Unruly Anti-Vax Mandate Protesters Break Up NH Meeting; Officials Escorted Out Over Safety Fears
Anti-vaccine mandate protesters disrupted an Executive Council meeting in New Hampshire, and officials had to be escorted out over safety concerns.
The meeting at Saint Anselm College was going to be voting on contracts to help boost vaccination efforts in the state.
According to WMUR, there were hundreds of protesters outside the building, and a number of them made their way inside.
WMUR reporter Adam Sexton was at the meeting, and he tweeted that protesters were getting upset more of them weren’t allowed in the building.
.@NHEdCommr Frank Edelblut asks @nhiop Executive Director Neil Levesque why more of the people outside cannot be allowed in. “We have a fire code,” says Levesque. #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/i7RX7O6Pz2
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) September 29, 2021
Buckle up for today’s Executive Council meeting on the road at @nhiop — one anti-vaccine mandate protester has said “we will not let them vote!” (on HHS contracts to promote the #COVID19 vaccine) #NHPolitics #WMUR pic.twitter.com/alwbZWt1lC
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) September 29, 2021
Things got so tense and unruly that the meeting ended up being cancelled and state employees had to be escorted out of the room by police for their personal safety. When protesters were informed that the meeting is cancelled, some people clapped and one shouted, “Mission accomplished.”
Councilor Wheeler announces that state employees are in fear of their lives & have left. He says the meeting is canceled. “Mission accomplished,” yells one protester. #NHPolitics #WMUR pic.twitter.com/P0opFcTmOy
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) September 29, 2021
One protester was asked why they disrupted the meeting, and they responded by calling Governor Chris Sununu a “fake Republican” and claiming the state is under “mild communism.”
Governor Sununu addressed the disruption at his covid-19 briefing later Wednesday.
“There was a group of some unruly and very aggressive individuals that interrupted the work of the council today. We had to postpone the meeting before it even started due to safety concerns for our state employees,” he said.
“We will not allow our state employees to be put in harm’s way simply for doing their job,” Sununu continued. “We had to have state police escort Department of Health and Human Services career employees to their vehicles… State employees came to work today just intending to go to the council meeting and do their job, but they had to leave with a police escort, and that is not what New Hampshire is about.”
You can watch above, via WMUR.
