An Oregon salon owner accused Governor Kate Brown of “terrorizing” her family so as to intimidate her into compliance with the state’s lockdown order.
On Monday, salon owner Lindsey Graham appeared on Fox News, where she discussed her lawsuit against Oregon Governor Brown. She explains, “As soon as I tried to open my doors against the governor’s mandate back in May, she came at me with the full weight of the state.”
Graham was fined $14,000 for keeping her Salem business, Glamour Salon, open. When she still refused to comply with the orders of the bureaucracy, she alleges that the Governor launched efforts to “intimidate” her, her employees, and her family. The state even went so far as to send Child Protective Services to her home, to allegedly threaten the removal of her children. Graham claims that CPS “interviewed my children without my presence.”
She explains that Governor Brown “terrorized myself, she terrorized my stylists, and she terrorized my family. She took every government agency she could, and she put her full weight into intimidating me into closing, including sending Child Protective Services to my home and threatening the removal of my children.” Her lawsuit explains that “On May 6th, 2020… [Oregon’s Child Welfare Division] allegedly received an ‘anonymous’ complaint concerning Graham and her 3 children. The person making the the ‘alleged complaint’…admitted to ‘not directly witness[ing] what she is reporting.’”
Graham also alleges that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration declined to hear her challenge to the closure, labeling her business a “hazardous facility.”
She explains that the threats did not stop until she finally returned fire with a lawsuit. Filed on December 18, the lawsuit claims that lockdowns have “caused greater negative health effects on Oregonians in the form of increased stress, anxiety and depression.” The lawsuit explains the burden felt not only by Graham, but by all the people of Oregon. “The sudden, irrational, draconian, and irresponsible orders from the Defendant state of Oregon caused many people to lose their jobs, their careers and their small businesses. For many Oregonians, in an instant, their source of support and ability to provide for their families was eviscerated by an [sic] callous and unsympathetic bureaucracy.” Graham is suing Governor Brown for $100,000 in damages.
Oregon’s initial lockdown was lifted in May, but only to a degree. Since then, Governor Brown has adjusted restrictions county to county, tightening and loosening them based upon reported COVID cases. Counties surrounding urban areas have been hardest hit, many remaining only in the first “phases” of reopening. The state has faced multiple weeks of renewed lockdowns in December. The so-called “statewide freeze” has since been lifted, but many businesses are failing to rebound after the latest round of restrictions.
When strongarm tactics are employed by those in power, one starts to see signs of tyranny. When rulers violate the natural law, creating a tyranny, the people will naturally be inclined to disobey, thus leaving the rulers in a place where they must resort to the use of force. This is one of the clearest signs of a despot. The people must decide when enough is finally enough.
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