Covidiots Give Nazi Salute at Solano County Meeting

San Francisco Chronicle, by Michael Williams Nov. 19, 2020

A small group of anti-mask protesters extended their arms in a Nazi salute and yelled “sieg heil” before a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, angry that they were required to follow virus-prevention guidelines.

Supervisor Skip Thomson said the members of the group were the same four or five people who go to the meetings every week to “regularly oppose anything that Gov. Newsom puts in place the week before, and to criticize the board for requiring masks and social distancing at meetings.”

For those requirements, members of the group compared the council to the Third Reich — which was responsible for creating the Holocaust that killed at least 11 million people. Thomson said Tuesday was not the first time the protesters had done so.

The debacle was first reported by the Solano County news site Daily Republic, which identified the protesters as members of the Solano County Committee of Correspondence, formed to “document all past, present and future usurpations of our God-given rights by this body.”

Attempts by The Chronicle to reach members of that group were unsuccessful Thursday. Other members of the board declined to comment or did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Thomson said some members of the group told him they had medical conditions that prevent them from wearing masks. He said he understands that position — but doesn’t understand why the protesters tried sitting on chairs that had been blocked off for social distancing.

“That is their mentality,” he said. “They don’t want to mask, they don’t want to social distance, and they don’t give a darn about some of the folks sitting next to them,” he said.

He blamed the protesters’ attitudes for contributing to the issue, and said his job was to protect everybody else in the room during the meeting.

“It is because of this attitude that this economy is not being open,” he said. “Until we get the coronavirus under control, our economy will not be coming back,” he said.