even been close.

The guy that predicted 500,000 or so deaths in the UK and 2 million in the US. Why are we still listening to the same guy who's had a history of making horrible bad predictions.

Love the article and that people in the US are still protesting. I'm in RI but am thinking about moving there...

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4 years ago

Kudos to free staters for this laudable action. It is a just cause and fought reasonably. Thanks to free staters.

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4 years ago