Patrick Townsend, the owner of Town’s End Bar and Grill in Florence, Kentucky, took to Facebook Live over the weekend with dozens of patrons entwined arm-in-arm to flip the bird at Governor Andy Beshear and his COVID mask mandate.
Said Townsend in the clip: “What we’re saying right now is, f**k you, we’re not wearing any masks. We are Americans. We’re going to do what we want and we want to have fun. So Governor Andy, we love this bar!”
After the video went viral, Townsend apologized to FOX19 News, but not for its message: “My language was very, very abrasive, and if you heard that I’m very sorry.”
Townsend called the mask mandate “a basic intrusion of our civil liberties.”
“My number one priority in life is to protect my family,” Townsend added. “That is the number one thing for me. Not to make money, not to do anything, but to protect my family and I feel like he is taking that right away from me.”
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports: “Kentucky reported 277 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total of cases to 19,389 and capping a week in which the state reported a nearly 50 percent increase in cases over the prior week.”
