LACEY – If you travel past Township Hall on a Saturday morning to early afternoon, you’re liable to see some people out in front with chairs, signs and a message calling for action.
The group doesn’t have a formal name, nor stated political ambition but their leader, resident Donna Neil, said that for several weeks, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. “we meet here fighting for our liberties.”
The subject of their rally concerns freedom of choice for masking and vaccinations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our rights and our 10 amendments,” she added.
“We’re covering everything,” another rally member added.
“We want an audit; we want photo ID (for voting). We’re really trying to awaken people up to everything that needs to be addressed in the state,” Neil said.
Neil described those at the gathering saying, “we’re citizens. We don’t care if you are vaccinated or not but we want freedom of choice because that is our right.”
“We started out with my two daughters and my son-in-law and my husband,” she added. That first week brought out 19 people. During week four the group had “35 people and this week (week five) I think we had more like 45. We are growing,” she added.
“The Proud Boys have been here,” Neil said. Other members also noted that members of the controversial Proud Boys group previously took part in one of their weekly rallies. Members at a recent gathering called the Proud Boys a “patriots’ group across the country.”
The Proud Boys, which formed five years ago, is a far right, neo fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in opposition against left wing and progressive groups and has been linked to cases of harassment, picketing and political violence.
