
Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images
Zero words were minced
A University of Maine professor of political engagement blasted demonstrators protesting against the state's lockdown orders.
As highlighted by Campus Reform, Robert Glover, who specializes in "democratic theory, political engagement, and the politics of immigration," tweeted profane remarks about protesters and their cause on Monday.
In his tweet, Glover shared a video of Maine demonstrators congregating in Augusta.
"We shouldn't overestimate support for this sort of fringe bulls**t," he wrote. "This is a very vocal, but small, minority. But a few hundred folks yukking it up in public about how we need to open Olive Garden just because JESUS and FREEDOM can thunderf*** our attempts to #StopTheSpread."
Image source: Twitter screenshot
He later added, "Inevitably, in the coming weeks, some of these folks are going to get sick. Some will end up in hospitals and needlessly put health care workers at risk. Some of them will be asymptomatic but get others sick. And that makes me livid."
Image source: Twitter screenshot
"This isn't activism," he warned. "It's f***ing bio-terrorism."
Image source: Twitter screenshot
Below is a snippet of the video Glover shared.
According to Campus Reform, the event — dubbed Reopen Maine — was set to be a "peaceful, social distancing demonstration by those who are asking the Governor to open Maine back up. Many of the State's areas are low risk and dying due to restrictions on their small businesses, churches and hospitals."
Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine, which also participated in the demonstration, said that the group's very existence is for residents to "constructively discuss which Covid 19 social distancing measures are reasonable and which measures constitute overreach by our elected representatives in government, and what a peaceful and constructive approach to rectifying that overreach could look like."
There are at least 6,700 members of Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine at the time of this writing.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimate that at least 875 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed across the state, with at least 35 deaths from the virus.