In California, the owners of several restaurants and gyms, including Tinhorn Flats and Basilico’s Pasta e Vino, an Italian-style restaurant in Orange County, have chosen to refuse to comply with the ban and remain open. The owners of a number of restaurants and gyms, including Basilico’s Pasta e Vino, chose to refuse to comply with the ban and remain open. The picture shows the restaurant “Basilico’s Pasta e Vino”.
Lucas Lepejian, the son of the owner of Tinhorn Flats Saloon Grill in Los Angeles County, California, was arrested three times in six days for continuing to serve outdoor meals to customers during the outbreak. The restaurant argues that California’s policy of strictly prohibiting businesses from opening has nothing to do with public safety, but rather that the government is creating fear and controlling people.
Last Tuesday morning (April 6) at about 9:40 a.m., 20-year-old Lepejian was arrested by Burbank police for removing sandbags used by the city to block the front door of the restaurant to prevent it from opening, and was released a few hours later, according to CNS, the third time in six days.
The Tinhorn Flats restaurant in Burbank, Los Angeles County, is a local bar-western restaurant with a good reputation among its customers. The owner lives abroad and leaves the restaurant in the hands of his children.
During the epidemic, Tinhorn Flats has been resisting the California state and L.A. County’s epidemic ban, insisting on serving outdoor meals to customers.
At a hearing last Friday, April 9, a Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the Tinhorn Flats restaurant, which is consistent with the content of the temporary restraining order (TRO) the judge issued against the restaurant on March 8.
The judge, however, said he welcomed a motion by the restaurant’s attorney to modify the preliminary injunction and did not impose any sanctions on the restaurant’s owner.
Under the temporary restraining order, the judge allowed the city of Burbank to shut off the electricity to the Tinhorn Flats restaurant and padlock its doors. The L.A. County Department of Public Health also previously revoked the restaurant’s health permit, and the Burbank City Council last month revoked its conditional use permit, according to the report.
While Los Angeles County banned any form of dine-in service at the restaurant, Tinhorn Flats repeatedly defied health orders against the disease and refused to stop serving outdoor meals, officials said.
But on the afternoon of Lepejian’s third release, Tinhorn Flats restaurant posted on social media, “They came down hard and were afraid that Tinhorn Flats would make burgers and serve beer. LePage Jian is out of jail for the 3rd time …… We are not going to comply.”
The following day, the restaurant posted another picture with a picture of “inmates thanking California Governor Newsom while happily walking out of prison, while small business owners were handcuffed and put in jail.
The text reads, “The State of California has declared war on the state’s small businesses and citizens with common sense. While they (the state) are releasing over 17,000 criminals, they are calling in SWAT teams just to stop my family from selling burgers and beer. In the end, this has nothing to do with public safety, it’s all because (the government is creating) fear and control (of people). This is not going to go well for the far left that is trying to destroy our country.”
Fence erected around restaurant
On April 10, the City of Burbank erected a chain-link fence around the Tinhorn Flats restaurant to prevent the restaurant from opening. It drew protests from the public. It is reported that similar protests have been going on for several days.
At the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19 in March last year, California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom was the first to impose a ban on home health care on the grounds of epidemic prevention. However, large chain businesses were allowed to operate normally.
California’s economy has been hit hard by the ban, with a large number of businesses closing down. Figures show that California lost at least 2.71 million jobs due to the outbreak. During this period, Newsom has repeatedly changed the standards of the ban, which has been challenged and sued by business owners and civil society groups. A number of restaurants and gym owners, including Tinhorn Flats restaurant and Basilico’s Pasta e Vino Italian-style restaurant in Orange County, have chosen to refuse to comply with the ban and remain open.
Some business owners and chamber of commerce presidents said earlier in an interview with the Epoch Times that the state has no concrete data to prove that restaurants, hotels and other businesses caused the spread of the outbreak, yet it is undermining the livelihood of small businesses and the health of the economy by imposing a harsh ban on them for a long time.
When Newsom issued another month-long curfew against the epidemic in mid-November of last year, business owners began joining forces with the Chamber of Commerce to form a coalition to fight back. At the time, the L.A. County Economic Development Corporation estimated that approximately 700,000 jobs were lost in the food industry.
Some city municipalities, dissatisfied with the state’s restrictions, also considered creating their own city health departments to help local businesses find a way out.
During the epidemic, policies such as Newsom’s epidemic prevention ban also caused civil discontent. The “Recall Newsom 2020” campaign, which is being actively promoted by citizens, has collected more than 2.1 million signatures by the deadline. All signatures are currently being certified by counties across the state, and once the required threshold of approximately 1.5 million signatures is reached, a special election to remove Newsom from office can be initiated.
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