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‘They’re Trying To Punish Us’: Owner Of Restaurant Shut Down After Defying Order, Giving Shout Out To Trump Responds

   DailyWire.com
Colorado Governor Jared Polis delivers an address from the governor's mansion on Monday, April 6, 2020. Polis said that the state of Colorado will extend a statewide stay-at-home order from April 11 to April 27 due to coronavirus. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post

The co-owner of a Castle Rock, Colorado, restaurant at the center of a story that has gained national attention has responded to the state’s decision to suspend her business license for violating the state’s shutdown mandate on Mother’s Day. The state’s actions against her restaurant, she said, is about making an “example” out of her business, which she felt compelled to reopen because the state mandate is forcing businesses like hers to fire more and more employees.

As The Daily Wire reported, after a video of C&C Breakfast and Korean Kitchen reopening in defiance of the state “social distancing” orders on Mother’s Day went viral, the Tri-County Health Department cracked down on the privately owned business, issuing an order Monday indefinitely closing the restaurant.

“We sincerely hope that C&C will choose to cooperate with the rules under which they are allowed to operate so we can lift this closure order,” said Tri-County Health Department Executive Director John M. Douglas, Jr., MD. But Colorado Gov. Jared Polis made clear that C&C will be shuttered for at least a month.

“I joined most Coloradans in our frustration watching videos of people illegally packed into restaurants and thinking about all the moms and grandmothers and aunts and everyone who was put at increased risk of dying from this horrible virus,” Polis said Monday. “When people see videos of people packed into a restaurant, with no social distancing and no masks, people feel less safe, and the widespread economic pain will only be prolonged.”

The Democratic governor went on to condemn those who are acting on what he described as “ideological or anti-scientific views.”

“We’re walking a tightrope between protecting all of our health, and of course, trying to grow our economy,” said Polis. “It’s hard enough to walk without folks shaking the rope, because of their own ideological or anti-scientific views, which they choose over the lives of our brothers and sisters.”

In response to the state cracking down on her restaurant, C&C co-owner Jesse Arellano told KUSA Monday, “We had to fire a lot of people that live off the wages and everything else. What do you say to those people? … Restaurants are at a big disadvantage right now.”

“I know they’re trying to punish us,” Arellano said. “They’re going to try to make us an example, which is fine. We’re willing to accept that.”

C&C gained national attention after video of its “illegal” reopening went viral Sunday. Video posted on social media shows the restaurant packed with customers, most free of masks and ignoring state-mandated “social distancing” measures.

“So much for some of those people saying nobody would show up,” co-owner April Arellano said in the live-streamed video. “And our patio’s full too. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for this support guys. I gotta get back to work. Have a great day.”

“We are standing for America, small businesses, the Constitution and against the overreach of our governor in Colorado!!” the restaurant said in a Twitter post addressed to President Trump.

C&C is one of the growing list of small businesses being similarly punished by state authorities for reopening in defiance of what many believe to be overly restrictive social distancing mandates and amid a massive surge in unemployment nationwide. Since widespread shutdown orders became the norm in the country, over 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment.

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