FLASHBACK: How Tim Walz created a dystopia over a virus
Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has come under fire since he was chosen last week to run alongside Kamala Harris. Criticism of Walz has ranged from his false claim that he served in combat to his decree requiring tampons in boys’ bathrooms.
Less attention, however, has been given to Walz’s dystopian policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘An incredible use of tyranny’
Lisa Hanson had owned a wine and coffee bistro in Minnesota for eight years when the pandemic was declared in 2020. When Walz ordered the state’s first lockdown, she initially complied. Then she noticed an inconsistency.
“He shut down bars, restaurants, gyms, dance studios, hair salons, etcetera. Who did he not shut down? . . . He did not shut down liquor stores, he did not shut down strip clubs,” she told Fox News. “An incredible use of tyranny against the people.”
Hanson refused to obey Walz’s subsequent lockdown orders as he kept small businesses closed.
“The state came down on us with a vengeance . . . they came down, they sent the Health Department down, they sent everything they could against us, they employed all of their resources against we the people,” the grandmother of 17 recalled.
Hanson was convicted of a misdemeanor. She was slapped with the maximum sentence of 90 days in jail, of which she served 60, and the maximum fine of $1,000.
"My family has paid a dear price. While I was in jail, I missed out on Christmas with my family, I missed out on my wedding anniversary, and I also missed out on the birth of one of my grandchildren," Hanson said. "I can never have that time back. That time was stolen from me. My business was destroyed. My business is gone. After everything that happened, Tim Walz and [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison destroyed my business. They wrecked my life."
In 2022 Hanson moved to Wisconsin to start a new life.
‘I almost dropped to my knees’
Lisa Zarza, another Minnesota small business owner, also complied with Walz’s lockdown at first. By October 2020, however, she saw that Walz allowed major stores to re-open while keeping small businesses like hers shuttered.
“Everything else, literally Target, Walmart, Home Depot. Everyone was open 100 percent. The same exact order that shut us down, opened them all up,” Zarza recalled. “He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us,” the 52-year-old grandmother added.
Like Hanson, Zarza had no choice but to violate the lockdown orders, evoking the wrath of Walz’s government. She was threatened with heavy fines which she tried to fight in court. With legal fees totaling over $300,000 and being forbidden to work, she was forced to declare bankruptcy.
“I had to leave the state to be able to legally work and make a living,” she said.
When the news broke last week that Walz is in the running for the second-highest position in the land, Zarza became sick from the trauma.
“I almost dropped to my knees and I was sick. I was literally sick to my stomach. Everything that he did to our state came back. I rode an hour to work and cried the whole way,” she said.
The snitch line
After issuing lockdown decrees, Walz also ordered a hotline created for Minnesotans to report their neighbors for violations, which he said was, “for their own good.”
“We simply want people to be able to call and let folks know. It’s for their own good,” Walz said at the time, referring to the hotline as an “educational piece” for people who “may not be as informed.”
The snitch line remained in operation into the summer of 2022. Minnesotans who called the hotline heard the following automated message:
Hello, you have reached the Department of Public Safety stay-at-home hotline. The information you leave is considered public information. At the tone, please leave the following information: your name, your callback number, how a stay-at-home order is being violated, and where the stay-at-home order was violated. Thank you.
