WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Protestors descended upon the residential street of Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple to address an ordinance passed by Wichita City Council Friday regarding the use of face masks in public.
‘We Will Not Comply,’ a Facebook page created an event of the same name late Friday night asking those that take issue with the face mask ordinance to join in protest in front of the Mayor’s house.
“We don’t need the government to micromanage our lives. It’s our own choice if we want to wear a mask or if we don’t wear a mask in public,” said Dan Chase, event organizer. “That’s absolutely no jurisdiction of the government to choose that. What about that old argument ‘My body, my choice’?”
In the Facebook post to the event, Chase asked the invitees to avoid entering the Whipple property by protesting from the street. Chase, however, called the event a “full freedom protest” in his post saying if participants wished to do so, they could “open carry a firearm and exercise your second amendment right,” the right to bear arms.
A little over a dozen showed up to support the event according to the organizer. KSN could not confirm if Mayor Whipple and his family were at the home during the hour and a half long protest, but the house and function were monitored by nearby law enforcement.
Considerate hosts, even in possible absentia, the Whipple family left a cooler of beverages in the front lawn for the protestors along with a sign that read, “Welcome everyone to our house. Feel free to take the drinks and stay hydrated. Have a happy and healthy 4th of July – The Whipple’s.”
There are currently 1,499 cases of COVID-19 in Sedgwick County, according to the Sedgwick County Health Department as of noon Saturday. There have been 737 recoveries, 28 deaths, and 731 active cases.
