MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) - Anti-government activist Ammon Bundy was one of several dozen protesters who showed up at a southwestern Idaho police officer’s home after the officer took into custody an activist at a city playground closed because of the coronavirus.
The protesters at the officer’s home on Tuesday are angry with Republican Gov. Brad Little’s stay-at-home order that went into effect March 25 and is in place until at least April 30. Meridian is one of numerous cities that have closed at least some portions of parks.
Anti-vaccine activist Sara Brady, 40, was one of several parents who on Tuesday went to the closed playground at a city park in Meridian and refused to follow an officer’s instruction to leave while one of her acquaintances recorded the scene.
After some back and forth, Brady told the officer to arrest her and turned her back to the officer and put her arms behind her back, then expressed shock at being taken into custody.
That evening, protesters showed up at the officer’s home, where other uniformed officers stood as a barrier.
Ammon Bundy, who lives in southwestern Idaho, was the leader of an armed group of anti-government activists who took over a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016. He faced numerous charges but was acquitted in federal court.
Bundy asked one of of the officers guarding the home to give some type of grievance Bundy had written to the officer in the home, and it was placed on the door of the home.
Gov. Brad Little during a news conference Thursday announcing a phased approach at reopening the state called the protest at the officer’s home “disgusting.”
Idaho has 1,802 confirmed cases of the virus and 54 deaths, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University tally on Thursday afternoon.
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