Thread by @SamBraslow

At John Adams Middle School/Will Rogers Elementary in Santa Monica, where anti-mask activists are protesting public safety guidelines requiring masks in school.

Multiple SMPD cruisers nearby.

This is the third such protest in Los Angeles that I’ve documented.

A man walking a dog yells at the protesters to “get the fuck out of my neighborhood.”

A woman tells a protester that she has lost 3 family members to covid. The anti-masker says “it probably wasn’t even Covid that killed them.“

A parent confronts the anti-mask protesters over approaching his son. He tells them they shouldn’t talk to other people’s children.

One protester tries handing out cards to the middle school students as they leave school. One girl tells them to “kill yourselves.”

A student asks one of the protesters if he is a doctor and tries to give him a mask. He asks, “Where’s your data? On Google?”, and then walks away.

One parent, apparently recognizing one of the protesters, yells at the group through his window. “Now I know, you’re that idiot!…We’ve had this conversation before.”

The driver says he has also lost somebody to of Covid, a theme of the day.

The protesters get into a conversation with a girl and her father, Dr. Blaine Pope, who works (it turns out) in public health. They say they shouldn’t be made to wear masks; Dr. Pope says they are missing the “public” part of “public health.”

One Protester tells Dr. Pope, who is Black, that the masks are “a form of slavery.” His daughter exclaims, “We have been through slavery, you have not!”

The conversation between Dr. Pope and the protesters went on for some time. I will excerpt portions of it at the end.

A group of Santa Monica High seniors mount a counter protest…to protest labor conditions at the Krusty Crab? They are soon joined by Squidward.

“Krusty Krab Unfair” and “Valet Parking” among the counter protesters’ signs

Still more counter protesters show up, this time with “legalize ranch” and “I hate signs” signs.

One of the anti-maskers tries engaging with the high schoolers, asking where the Krusty Krab is.

The responses:
- “At the bottom of the ocean.”
- “Valet parking.”
- “Sus.”
- “The Krusty Krab is a metaphor for society.”

The protesters decide to leave, telling the high schoolers that they are “so indoctrinated.” As they go, the seniors tell them not to forget valet parking or legalizing ranch.

The protesters tell me that they plan on going to County Supervisor Shiela Khuel’s house next—a frequent target of their protests.

Dr. Pope asks an anti-masker to explain what “agenda” COVID-19 serves and to name the “they” behind it. The protesters answer that the agenda “is about control” in order to “depopulate the world.”

“For what end?”

“I just told you, it’s about control. It’s about depopulation.”

The protesters, who seem skeptical whether COVID-19 is even a real virus, argue that nobody is actually dying from COVID. Dr. Pope points out that COVID can precipitate a health crisis in vulnerable people.

“COVID and flu are two different things,“ Dr. Pope‘s daughter says.

The protesters say that they’re the same thing.

“Well, broadly speaking, yes. Like a cheetah and my house cat are the same thing, and yet different, depending on how you slice it,” Dr. Pope says.

Dr. Pope points out how hospitals reached their breaking point over the winter.

“These scenarios have repeated themselves throughout the world. If you look at what’s going on in India right now, is that fake?“

“I would say so, yeah.”

BREAKING: County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl confronts anti-masker protesters at her home in Santa Monica. When one protester says that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, Khuel takes a step forward and points a finger. “You are really crossing a line now. How many people did you lose to AIDS?”

This footage was sent to me by a neighbor who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from the anti-maskers.

Kuehl tells one of the protesters that he “can talk and talk and talk, but you actually do not know what you’re talking about.”

A neighbor confronts a protester about what he wants Kuehl to do to address his claims of a grander conspiracy. “Right now, we’re questioning her integrity.”

“My grandmother died of COVID,” the neighbor filming says.

A protester, Ashley, rolls his eyes and asks how old she was.

“She was 86.”

“That’s a good life,” the anti-masker tells him.

The neighbor asks Ashley what his training is in.

“Chemical engineering.”

Ashley says he is currently unemployed “partially” because of Supervisor Kuehl, but does not explain why.

I’ve covered multiple protests in front of Supervisor Kuehl’s house. This is the first time she has engaged with the protesters as far as I’m aware.

Here is my thread on the first such protest I covered at Hawthorne Elementary School in Beverly Hills

https://twitter.com/SamBraslow/status/1384984043071021056

And here is my thread on the most recent protest, which took place at a daycare in Santa Monica. I did not cover it in person, but spoke with administrators at the school.

https://twitter.com/SamBraslow/status/1387790955260956674

Update: I was sent a screenshot of one of the protesters expressing dismay at the kids’ reactions.

They say that they “expected some kids to join us.” Instead, they were met by kids who “were dressed like they were grooming to become antifa.”

“They gave us middle fingers…”

You can find and follow Dr. Pope here!

https://twitter.com/dr_blaine/status/1389411443972272134

Update 2: According to a LinkedIn page apparently belonging to Ashley, he only has a bachelors in Chemical Engineering, not a masters as he claimed. The profile identifies him as an “actor, writer, producer.”

Here’s a clip from what seems to be a reel.