Texas bar house owners phase ‘Bar Lives Matter’ protest

Bar house owners in Texas staged a protest in response to the state’s buy to shut them down for a second time owing to the coronavirus, reports said.

Tee Allen Parker, owner of the Machine Drop Bar and Grille, named Tuesday’s occasion “Bar Life Matter” in an obvious reference to the Black Life Matter movement in opposition to law enforcement brutality.

Parker, whose establishment is in Kilgore, Texas, about two hours south of Dallas, is already suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbot in excess of the bar closures — which he promises are devastating his livelihood and forcing lots of of his friends into personal bankruptcy, according to CBS Austin.

“This a person particular person is choosing and choosing winners and losers,” Jared Woodfill, an attorney for Parker, told the outlet. “Gov. Abbott has preferred to sentence bar proprietors to individual bankruptcy.”

As a component of its most recent coronavirus order, Texas did not shut down or limit capacity at other enterprises — like hair salons, tattoo parlors, and nail studios. The get did require places to eat to run at 50 p.c ability.

“You cannot tell me that my little little bar is the challenge. He’s the difficulty,” Parker previously told the Washington Submit. “He’s focusing on us, and it is discrimination.”

Parker also arranged a ‘Bar Lives Matter’ protest very last 7 days at the Device Drop, and is planning to host another at the condition Capitol on Sunday.

Texas has noticed a record range of cases due to the fact the state’s reopening previously this year. The point out at present has 160,000 confirmed cases and 2,424 deaths from COVID-19.