Gov. Holcomb expresses frustration with stay-at-home protest organizers
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Monday saw the second protest of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s stay-at-home order in three days.
Though the first protest had dozens of participants, the second had barely a dozen.
“I’ve seen West Lafayette, South Bend, Fort Wayne,” said Allison Bricker, who organized Monday’s protest. “I lived here for 10 years. I live in Northeastern Indiana right now, lifelong Hoosier.”
“My livelihood has been impacted greatly,” said Bree Hendley, of Indianapolis, who attended the Monday protest. “I’m chronically ill and I have recovered from COVID-19.”
Hendley used to work at a salon. Now, she’s one of thousands of Hoosiers out of work during the coronavirus pandemic: “It’s pretty apocalyptic. I feel like it is painted as hopeless, when there’s plenty of hope.
Despite Indiana’s stay-at-home order, people who protested want Holcomb to reopen the state for business.
“I think it’s important that we should keep people safe, sure, but the extent of this quarantine is ridiculous,” said Kelby Backleund, of Fort Wayne. “We’re tired of sitting in our homes. We’re tired of sitting around. We want to go back to work, get our lives going.”
Robert Hall, the organizer of the Saturday protest at the Governor’s Residence praised the Hoosier turnout.
“Nobody on Saturday, to my knowledge, was paid to be there,” Hall said. “They were all voluntarily there.”
In his briefing Monday, the governor expressed frustration at the push to reopen.
“We want to respect everyone’s voice and being able to step forward and be heard, but this would be the exact way not to be productive about that,” Holcomb said. “Potentially, it just sets us back.”
Posts online suggest not everyone at anti-shutdown protests are from Indiana. A Reddit post says the Reopen Indiana site was registered to someone from Florida who made similar sites for states all over. When I-Team 8 went to visit the site, it was shut down.
Facebook has shut down posts promoting protests in at least three states. A spokesperson for the social media giant told I-Team 8 they’ll allow the groups on the platform as long as the protest participants follow government guidelines on social distancing.
Dr. Kris Box, the Indiana health commissioner, said of the protests, “I would, in this time, like them to social-distance and to wear masks because I am very concerned about those individuals becoming ill or, if they’re asymptomatic carriers, infecting someone else.”
Protesters said they do not plan to stop and will conduct more protests.
News 8 spoke with a couple of the organizers of Monday’s protest, who said they’re working on organizing another protest for May 1.