About a dozen Michigan barber and hairdressers turned the Capitol lawn into their private salon on Wednesday morning – when they offered free haircuts as opposed to living orders in the state during the coronavirus pandemic.
The demonstration, dubbed “Operation Haircut” and organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition to oppose the locking measures imposed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, attracted around 300 people, according to The Detroit Free Press.
While many were there for free cuts, others came only to protest Whitmer’s orders, which closed barber shops, salons and other businesses.
Seven barbers or hairdressers were cited for disorderly conduct – engaging in illegal work or business – after receiving warnings from state police, according to the Free Press.
The cases were referred to the state attorney general, and they could each face 90 days in prison, a $ 500 fine or both.
Angela Rigas, from Caledonia in western Michigan, told the outlet that she was ticketed after refusing to stop cutting hair three times.
“We are all here for the same reason today – to show the governor that our rights do not originate from him and that we need to open Michigan,” Rigas told the newspaper. “People need to go back to work.”
Karl Manke, the Owosso barber who inspired the “Operation Haircut” movement when he refused to close the shop even though the state suspended licenses, to MLive.com that Whitmer’s extension of his executive order had “brought him to his knees,” financially.
He even compared Jews in Nazi Germany who were “placed in cattle cars.”
“The old people in Germany were told in rolls and films and the type of propaganda that came out at the time, that they could get into this cattle car, and would be taken to these new homes,” Manke said. “They are willing to get into the cattle cars. I would not be placed in a cattle car. “
Whitmer said on Tuesday that it was “not possible” shavers, salons and personal care services would be able to open their doors when orders for home stay expire on May 28, according to MLive.
“It hurts me to say that because I want to go to get my hair done too,” the governor said. “But the fact is, the nature of personal service is such that it’s intimate, close, you can’t get social distance and cut your hair.”
“Because that is important for us to have all the protocols. My hope is that we enter phase four and then phase five and we can do those things. But at this point, it’s still too early to say exactly when we will get there. We will get there. “
