Councilmember Garry Bredefeld addressing what he sees as government overreach and on the re-opening of non-essential businesses in this April 2020 file photo.

Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld held a press conference at city hall Tuesday morning to address what he calls unconstitutional actions by local and state government, and to call for the immediate re-opening of businesses.

Bredefeld was joined by “non-essential” business owners to share the impact the coronavirus has had on their businesses, after lambasting Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Lee Brand and members of the Fresno City Council for taking what he calls unconstitutional actions by “the heavy hand of the government”.

The councilmember said that the deeming of certain businesses “essential” or “non-essential” is arbitrary and that businesses should immediately reopen in compliance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.

According to Bredefeld, “there has been lots of faulty data that have led to fear and panic, which has led to bad public policy, that’s been unconstitutional, authoritarian, and resulted in severe economic and societal suffering.”

Bredefeld then read statistics including 80% of the people that die from Covid-19 are 65 years or older, said that the infection rate curve could be flattening due to possible early herd immunity in the state, and cited “some physicians” that are saying that the lockdown decreases the body’s immune system, which will result it in being more prone to disease.

Because the Fresno area is not a hot spot for Coronavirus infections, and citing the seven deaths from Covid-19 in Fresno County thus far, Bredefeld said that each single death is tragic, but that policy should be driven by data.

The councilmember also discussed a lawsuit filed last week by lawyers on behalf of Los Angeles-based businesses asserting the forced shutdowns of small businesses by the state violate civil liberties and will have a long-term economic impact.

Bredefeld said that he is considering filing a lawsuit against local government and is in discussion regarding on what grounds he could sue.

“Nowhere in the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, does it state that these God-given rights are to be removed if there is a virus with a 98-99% recovery rate,” Bredefeld said.

After Bredefeld spoke, he invited four local business owners to share the effects the pandemic has had on their businesses, and to call for “non-essential” businesses to re-open.

“All three of my endeavors involve direct person-to-person interaction,” said Karen Tesi, a registered nurse, licensed cosmetologist and a gigging musician. “Under the current quarantine, we haven’t been allowed to generate any income to keep the businesses and our households running, and it is fast becoming a financial hardship to pay overhead without the ability to work.”

Tesi said that if the lockdown were to continue for even 30 more days, many businesses will be close to losing everything the owners worked hard for.

Other businesses owners in the crowd shared their experiences during the question-and-answer session.

Bredefeld also blamed “the mainstream media” and said that local journalists would not be asking certain questions if they weren’t “getting paid.” This led to some back and forth between local media members and the councilmember.

“I’m in conversations with a lot of lawyers,” Bredefeld said. “This fight has just begun and I will be involved. You might see my name on a lawsuit and we are in discussion. I’m very active in providing input into it, and we are going to win eventually. In the mean time, I’m just afraid of the destruction and human suffering we are witnessing of the result of the idiocy that’s coming out of this building [Fresno City Hall] and Sacramento.”