Testimony at the Anchorage Assembly on Wednesday night was passionate, raucous, and at times members of the public were escorted to the door for disrupting the meeting with applause or shouting. One man was hauled off by police in handcuffs for being too energetic in his expression of displeasure with the attempts the Assembly was making on liberty.
The Anchorage Assembly’s leftist majority may have thought they had worn out the public with a 7-hour filibuster on Tuesday night, but nearly as many people returned Wednesday for the opportunity to tell the Assembly “No” on Ordinance 2021-91, which would put everyone two and older in masks whenever they are in public.
By the time midnight rolled around Wednesday, some people had been waiting in line for 13 hours over two days for their three minutes at the microphone.
As occurred on Tuesday night, the insults were hurled freely at the Assembly, and Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance had to call for five-minute breaks, a punishment for the public outburst.
Testimony will continue on Thursday at 6 pm, and there were many more in line for an Assembly meeting that has brought focus on the handiwork of Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, who is the prime sponsor of the masking ordinance. Zaletel, for the second day in a row, did not show up to face the public’s wrath, but attended the meeting from the privacy of her home, as did fellow leftist Pete Petersen, who cosponsored the ordinance.
Many people in the audience wore paper yellow Stars of David, emblematic of the way the Jews were singled out by the Nazis leading up to their genocide. Still others held or wore signs that said “Recall Meg Zaletel,” and “I will not comply.”
LaFrance, for the second night in a row, had lost control of the meeting, and admonished the crowd repeatedly to stop clapping. At one point, she asked those who had clapped to raise their hands, and when one out of eight people raised their hands, she told security officers that they would be the ones removed if there was another outburst.
