Huntington Beach Residents Defy Newsom’s COVID Diktats With a HUGE Street Rally

P. Gardner Goldsmith | November 22, 2020
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Despite the state’s image as a cesspool of collectivism, some pockets of California have for many years stood tall against the authoritarians.

From the days of 1990s “stoner rock” concerts performed in the desert using generators, and without government “permission” that gave rise to bands like Fu Manchu, Kyuss, and Queens of The Stone Age, to the April rally in San Diego where locals spoke out against Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s earliest “lockdown” edicts, many Californians know their rights - and are willing to exercise them.

Saturday, November 21, saw folks from the Huntington Beach area show this in a powerfully memorable way.

They took to the streets to defy Newsom’s recent curfew, his business closures, his “public mask mandate,” and his “gathering restrictions.” They did it peacefully, and they did it in huge numbers.

The first report I saw on the huge event came from Alex Torres of EstrellaTV, who posted brilliant, uplifting footage on Twitter and added this note about the massive crowd:

Strong presence of 'Latinos for Trump' also showed up to the Huntington Beach Pier rally against @GavinNewsom. So far it was a peaceful rally. No arrests were made. However, not many face masks were worn.

That won’t please His Highness.

Likewise, at 10:49 local time, CBSLA reporter Hermela Aregawi tweeted excellent footage from the scene, not far from the lovely, dark Pacific, offering:

What curfew? Massive crowd in Huntington Beach, CA protesting the statewide covid curfew that went into effect less than an hour ago. Live report coming up at 11p on @CBSLA #Curfew #covid #COVID19

The sidewalks were packed with energized, non-violent, people standing up against Newsom's edicts that stand in utter contempt to the Bill of Right’s assurance of the right to peaceably assemble, to worship God, to be secure in one’s belongings and property from government inspection without a warrant, to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, and the Constitution’s protection of the right to fulfill private contracts without interference from state or local politicians, police, or bureaucrats.

Sadly, and possibly as a way to undercut the sheer energy of this movement, Ms. Aregawi’s television station downplayed its size, claiming – contrary to what one’s eyes could see -- in its tweet that linked to her story on their KCAL/CBS2 website:

NEW: What appeared to be dozens of people gathered on Saturday night in Huntington Beach to speak out against the state's coronavirus curfew that went into effect at 10 p.m.

Anyone looking at the image attached to the Tweet could see that, even given its isolated perspective, there were more than “dozens” of rally participants. The rally was immense, and the description falls far from the mark of accuracy.

Still, Ms. Aregawi’s live report and the article attached to it at the station website are to be commended for capturing the magnitude of the rally, its peaceful nature, and the sense that the participants engaged in civil disobedience for very important reasons.

These would be reasons about which, as MRCTV’s Nick Kangadis reported on November 20, Newsom seems not to care – almost in the same manner as he doesn’t care to follow his own edicts.

Indeed, Nick pointed out news that, despite Newsom’s orders telling others they couldn’t go to nice restaurants, gather in big groups, or leave home without useless, bacteria-festering face-diapers, he did all those things last week, and got caught at a posh, expensive soirée with lots of others who did the same.

To be very clear: even if lockdown orders worked to stop the spread of COVID19, which has been shown to be a false belief, even if COVID19 obeyed curfews, and even if COVID19 were deadlier than the seasonal flu (which is not the case), Newsom’s orders would not only run contrary to the U.S. Constitution and most of the Bill of Rights, on a deeper, philosophical level, Newsom could never claim the moral “authority” to stop people from peacefully meeting each other and taking their own risks.

Such a stance is threatening and aggressive, and, multiplied in many other states, it has resulted in a destruction of the U.S. economy. As Ethan Yang notes for The American Institute for Economic Research:

The United States has turned a manageable disease into a catastrophe. Not only does it possess one of the largest number of deaths but the economic lockdown policies led to a 32.9 percent drop in real GDP. This is in stark contrast to Taiwan whose Q2 real GDP dropped only 0.73 percent while never instituting draconian lockdown measures as well as having one of the fewest total of deaths or cases in the world.

Gavin Newsom appears to be ignorant of this reality, ignorant of the U.S. Constitution, fundamental ethics, and blind to his own towering hypocrisy.

The people of Huntington Beach just turned out in droves to remind him.

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