INDIANAPOLIS — Hundreds of people are expected to be on the step of the Indiana Statehouse today for a protest against Governor Holcomb’s stay at home order.
Holcomb is expected to announce more tweaks to the order today as other state governors across the nation start to roll back their own executive orders. In some cases governors, like in Georgia and Wyoming, are reopening their state economies completely.
Tim Dyer, an independent contractor, is one of the people who plan to be at the statehouse today.
“Because of Holcomb’s initial decision all my work got cut out. I didn’t receive a stimulus check and I haven’t been approved for any unemployment yet like what was suppose to happen with independent contractors.”
Dyer said he’s frustrated because he has reached out to the governor’s office before about his grievances with the stay at home order. But he said his words fell on deaf ears.
“The people who are being hurt the most by this coronavirus thing are the families of the people that are dying. I want to make that clear,” Dyer said. “But a close second is all of us who have been put out of work and there’s no way to get work.”
Dyer added that he has exhausted all of his savings since he is unable to collect unemployment and he said he’s now resorted to having to use his credit cards to get by. He believes it’s unnecessary to keep the state’s economy closed down for much longer.
“We stopped our economy and put all these people out of work because 1-percent of the population got a cold,” he said. “The whole purpose (of the protest) is very simple. People want to go back to work.”
Just over one million people in the United States have come down with coronavirus. In Indiana, there have been 17,835 Hoosiers that have gotten the virus as reported by the Indiana Department of Health. 1,007 of those who have tested positive have died.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett extended Marion County’s stay at home order until May 15th on Thursday.
Today’s protest at the statehouse is expected to start at 1:30 p.m EDT this afternoon. The governor will give is daily coronavirus press briefing at 2:30.