OMAHA- Yet another week of record coronavirus cases in Douglas County has passed. With that, a group of nearly 40 people, completely maskless, was determined to protest the 'infringement of freedoms' masks create. The group's original plan was to go all go grocery shopping together, maskless as a protest to the mandate in Omaha. However, the store, along with the Omaha Police Department blocked stated they would block the protesters, and would push for the issuance of citations should the protesters enter the store.

Allie French, a protest organizer, instead planned for a group of protesters to march from the Millard West parking lot to the sidewalk in front of the grocery store with signs, flags and no masks. The majority of people came from No Mask Omaha, Nebraska Patriots and Nebraskans Against Government Overreach, two facebook groups with over 11,000 members, but messages by protesters were muddled with some yelling against masks, while others protested vaccinations for children.

“We weren’t trying to cause Hy-Vee problems, but we also aren’t just going to let ourselves be bullied and not be able to go to the grocery store, so today we are out here to stand up for that right,” French said. ”We’re not bad people. We just want to be left alone.”

On Saturday, the Douglas County Health Department reported a record 785 new COVID-19 cases, three more deaths and 384 hospitalizations, with 114 people in intensive care units.The county has recorded 270 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.

Read the full article HERE