Colorado officials suspended the license of a restaurant that opened for in-person dining Sunday in defiance of Governor Jared Polis’ coronavirus executive order.
As The New American reported Monday, C & C Breakfast and Korean Kitchen of Castle Rock reopened Mother’s Day to record crowds in spite of Polis’ order restricting restaurants to drive-through and takeout orders only.
Customers were clearly informed that masks and social distancing would not be required in the restaurant by this notice on the door: “ATTENTION! Our freedom doesn’t end where your fear begins. If you are scared, stay at home. If you are afraid to be within six feet of another [person], DO NOT ENTER THIS BUSINESS! God Bless America, Land of the ‘Free’ and home of the brave.”
“It’s a choice. If they don’t want to come out, don’t come out,” co-owner Jesse Arellano told KDVR. “That’s what we’re fighting for is freedom. This is America. If we don’t want to wear a mask, we don’t want to wear a mask. We want to wear a mask, we want to wear a mask.”
Few C & C customers donned masks Sunday, and most also failed to participate in the newly instituted ritual of social distancing. That was enough to put one takeout customer off his food; he also filed a complaint with the Tri-County Health Department.
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On Monday, the state suspended C & C’s license, and Tri-County ordered it to shut down. At a news conference, Polis said the license would likely be suspended “for at least 30 days” and might remain in limbo “even after restrictions on all other restaurants in the state are lifted,” according to the Denver Post.
“I hope, I pray that nobody falls sick from businesses that chose to violate the law,” Polis said. “But if the state didn’t act and more businesses followed suit, it’s a near guarantee that people would lose their lives and it would further delay the opening of legitimate businesses.”
It’s also a near guarantee that people are going to lose their lives because businesses are forcibly shuttered. The link between unemployment and suicide is well-documented. People who aren’t getting medical attention they need may die of treatable conditions, and some are already dying at home. The disruptions in the food supply are likely to lead to starvation among the world’s poor. Even the United Nations, an organization hardly opposed to authoritarian tactics, warns that “economic hardship experienced by families as a result of the global economic downturn could result in hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths in 2020, reversing the last 2 to 3 years of progress in reducing infant mortality within a single year.”
Reopening their restaurant was a matter of survival for Arellano and his wife. The two of them started C & C seven years ago, even selling their home to help fund it. While they eventually made a success of it, the unconstitutional lockdown edict has brought the eatery to the brink of permanent closure. The Arellanos say they’ve had to lay off most of their staff, and even with only two employees to help fill the permitted orders, they’re still falling behind.
None of that matters to lockdown proponents, however.
“I’ve seen a lot of love and I’ve seen a lot of hate,” Jesse Arellano told the Post. “We’ve gotten death threats; ‘We’re going to burn the place down,’ ‘I hope all your family all gets COVID and dies,’ and things like this.”
Despite the state and local shutdown orders, C & C remained open Monday. Arellano isn’t sure what he’s ultimately going to do, but he’s aware that he could be fined up to $1,000 or spend as much as a year in jail for defying Polis’ dictates.
“Everyone is tired of this and they’re ready to live life,” he said. “What kind of life are we going to have if we’re all scared to live and we’re always in a bubble? No one wants to live like that. There are risks all over the place, every day. There are animals who can hurt you in the mountains, but you don’t stop going there. You can drown in the ocean surfing, but people still go.”
Photo of Colorado Governor Jared Polis: AP Images
Michael Tennant is a freelance writer and contributor to The New American.
