Rantz: Grandma arrested for violating Inslee’s coronavirus stay-at-home order

A local grandmother was arrested (on paper) for violating Governor Jay Inslee’s coronavirus stay-at-home order. She asked children and their parents to come to a local park.

The grandma arrest comes weeks after Inslee released hardened criminals from Washington prisons over coronavirus concerns. At least three of the recently-released criminals are accused of reoffending. This issue is the latest escalation from the state as locals get antsy for a faster phase-in approach for our economy.

Rantz: After Inslee’s coronavirus prisoner release, criminals quickly re-offended

Grandma arrested over coronavirus activism

Kimberley Taxdahl is a freedom-loving grandma in Sedro-Woolley. She says our rights are being unjustly limited. She took particular umbrage to a city decision to use caution tape and a gate to cordon off Riverfront Park. The sun is out and kids have been cooped up indoors for weeks, she argues.

“[M]y argument/fight is for the parents’ right to choose what is best for their families regarding their health and welfare, not the government’s,” Taxdahl wrote on Facebook.

Taxdahl went to the park and liberated it from its chains (or, at least, caution tape). Then, on Facebook, she encouraged kids to come down to the park, even bringing free cotton candy for them to enjoy (with parental consent, of course).

“People GROW a PAIR! Be the CHANGE!,” she proudly posted on Facebook. “I just removed the caution tape at Riverfront Park! Kids deserve to be kids! Period.”

Kids and their parents showed up. So did the cops.

Grandma trespassed!

Police asked Taxdahl to leave. She didn’t. She was there to make a political statement, forcing the hands of law enforcement.

“We asked her to leave, she said she didn’t want to leave, she wanted to be arrested. We didn’t want to do that. It wasn’t a situation like that,” Sedro-Woolley Mayor Julia Johnson told Q13 FOX.

In the end, Taxdahl said she was “trespassed from Riverfront Park for the next 90 days!” But then she came back and earned arrest papers for breaking a trespassing order. On Facebook she noted she wouldn’t be going to court anytime soon to resolve this: “Courts are closed…bahaha,” she posted.

She’s also not at all upset with local law enforcement, even apologizing for taking up their time and noting they were very polite to her. And she doesn’t appear to take being paper arrested over the coronavirus too seriously.

But Taxdahl is taking one thing seriously: the death threats she received as a result of her activism.

‘I am ONE FED UP Grammie!’

Taxdahl understands the seriousness of the coronavirus. She’s a stage 3 cancer survivor living with Parkinson’s, which makes her at-risk of higher mortality if she were to catch the coronavirus. She even donated a roll of caution tape back to the city!

But she wants adults — and their kids — to be able to make responsible choices without Inslee telling them they can’t leave their homes.

Like so many Washingtonians, Taxdahl is fed up with inconsistencies in the coronavirus stay-at-home order and the perceived loss of rights. But she also doesn’t understand why kids should suffer.

“Our kids have lost everything this Summer. Loggerodeo, Skagit Speedway, Dairy Berry Days, the Tulip Festival, Blast from the Past, and the list goes on and on,” she notes. “They are depressed, they have been in ‘stay home, stay safe,’ too long.”

It’s still believed that kids are the least likely to suffer mortality from the coronavirus, with most cases believed to be mild. There’s been an increase, lately, of cases drawing the concern of doctors, but they are still studying the impact. Still, the concern from public health officials is that kids can become vectors for disease, bringing them into the home where someone at-risk of higher mortality rates could contract the coronavirus.

But for Taxdahl, she appears to support responsible adults making up their own minds.

“Please take back our freedoms before they are GONE!”

Meanwhile, the city says they’ll post staff at the park to remind folks that the stay-at-home order is still in effect.

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