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What's Erewhon protest about? Anti-maskers storm Fairfax market demanding to 'open up' LA amid restrictions

Protesters stormed the Erewhon store in the Fairfax neighborhood and urged shoppers to remove their masks

On Tuesday, December 29, what appeared to be protests, broke out at the Erewhon market on Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. Police were called to the store after a crowd of protesters shouting "Open up LA", gathered in front of the market. Many took to social media to express their shock and disappointment over the protests.

According to the Los Angeles Times, one of the protesters shouted, "They want you to wear a mask, they want you to lock down." A resident of West Hollywood, Ira Miller, told the publication that many people stormed the entrance of the building as he walked toward the market to buy groceries. Miller told the publication that none of the protesters had masks on and some were sporting the red hats in support of outgoing President Donald Trump.

Miller said, "They were pushing their way in. They were trying to push the workers out of the way for them to enter the store." Once inside, Miller stated that he heard a female protester urge customers to take off their masks. No arrests were made and Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Mike Lopez told the Los Angeles Times that the situation was brought under control and contained.

Miller also tweeted a video of the incident, writing, "I was just trying to buy some groceries at @ErewhonMarket when 50 anti-maskers stormed the entrance in a stampede. Wtf. Please stay safe, everyone. Wear a mask."

Others took to social media to react to the incident. One user tweeted, "WTF? This is Erewhon on Beverly, a stone's throw from Cedars, which is at 115% ICU capacity as of last week- & now worse Why not volunteer in community, bring groceries to the vulnerable? This is sociopathic behavior literally in the eye of the storm of the pandemic here in LA." Another wrote, "Protestors storming an erewhon is the whitest thing I’ve ever heard lol."

A user opined, "A bunch of maskless people walked into erewhon together in protest shouting 'open up la'. cops all up n down the street. i hope they throw them in jail. that’s not a protest. that’s endangering lives. if you’re an anti - masker , go F**K yourself (sic)." Another joked, "Erewhon is the best place anti-maskers could possibly storm because it has the highest number of lib anti-vaxxers and covid conspiracists."

Los Angeles has been seeing an increasing number of Covid-19 infections as patients begin to flood hospitals. A doctor at an LA County public hospital told the Los Angeles Times of the "apocalyptic" situation, "Ambulances are circling hospitals for hours trying to find one that has a bed open so they can bring in their critically ill COVID patient gasping for air. We're literally hanging on by a thread."

A CNN report stated that oxygen supply issues had led to at least five Los Angeles County hospitals to declare an "internal disaster" and turning patients away. California has averaged more than 40,000 new coronavirus infections every day for a week before Christmas, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins University cited by the outlet.