Pandemic protest
Hundreds rally for ‘medical freedom’ at Monday event in Sonora
Hundreds of self-ascribed advocates for medical freedom convened in downtown Sonora’s Courthouse Square Monday afternoon to protest against COVID-19 vaccination mandates, which resulted in two arrests.
“This gives me hope that we’re not just going to rollover,” said the unvaccinated Joseph Atencio, a technician at Satellite Dialysis in Jamestown. “New York and San Francisco don’t [explicit] decide what the rest of the country is going to do.”
Though the organizers reinforced that the rally was based on “medical freedom,” attendees came saddled with a litany of wide-ranging anti-establishment grievances ranging from taxes, abortion, forest management, gun rights and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Event organizers Michele Ryan and Charlotte Feriani, both nurses at Adventist Health Sonora, characterized the demonstration as “not an anti-vaccine rally.”
The event was developed following a California Public Health Department announcement that all health care workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 30.
“We got it out there with word of mouth and social media,” Ryan said. “It just sort of took off. A lot of people are concerned about their freedoms today. We’re not going to go away.”
Ryan and Feriani declined to provide their vaccination status.
The demonstration was largely celebratory in tone. Attendees ate food provided by El Jardin restaurant in Columbia. Resounding cheers echoed at rapid intervals with the persistent honks of passing cars.
Those in attendance included babies, children, adults, the elderly, County Supervisor Anaiah Kirk and former county supervisors Karl Rodefer and Randy Hanvelt.
Signs said “You Don’t Need Permission to Breathe,” “Coercion is not Consent” and “Freedom from Tyranny.” There were MAGA hats, “Lions not Sheep” and “Freedom not Force” T-shirts. The day’s playlist included “We’re an American Band” by Grand Funk Railroad, “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen, “Heroes” By David Bowie, the Rocky theme song and the patriotic standard “Proud to be an American.”
Some walked around the park with earpieces and walkie-talkies. The vast majority, if not all, were maskless.
Laurie Nessl stood at a booth for “New California State,” a conservative politics-affiliated secessionist organization, and handed out separate affidavits against Newsom’s and County Supervisor Ryan Campbell’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everyone hates Gavin Newsom,” she said.
Nessl said she was “allergic to vac
cinated people” and claimed she had symptoms of sore throat and headache when she was around them. She said she released half of her clientele as a hairstylist because of the alleged vaccine-induced viral shedding that occurred around them.
Some signs blamed the pandemic on Bill Gates, and at least one called for vindication of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Atencio said he believed the virus was fake and just influenza.
After the opening minutes of uproarious cheering, blaring horns and a rousing communal recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, David Bush, a pastor at Oak Hill Presbyterian and a former Sonora Police Department chaplain, led a sermon for the “folks that have truly been awakened” to “put the leaders that are tyrannizing us on notice.”
Bush was previously accused of impropriety by some members of the community for his affiliation with a straight-pride group with allegedly homophobic beliefs while serving as a Sonora Police Department chaplain.
And it was just moments after Bush called for the “blood of our forefathers to be honored today in Jesus' name” that an altercation erupted 25 feet away.
Sonora Police Chief Turu Vanderwiel said in an email Tuesday that officers responded due to a report that a 30-yearold attempted to strike someone in the head with a camera tripod. Bystanders who restrained the person said a fixed, shank-type object fell from the suspect's pocket during the scuffle.
The suspect was identified by Vanderwiel as Alexander Tischler, of Jamestown, who has previously described themself as a leftist political activist in an interview with The Union Democrat.
Matt and Katie Mcclintock told The Union Democrat that Tischler was “talking all kinds of smack” and “instigating stuff” in the lead-up to the dispute.
Katie Mcclintock alleged that she pushed Tischler's camera away from her, and her husband grabbed the camera before Tischler swung the camera tripod at Matt Mcclinktock's head.
The incident created an audible “thwack” during Bush's sermon and prompted a deluge of demonstrators to congregate around and restrain Tischler.
Among them was Kirk, who grabbed an orange-handled object off the ground near Tischler and the group before assisting in restraining him.
As more than four Sonora police officers approached and ceded a path through the surrounding crowd, a person with the microphone asked, “Do you back the blue?”
Tischler was restrained by the officers and pinned to the ground. Another man who was attempting to have Tischler released during the fray was brought to the ground, facedown by the officers, and handcuffed in the grass, while demonstrators cheered.
Tischler was booked into the Dambacher Detention Center on suspicion of battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed dirk or dagger, all felonies, along with misdemeanor battery.
The other man, a 60-year-old from Jamestown, was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest.
As of Tuesday afternoon, an online database called Vinelink listed Tischler as still being in the custody of the jail. Tischler could not be reached for comment.
“Certain aspects of this incident are still being investigated,” Vanderwiel said.
Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke said Tischler was tentatively scheduled for an arraignment at 4 p.m. Thursday, though no formal charges were filed as of Tuesday morning.
The rally was not unique to Sonora.
In past weeks, similar rallies have cropped up in Riverside, San Diego and Santa Barbara, and on Saturday two people were stabbed during clashes between anti-vaccine protesters and counter-protesters in Los Angeles.
Still, most people interviewed by The Union Democrat spoke to the crowd's monolithic unifying ideal — individual freedom — as precedent over any other social concern, including public health responsibility.
“I think we're all being pushed into a corner to make a decision about putting a substance in our bodies or providing for our families,” Kirk said. “I think this is a line.”
Tom Jeffers, a registered nurse at Adventist Health Sonora also said he was unvaccinated, noting he opposed the occupational mandate, though not others receiving it.
“I'm not opposed to people getting the vaccination by using their free choice, but I am opposed to people telling me I have to get the vaccine,” he said.
The hospital is offering religious and medical exemptions, though Jeffers indicated that the process underlying the evaluation of exemption claims was biased.
Hope Krieg, a tutor who said she was not employed by county schools, was among the young adults demonstrating and said she lamented the masking mandate for all students and staff in schools.
“I think that working in education, it's horrible for children to be masked and masked all day,” she said.
Krieg was joined by her husband, Stephen Krieg, who said he was nephew to Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Laura Krieg.
Both related the essentiality of their personal freedoms, but also reinforced what they said was the respectful decorum of the demonstration compared to other unspecified rallies where there was destruction of public property.
“We're standing here, we're loving each other, we're hugging each other,” Hope Krieg said.