Minnesota residents are protesting the mask mandate. | Pixabay
Minnesota residents are protesting the mask mandate. | Pixabay
Minnesota citizens protested the mask mandate on Aug. 1 by standing outside of the State Capitol, packed together, without wearing any masks.
“If I choose not to wear a mask into a business, that should be my right,” a protest organizer said during the rally, KARE 11 reported. “If I want to risk something that’s on me.”
One protester, Jim Lahr, told KARE 11 he believes the COVID-19 pandemic is "just a big hoax," and thinks mandating the wearing of masks to be an overstep on the government's part.
He told KARE 11 it is the government's way of destroying capitalism.
“By destroying the small businesses, that’s their way of ushering in socialism,” Lahr said.
Alongside the anti-mask protesters were demonstrators from the family of Elijah McClain, who was a young black man killed by police. In this group, every person was found wearing a face mask.
“We need to take the science seriously,” Marie LePage, who wore a mask, told KARE 11. "We wear seatbelts, we do a lot of other things that are for everybody’s best interest and our own best interests.”
Tate Tufte, with the Elijah McClain demonstrators, also wore a mask and didn't understand the big deal anti-mask protesters were making.
“It’s just a cloth mask that saves people, so what’s the negative?” he told KARE 11.
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