Protest Group to Gather on Sidewalks at Mullan and Reserve

Protesters are preparing for a demonstration against the mask mandate and the health department’s closure and restrictions of area businesses due to COVID-19.

Roger Mitchell with Face of Freedom dot org told KGVO that several protesters have already appeared at the Mullan and Reserve intersection on Sunday bearing signs and waving at cars passing by.

“What we're doing is we're promoting the end of the COVID facemask and the lockdown restrictions and all that sort of stuff,” said Mitchell. “The social separations and the closing down of bars and restaurants, throwing people out of work and making everybody wear a face mask which is completely useless. Basically, we’re just giving people back their freedom.”

He said the weekend protests are a preamble to the main event coming up on Saturday, May 1.

“May first is our official event,” he said. “I'm working together with another group called Stand Together for Freedom out of Stevensville. We're going to be putting a lot of people on the street right there at that intersection. Hopefully, we’ll have maybe 100 or more, maybe as many as 200. Everybody will be holding a sign that says ‘no more lockdowns’, ‘no mask mandates’, ‘breathe free’, things like that, and put pressure on the county health department to get rid of this.”

Mitchell was aware that the Mullan and Reserve intersection is the busiest and most dangerous intersection in the state, and he has prepared the protesters to follow all the applicable laws for safety.

“Everybody will be on the sidewalk,” he said. “There won't be anybody on the street and we'll just have to be really careful when they cross the street, they’ll have to cross it at the intersection with the lights and there’ll be no blockage of the traffic or of the sidewalks. We’ll be treating people the way that we would like to be treated, but we are going to be right there with our message.”

Mitchell said this protest may be a springboard for other causes the Face of Freedom organization might support in the future.

“First thing is we want the end of the COVID restrictions and the mandates,” he said. “The second thing would be that I'm trying to build a base of supporters where once this protest is over we pick up another issue and we work on that,” he said. “Basically Face of Freedom is liberty-minded towards the individual, and to see to it that we have a future of our own instead of everybody just being ground down into the state.”

Find out more about how to contact the organization here.