California city declares itself a 'republic': protest against mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations - ForumDaily
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California city proclaims itself a 'republic' in protest against compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations

For Vice Mayor of Oroville, California, Scott Thomson, the father of two boys, Governor Gavin Newsom's decree on compulsory vaccination of schoolchildren against COVID-19 was the last straw. He believed that the government had no right to tell him what to invest in his bodies or the bodies of his children. So he came up with an ambitious plan for his small town in Northern California. What did he do, said the publication Los Angeles Times.

Photo: Shutterstock

Oroville declared itself a constitutional republic. A place where local leaders promise to fight government mandates that they say go too far.

“Any administrative orders of the State of California or the U.S. Federal Government that excessively exceed or clearly violate our constitutionally protected rights will not be enforced by the City of Oroville against its citizens,” the city council said in a statement.

For some, the declaration has become a campaign for freedom. But other city residents saw it as a reckless hysteria amid the ongoing pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 73000 Californians.

Butte County, with a population of about 220, has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state. As of Saturday, 000% of residents were fully vaccinated, compared with 47% of all Californians.

Butte County's largest hospital, the 298-bed Enloe Medical Center, had an average of 26 COVID-19 patients over the past week, more than all but one of Los Angeles County's hospitals, which has a population of 10 million.

Oroville resident Celia Hirschman lost her father, Jack Hirschman, to COVID-19 three months ago. She said that such a statement offends people who have lost loved ones or people with weakened immunity.

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“It says we are not going to live by your rules,” she said. — I don’t think at all that we are talking about an open dialogue. “I believe this is a dangerous measure that should not be added to our bylaws.”

Oroville, a city of 20, is now one of California's growing communities in recent years who call themselves a place that does not conform to any liberal ideals.

Two years ago, the desert town of Needles became a 2nd Amendment sanctuary city in protest of California's strict gun control laws. And in defiance of pandemic shutdown orders, the cities of Atwater and Coalinga last year declared themselves, respectively, a "business sanctuary city" and a city where all businesses are essential—both of which lost emergency funding under COVID-19.

The Oroville Constitutional Republic Ordinance is largely symbolic, with no power over state-regulated schools.

The city is the county seat of Butte County, a county where 36% of voters are registered Republicans, 35% are registered Democrats and 20% are independents. The district voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 and for President Joe Biden last year by narrow margins. Voters here also supported an attempt to recall Newsom from office.

COVID-19 rates remain relatively high here, even though they have dropped significantly in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. The number of COVID-positive patients during the outbreak of the Delta variant, most of whom were not vaccinated, peaked at Enloe Medical Center on September 23, when 95 people were hospitalized.

“It’s hard to be here in the winter,” said Marcia Nelson, the hospital’s chief medical officer. — We do not start with a baseline of less than 10 patients; we're starting with what used to seem like a really big number."

At the Oroville City Council meeting that approved the constitutional republic resolution, the city official had to clarify to one commentator that the resolution was not "the beginning of an effort to separate Oroville from California and the United States."

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One speaker was an elderly man who likened the resolution to the Jefferson state movement decades ago, which called for California's rural conservative northern counties to secede and form their own state.

Thomson said the announcement was driven by vaccination demands, especially for schoolchildren, which were opposed by several Butte County school districts, sparking protests across the state, including in cities such as Los Angeles.

“Now that the regulations have stopped telling us to put something on the outside of our bodies or change the way we do business, we are now getting stuff stuffed inside our bodies,” Thomson said.

Thomson, pastor of the Assembly of God Church, said that he is not against wearing or against getting vaccinated for people who want it. He said he and his sons are not vaccinated but now have antibodies after a mild COVID-19 illness in August.

“There are people who think, ‘This is all a hoax,’” Thomson said. “We’re not like that.”

He said unvaccinated city workers are tested weekly for COVID-19 at the city's expense. And his church distributed hundreds of masks to parishioners.

Council members said they have been inundated with calls and emails about the resolution — both positive and negative — from across the country.

“There was a lot of swearing,” said Eric Smith, a council member and president of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce.

Smith said most local business owners support the announcement. He said the widespread closure due to the pandemic is a hard blow because it comes amid a local "financial renaissance" and population growth in recent years.

It was very difficult to find "a balanced approach to the problems of disease and spread, as well as to the livelihood of people," he said.

Councilwoman Krycy Riggs said she cast the sole vote against the declaration because she believes the best way for city officials to oppose mandates is through the court system rather than through a resolution. But she said she understands the frustration over the mandates.

“We've been in this situation for 20 months now, and I think the general feeling is fatigue,” she said. - When will it end? Yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it also comes with uncertainty and risk.”

The pandemic has exacerbated the disastrous consequences for Oroville, she said. In 2017, a spillway accident occurred at the Oroville Dam, leading to a massive evacuation; a fire at a 2018 camp in nearby Paradise; drought, which caused the shutdown of a large hydroelectric power plant on Lake Oroville.

When wildfires broke out in Butte County last summer, the air in Oroville was toxic, but indoor dining was banned across the state due to the virus, putting local restaurants in a quandary, Riggs said.

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Brian Wong, who opened Union Bar & Grill in Oroville in the fall of 2019, said he considered the city's announcement "very bold."

As a small business owner, Wong said he felt he had to deal with the state's complex and ever-changing rules on his own.

“For a whole year, this whole system was just fear and anger,” he said. “Seeing politics get involved in all this, it seemed to me that they weren’t sincere about health and safety.”

Wong, who also owns 109-year-old Chinese restaurant Tong Fong Low, said he spent a lot of money to build a patio for outdoor dining and required dozens of his employees to wear masks for over a year before vaccines became widespread.

He has heard all the opinions on the pandemic from his clients and said he welcomes different points of view. This is why he named his restaurant Union, because this is his vision for California: "bringing all these different people together to create one whole."

The 24-year-old chef said he opened his Joe's Lunch ToGo burger van in March 2020, just as the pandemic began.

Tomlinson has heard little about the declaration of a constitutional republic, but believes it won't hurt if it pushes for greater local control.

“We’re a small town and we support each other,” he said.

“It’s all just talk,” said resident Michael Suplita.

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