Protesters rally to ‘Reopen Meck,’ while a new poll shows most voters say they can wait
A small but noisy parade of honking, flag-flying cars drove through uptown Charlotte at midday Friday as Reopen Meck members protested coronavirus restrictions that have shut down businesses and plunged nearly a million North Carolinians into unemployment.
About 15 of the protesters on foot preceded the caravan of a few dozen cars. One waved a sign that said: “My body, my decision.”
“People are aware of the seriousness of it, but it should be my choice” what to risk, said protester Michelle Reese of Indian Trail. “I believe it’s my body and my choice, but that should apply to everybody’s body and everybody’s choice.”
The Charlotte protest came three days after a larger protest in Raleigh, where hundreds gathered to protest Gov. Roy Cooper’s extension of his stay-at-home order until May 8. Four protesters there were arrested.
Both are part of a national backlash against government restrictions across the country that have brought much of the economy to a halt in an effort to stem the COVID-19 crisis. Through Friday, the pandemic’s national death toll topped 63,000.
Friday’s protest came the same day that North Carolina’s death total from COVID-19 rose to nearly 400, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The number of confirmed cases rose to 10,923. Mecklenburg County’s death toll rose to 50, with 1,654 confirmed cases.
A new Meredith College poll released Friday showed 76% of N.C. voters support Cooper’s extension of the stay-at-home order. Nearly 78% support his decision to close public schools.
“Despite the claims of groups like ReOpenNC and President Trump about reopening the economy and getting back to normal, most North Carolinians are paying attention to public health professionals and seeing the impact of coronavirus firsthand,” said poll director David McLennan. “As such, they are very cautious about resuming pre-COVID-19 activities.”
It was Davidson College student Maya Pillai, who’s studying history and Hispanic studies and hopes to go to law school, who started the Reopen Meck Facebook group. On Friday it claimed 1,400 members.
Pillai has said it was talking to small-business owners and their employees that prompted her to start the group to protest the state and Mecklenburg County stay-at-home orders that put many of them out of work.
“I realized there needed to be an outlet to let them know that they’re being heard,” Pillai, who’s from Tempe, Ariz., told the Observer this week.
Its Facebook page said the group “is intended to be an offshoot of the overarching ReopenNC movement.”
“With classes and work for many of us,” it says, “it is difficult to drive up to Raleigh and protest. As a result, I felt that those of us living in and around Meckwould find this group more accessible. . . . Let’s restore our liberties and freedoms no later than April 29th, 2020.”
Cooper has said there will be a phased reopening of the state after May 8, if health indicators are moving in the right direction.
“We know that folks are frustrated, this virus has upended everyone’s lives,” Secretary Mandy Cohen of the Department of Health and Human Services told the Observer Friday. ”We’re appreciative of the vast majority of folks who are staying home. And it’s working. I also want to acknowledge that this has been tremendously, tremendously hard on folks.”
But protesters don’t like the restrictions.
“I’m here to let our governor know to not keep moving the goalposts and keeping people tied down,” Cynthia Roeth of Charlotte said as she carried a sign reading, “Economic Collapse is not healthy.”
“We have to let our people work,” said Roeth, a swim instructor and coach whose job has been shut down. “And we know how to solve problems. We’re not here to make poor decisions. We’re here to be free enough to make them.”
Richard Rivette, the Republican nominee for NC House District 107, said early control efforts should have focused on nursing homes, where about half of NC’s deaths have occurred. Like others, he said Cooper acted illegally without the consent of the largely Republican Council of State. Cooper has said the council’s consent wasn’t needed.
“You’ve got a dictator now,” Rivette said. “If I were governor and tried to do that, I’d be in court.”
The sole counter-protester at the Square wore black ministerial robes and held a sign backing Cooper’s stay-at-home order. The Rev. Raymond Johnson had traveled from Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Marion, SC.
“We’ve got a lot of church folks who’ve got children here,” he said. “We want them to be safe.”
Protester Jack Rosenblatt, a retiree from Charlotte, was driving a red, restored 1934 Ford coupe with yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags in the front and pro-Trump signs in its rumble seat. Lee Greenwood’s patriotic anthem “God Bless the USA” blared from a rear-mounted loudspeaker. Referring to the restrictions, he said he’s “just so upset with the whole thing.”
“Eight-five percent who have had the virus are getting well,” he said, describing infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci and other heath care experts as “all crooks.“
“Their one goal is to stop Trump,” he said. “It’s terrible to think that anyone would do that.”
The Miami Herald reported Thursday that a group called Women for America First had organized at least 50 “drive-in” rallies around the country Friday to support President Donald Trump and protest stay-home orders. It wasn’t clear whether the Charlotte rally was related.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 1:10 PM.
