(Image source from: economictimes.indiatimes.com)
United States is the leading country in the world with the maximum number of confirmed cases and reported deaths till now. While the states in the country have imposed stay at home orders, there have been no unified lockdown in the entire country.
While the governors of the state have been trying to make the restrictions stricter to further contain the spread of the virus, President Donald Trump has called the protestors “responsible” for what they are doing.
Hundreds of protestors came out on the streets in various cities across U.S on Saturday after the word of encouragement from the President against the coronavirus rules imposed in the states.
According to the reports, over 400 people gathered around Concord, New Hampshire under the heavy downpour to protest against the stay at home orders. While some remained inside their cars, some came out on the streets on their foot to express their resentment.
The crowd also included a few men wearing military style uniforms with their faces covered with a shield.
Not just that, report has it that over 250 people in Texas outside the State Capitol in Austin held a rally which included Alex Jones, who is a far-right conspiracy theorist and the founder of the Infowars site.
Justin Greiss, an youth activist working with Young Americans for Liberty stated saying, “It's time to reopen Texas, it's time to let people work, it's time for them to let voluntary interaction and good sense rule the day, not government force.”
Amira Abuzeid, who is a stay at home mother confessed saying that she might not be a doctor but the numbers don’t seem like a state of crisis to her at this point.
Few or rather a select only abided by the social distancing protocols, thus putting themselves and the lives of the other at risk.
Even a hairdressed based out of the state said that she has a business to run in order to love. Lack of business could end up making her suffer and even kill her.
Aside from these, some other demonstrations of protest have also been reported around the states of Columbus, Ohio, California, Indiana and even Nevada. Some of the protestors have drawn further encouragement following the tweets that have been made by Donald Trump addressing this situation.
The vast majority of the Americans and the states in the country are under stay at home orders that restrict unnecessary public movement and keeping all the non-essential businesses shut.
In Concord, majority of the protestors pulled up signs saying “The numbers lie” and “Reopen New Hampshire”.
The main demand that these protestors had for the government officials was to pull out the stay at home orders imposed by the governors that is going till May 04.
Even a senior individual said that the people in the country are okay to abide by the protocols that the government has suggested them with, be it the lockdown orders or the social distancing norms. But, they don’t believe that the numbers are so crucial to end up getting them stay at home orders.
According to the reports till now, New Hampshire has reported over 1500 confirmed cases with 37 deaths.
Some of the surveys have also found contradictions to these protests saying that several of the Americans believe that the social distancing orders and restrictions might be lifted way too soon, causing a chaos for the people at the end of the day.
Trump has time and time called for ways to bring back normality in the lives of the people and reopen the economy.
He went on to saying that he believed some of the governors have lost their way with these restrictions.
The largest protest against the stay at home orders took place in Michigan where over 3000 people came out on the streets to protest against them.
Majority of the protestors have time and time clarified that these protests have no political agenda. The people only want to get back to work and get on with their lives instead of putting a stopper to it all of a sudden. They said that their livelihood depends on their earnings which is why they are protesting.
By Somapika Dutta
