For the past two years Matt Strickland, the owner of Gourmeltz who is a military veteran and a Republican candidate for state Senate in Virginia 27th District, has been on the front lines battling the unconstitutional mandates that have violated the medical freedom of his family and countless other Americans. Matt Strickland was an "eyesore" for the administration of former Governor Ralph Northam because he was one of the few businessowners who was willing to stand up to the enforcement of Executive Order 72, an order which was issued in an attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, Northam sent the former Attorney General Mark Herring to take Matt Strickland to court, multiple times, in an attempt to enforce the state level COVID-19 mandates. However, courts ruled that the mandates were unconstitutional and the public, for a time, believed that the fight over Governor Ralph Northam's mandates was over under the new administration of Governor Glenn Youngkin.
How wrong many of us were to assume the fight was over ...
In November 2022, Matt Strickland was served papers ordering him to stop serving alcohol for 90 days. The temporary prohibiton of alcohol sales was rooted from, you guessed it, Gourmelt's noncompliance to COVID-19 mandates under the administration of a previous governor. Matt Strickland decided to resist that specific court order, because it was rooted from his prior resistance to COVID-19 mandates that were previously ruled unconstitutional. Then on December 2nd, 2022, both Virginia State Police and ABC Special Agents raided the Gourmeltz restaurant by confiscating alcohol and point of sale devices with records of alcohol sales. Not only was property seized from Matt Strickland's business, but ABC announced the suspension of Gourmeltz's license to sell alcohol at their establishment.
Matt Strickland recorded a livestream of part of the raid where he asked the officers multiple times if they supported the COVID-19 mandates that he was resisting, The officers refused to answer his questions and responded that they were, "just doing their job". However, Matt Strickland retorted by stating that police, "were just doing their job in (Nazi) Germany" when Jewish people were rounded up in the 1930s and the 1940s.
When Governor Glenn Youngkin campaigned for office he stated that under his administration "Virginia will be open for business again" and that businesses would no longer be shut down.
I ask Governor Youngkin, what will you do in response?
Will you fire former Governor Ralph Northam's appointees to the ABC board that are carrying on the grudges of a previous administration?
Will you instruct Attorney General Jason Miyares to have the order to prohibit alcohol sales for 90 days revoked and to order the liquor liscence for Gourmeltz to be reinstated?
Soon you will find some of these questions, and others surrounding the Gourmeltz case, up at www.QuestionsForYoungkin.com
As activists, we can't just sit and wait to see what our governor will, or won't do. The Northam-era holdouts, in our state government, have declared an open war on a Republican candidate for state senate by forcing this raid to happen. Not only should we fire back, but we should spark a movement to convince state legislators to strip the authority of the ABC board, to impose punishments in relation to previous COVID-19 health mandates. In addition, it is time to resurrect former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's iniciative, that was supported by former Governor Bob McDonnell, to privatize all ABC stores in Virginia.
As this article was written, people are rioting in China to fight back for their freedom, from a government imposing draculan COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates. What are you willing to do to put yourself on the line for freedom?
Update:
On December 7th, 2022, during the 81st anniversity of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Governor Youngkin announced that he will direct state agencies to end the enforcement of penalties for COVD-19 lockdown violations in the state of Virginia. How this order will affect Gourmeltz remains to be seen.
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