While states and local governments are issuing orders to stay home and social distancing guidelines, some Michigan residents have taken to the streets to participate in a strike against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s statewide quarantine.
Dubbed “Operation Gridlock” and organized by the Michigan Freedom Fund, thousands of protesters in the capital of Lansing have refused to adhere to Whitmer’s “stay at home” order despite Michigan being one of the country’s top three states for confirmed cases of Covid-19 and deaths from the virus, only second to New York and New Jersey.
Whitmer told ABC News, “Not one of us wants to go through this again, not in a month, not in the fall,” adding, “I want you to have your freedom. I want to have mine, too. We will get to a place where we can be with our friends and family again. It’s OK to be frustrated, it’s OK to be angry. If it makes you feel better to direct it at me, that’s OK, too. I’ve got thick skin … I just ask that those who are protesting these orders, do so in a safe manner so that you don’t get sick and you don’t subject our first responders to risk either.”
