Woman who organized protest against ‘stay-at-home’ orders hit with violation charges

A woman who organized a protest against Gov. Phil Murphy’s stay-at-home executive orders was charged for allegedly violating those orders.

News 12 Staff

Apr 18, 2020, 12:08 AM

Updated 1,699 days ago

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Woman who organized protest against ‘stay-at-home’ orders hit with violation charges
A woman who organized a protest against Gov. Phil Murphy’s stay-at-home executive orders was charged for allegedly violating those orders.
According to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, New Jersey State Police charged Kim Pagan of Toms River with violating the emergency orders for organizing the event in Trenton.
The group gathered outside the New Jersey State House while the governor and other state officials held a media briefing about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, Murphy signed a series of executive orders he says are designed to slow the spread of the virus. Those orders included closing all schools, bars and restaurants in the state, and requiring other nonessential businesses to close. The orders resulted in an unprecedented number of people losing their jobs and filing for unemployment.
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The protesters called on the governor to reopen New Jersey and allow people to go back to work and start to repair the economy.
Murphy said that he supports New Jerseyans’ right to protest, but said that he would not pull back on his orders until he felt it was safe to do so.
Protesters organized a similar rally in Michigan earlier this week. President Donald Trump appears to be on the side of the protesters in wanting to reopen states as soon as possible. He wrote a series of tweets Friday afternoon – “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA.”
The president issued guidelines this week to state governors about how to best reopen their economies.