Raucous ‘Hazardous Liberty’ ralliers challenge Washington's Stay Home, Stay Healthy order

An estimated 1,500 people gathered at the state Capitol to protest the stay home order this past weekend. Organizers called the unpermitted event “Hazardous Liberty.”

At one point, a small plane flew overhead pulling a banner that read, “Inslee is non-essential.” KUOW’s Olympia reporter Austin Jenkins was there.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

You reported these people were there to call for an end to the stay home order. Is that the main message, or are there other things they want?

Government overreach was the overriding message; that the governor is trampling on people's constitutional rights.

State representative Robert Sutherland of Snohomish County spoke: “This is how liberty is won! This is how freedom is maintained, by us doing what we're doing! We have a governor that thinks he's your king! He thinks he’s your ruler! He thinks he could just make stuff up and you’ll obey it!”

Sutherland went on to call Inslee an outlaw. This was a rebellious crowd. There was sort of a “give me liberty or give me death” motif to this event. One woman dressed as the statue of liberty held a sign saying “I will not comply.”

There was booing when Inslee is compared to a king. Who else is in the crowd?

There were several far right groups represented there, including representatives of Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters militia.

I talked to a software engineer who'd been laid off. He was holding a “Fire Inslee” sign. There was a dog groomer who's been operating her business in defiance of Inslee’s order.

And there was a mother of four who was there with her family. They were not wearing masks. She talked to me about that: “No, no masks. We’re not wearing masks at the store, either. We're flying to Florida next week for a wedding. I think the young and healthy people are who needs to create herd immunity.”

She wasn't the only one there talking about herd immunity. So did a Republican state representative. We often talk about gaining herd immunity through vaccinations, and there is no Covid-19 vaccination yet.

Public health officials are saying Covid-19 is much too dangerous, and not well understood enough, for people to purposely be exposing themselves to it. But this was sort of part of what people were saying: "It's not that dangerous. We're not that scared of it."

What do we know about how wide support may be for ending the stay home order sooner across the state?

Polls nationally and in the state have showed by large margins, people are supportive of these stay home orders. If you start looking into those polls, there's quite a partisan divide. But, I think that this was a very vocal minority at that rally.

It's also true that, as the weather is getting nicer, people are having a hard time complying with the stay home orders and social distancing.

Clearly, these folks were breaking the stay at home order. They were gathering in groups more than 50. Few of them were wearing masks. How did police respond to this gathering?

There was a sizable State Patrol presence, but we're told no arrests, no citations. Really it was just "let this thing happen," even though it was unpermitted, and even though it was in defiance of the governor's orders.

What was it like for you being there?

As we've noted, very few people were wearing masks. There was a lot of hugging and hand shaking going on. They weren't sanitizing the microphone on the stage from speaker-to-speaker.

There was definitely a different view of the threat that this virus poses at this event and on that stage. You did not get the sense that people are very worried about it.

How is Governor Inslee responding to this?

He didn't respond specifically to this event, although he did put out a statement after the first rally saying that while he supports free speech, that these protests will not determine the state's course.

He is also being sued by a handful of House Republicans. At a news conference last week, he criticized them saying, essentially, that the alternative is absolute surrender to this virus. He says that's just not acceptable for the safety of the citizenry.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.