‘Off the wall.’ Hundreds of bikers pack into Illinois bar defying stay-at-home order

Hundreds of bikers jammed an Illinois bar for an annual three-day Memorial Day weekend party in defiance of state stay-at-home orders to fight coronavirus, WQAD reports.

“It’s off the wall, the bikers are in full force and supporting us,” said Poopy’s Pub & Grub owner Keven Promenschenkel, according to the station. “Of course, if you are worried about it then we don’t want you to come here.”

“Oh it feels great,” said Michael Hamstra, who rode his motorcycle to the Savanna bar from Prophetstown, Illinois, for the event, WQAD reported. “No words to express it.”

Promenschenkel sued Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in early May over the state’s coronavirus restrictions on businesses, the Northwest Herald reported.

The lawsuit argues that Pritzker lacks the authority to issue such orders or penalize businesses for violations, according to the publication.

“Poopys has been in business for 24 years, and is fighting to save his business and the jobs all the people that work there,” says a relief fund organized on Facebook for the bar.

The bar, which sells t-shirts featuring President Donald Trump on its site, promotes itself as “Illinois’ biggest biker destination.”

“I’m fighting for my life,” Promenschenkel said in Illinois Policy. “I don’t want to get anybody sick and I definitely tell older people and sick people, ‘Don’t come out.’ That’s crazy.”

Promenschenkel said Poopy’s Pub & Grub depends on the summer motorcycle season for its business, and cannot survive on curbside service alone, according to the publication.

“I’m not saying that there isn’t a virus, but I’m saying there’s a lot of healthy people out there and if they want to, they should be able to come out and I would like to be able to serve them and try to make a living,” Promenschenkel said in Illinois Policy. “I don’t want to lose my business.”

More than 5.5 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 347,000 deaths as of Tuesday, May 26, Johns Hopkins University reported. The United States has more than 1.6 million confirmed cases with more than 98,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. The United States has declared a national emergency.

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 11:21 AM with the headline "‘Off the wall.’ Hundreds of bikers pack into Illinois bar defying stay-at-home order."