ReOpen protesters in NC converge outside legislative building, 4 arrested
Hundreds of protesters crowded into downtown Raleigh on Tuesday for a third week of rallying aimed at reversing Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-home order for North Carolina.
Four protesters, including ReOpenNC leader Ashley Smith, were arrested when they stepped onto the sidewalk outside the governor’s mansion on Blount Street, violating police instructions.
Protesters gathered around the Capitol Police car and banged on the window as Smith was taken away.
“This is how Nazi Germany started,” said her husband, Adam Smith, who was handed bail money by other protesters. Using a bullhorn, he called each officer outside the governor’s mansion a “little piggie.”
The group, smaller than the number of protesters last Tuesday, honked horns and waved signs that they hope will influence a short session of the state General Assembly that started Tuesday.
State Rep. Michael Speciale, a Republican from Craven County, joined them in a colonial suit with a tri-cornered hat. He said many legislators “bit our tongues through Cooper’s order,” which he called unconstitutional.
“This is the governor’s show now,” he said. “He’s got to fix it. We can’t just come in and override it. We don’t have the votes for that.”
During a Tuesday news conference, Cooper said he understands that it is “frustrating to be at home so much” and that he feels empathy for “people with families that are hanging by a thread.”
At the same time, he said, the time to relax the restrictions has not arrived yet.
“The thing we have to put first and foremost is the public health and safety of North Carolinians,” Cooper said. “We have to make sure that things are safe. I’m very eager to move into our phases of reopening. We have a way to look at the indicators to tell us how fast we are going to get there. I hope we move through these as quickly as possible.”
Verbal clashes with counter protesters
For the second week, a line of roughly a dozen healthcare workers stood opposite the rally, asking that all of North Carolina continue to follow the stay-home orders. They were immediately heckled by a protester in what appeared to be a knight’s helmet. Others at the rally stood a few feet from them and chanted, “Let us work!”
Some protesters screamed at the healthcare workers, telling them “go home!” “go to work!” and “all paychecks are essential!” One protester asked what happens when the food runs out? Then he replied, “We’ll eat the healthcare workers.”
One protester walked onto the sidewalk where the healthcare workers were standing and asked police officers, “What law am I violating by standing on the sidewalk?’
The protester put his hands together, out in front of him, as if to be handcuffed. “Take me to jail for not violating the law,” he said. “Take me to jail.” The police officers walked away.
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Amber Brown, an oncology nurse practitioner at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, was heckled by protesters at last Tuesday’s rally. She came back to counter protest this week.
“I didn’t want people to think that the ReOpen NC is the only group that’s going to be here,” she said. “They started accusing me of being a fake nurse, so I identified myself.”
Brown added, “I can’t believe I have to be here.”
Later, retired nurse Deborah McNally joined the protesters opposed to Cooper’s order as they moved to the state Capitol. McNally called unemployment a greater threat than the virus.
“They don’t realize there’s not going to be a hospital because they’re not doing elective surgeries,” she said. “You can’t get mammograms, you can’t get colonoscopies. Everything is elective except COVID.”
ReOpen NC leader tested positive for COVID-19
One of the leaders of the group opposing Cooper’s measures has identified herself as having tested positive for the virus.
Audrey S. Whitlock, who is an administrator on the ReOpen NC Facebook page, posted a message to the group saying she tested positive and that her quarantine period ended on Sunday.
“As an asymptomatic COVID19 positive patient (quarantine ends 4/26),” Whitlock posted on Sunday, “another concern I have is the treatment of COVID patients as it relates to other communicable diseases. I have been forced to quarantine in my home for 2 weeks.”
Her response drew an emotional reaction from Jodi Wind of Waxhaw, who said her sister had recently died in New Jersey after colon cancer and a positive COVID-19 test.
“I am rather upset/offended by her viewpoint that she feels HER civil rights were violated,” Wind wrote in an email to The News & Observer. “Well, what about MY right to live? Has she thought about that at all? Or is she that selfish? Why should she have the ability to go about her business while infecting who knows how many other individuals? My cousin should have turned 64 yesterday, however we had to attend a virtual funeral on Sunday instead.”
The protesters seeking the state’s reopening came in Uncle Sam suits and flag-themed overalls, many carrying and some selling paraphernalia promoting President Donald Trump. Most were not wearing masks. They packed elbow to elbow in front of the legislative building and chanted at the closed legislative doors.
“Pharaoh Cooper!” one yelled. “Let my barber go!”
A group of hairdressers from Washington, N.C., came with scissors made from pool noodles and aluminum foil, urging a return to business. Barbers and hairdressers have been unable to work because of the governor’s order.
“Every job is essential,” said Danielle Wells, a salon owner. “Every job matters.”
Economic concerns, Biblical imagery
Last week, Cooper announced an extension of his stay-home order until May 8, while also establishing benchmarks that the state must meet in order to begin relaxing the restrictions.
The message being pushed by Tuesday’s protesters was overwhelmingly economic: “May 8 is too late,” they chanted.
But some protesters carried signs with Biblical themes — “Trust God not Reopening” — and some hinted at violence. One sign bore a picture of a handgun with the slogan “The Only Shot I’ll Take,” and another read, “If we hanged traitors like our forefathers did, we would all be at work today.”
Before her arrest, Ashley Smith stood in the back of a pickup and delivered a speech on Jones Street as the legislature convened.
“We’ll all go to church, we’ll open our businesses and we’ll buy what we want,” she said. “We will not go down gently. ... If you feel the need to stay home, it is your God-given right to do so. But we want to live!”
Rep. Keith Kidwell, a Republican from Beaufort County, joined Smith and said he had just filed legislation “so this could never happen.”
He told the crowd his bill would require the governor to get approval from North Carolina’s Council of State before using emergency powers, and doing so would automatically recall the General Assembly within 15 days. The Council of State is made up of the governor, lieutenant governor and other statewide elected leaders.
The bill Kidwell filed as of Tuesday only called for the General Assembly to be recalled in a state of emergency.
Half the crowd broke away from the rally to protest outside the governor’s mansion on Blount Street. State troopers and State Capitol Police stood at the gates as the protesters shouted the Pledge of Allegiance.
The ReopenNC rally had largely disbanded by 2 p.m., but about 100 protesters blocked Blount Street in front of the governor’s mansion. State Capitol Police closed the sidewalk, so protesters shouted from the street, demanding that Cooper reopen the state’s businesses.
They also took issue with the empty flagpoles in front of the mansion, asking why there were no flags flying. First Sgt. Michael Baker, spokesman for the N.C. Highway Patrol, said the flags were taken down as a precautionary measure due to a previous protest in which both the American and state flags were desecrated.
“The state Highway Patrol holds both flags in sanctity and their security remains our highest priority,” he said in an email to The News & Observer.
Smith struggled as police took her away.
In addition to Ashley Elaina Smith, 33, of Raleigh, police arrested Wendy Kath Macasieb, 53, of Catawba; Lisa Marks Todd, 55, of Raleigh; and Jonathan Warren, 35, of Indian Trail. All four were charged with violation of the executive order and resisting a public officer. Warren also faced a charge of injury to real property.
The News & Observer is keeping a coronavirus count based on reports from the state Department of Health and Human Services and county health departments. As of Tuesday, that tally stood at 9,674 cases and 360 deaths.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 10:04 AM with the headline "ReOpen protesters in NC converge outside legislative building, 4 arrested."