Finleyville protesters denounce Wolf, urge state to reopen
Shanin Hundt/For the Observer-Reporter
Protesters hold signs Saturday in Finleyville.
Shanin Hundt/For the Observer-Reporter
Protesters hold signs Saturday in Finleyville.
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Finleyville resident Jack Crayton holds up a sign Saturday at a Finleyville protest against Gov. Tom Wolf’s lockdown orders.
FINLEYVILLE–About 20 protesters denounced Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and disrupted traffic in downtown Finleyville Saturday afternoon, expressing their anger over the continuing restrictions that have been put in place due to the coronavirus.
They carried signs calling the governor a communist, a dictator and a profane name, saying they wanted “our state back.” Some compared the shutdown orders that have been in place since March to Nazism.
Some protesters were also wearing or waving flags urging the re-election of President Donald Trump.
Tracy Lawrence, the protest’s organizer, said Wolf was abridging the constitutional rights of Pennsylvanians.
“We want our country back,” he said. Lawrence also said the protest was about “the freedom to go to church and work your ass off.”
The protest in Finleyville was one of many that have taken place around the country to protest the shutdown orders that have been put in place by governors to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus outbreak. As of Saturday, the coronavirus has killed more than 280,000 people around the world, with 77,000 of them in the United States. Polls have found most Americans supporting the lockdown efforts.
Some of the protesters urged drivers to honk their horns if they agreed with them, and many drivers did. Finleyville resident John Bryer came out on his porch to applaud the protesters, asserting that the restrictions have been “a sham.”
Another Finleyville resident, Jack Crayton, who held a sign saying that Wolf “must go,” said he was concerned about the impact the coronavirus shutdowns have been having on struggling businesses in the borough.
“We’ve got three bars and two clubs, and they’re going under,” he said.
Not all Finleyville residents supported the protest. Benjamin Fetchen hosted a community meeting online to serve as “an alternative” to the protest.
“It’s more of an effort to bring people together,” he said.