Fresno anti-mask activist calls Mayor Dyer a ‘moron.’ Next protest? It will be ‘phenomenal’
An anti-masker who has disrupted Fresno-area businesses with protests of face-covering mandates called Mayor Jerry Dyer a “moron” and said the next protest will be “phenomenal.”
The comments came in a live video stream posted Friday on Benjamin Martin’s Facebook page.
On Saturday afternoon, Dyer sent a brief statement to The Bee regarding the video comments.
“I’ve made the City’s position on these matters very clear,” he said. “Officers will continue to protect the rights of businesses and their employees by enforcing trespassing laws.”
Martin, 50, has not only led protests locally, he was in Washington, D.C., as a mob stormed into the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. Before that, he recorded himself at a mask protest that caused the Trader Joe’s grocery store in north Fresno to shut down.
On Jan. 23, Martin led a similar mask protest at the Sprouts Farmers Market in Fresno. In that incident, he was briefly detained and cited for trespassing, then “unarrested” and released, police said.
Phoenix-based Sprouts has since filed a restraining order against Martin. A Fresno County Superior Court judge granted the order last week. It was not the first record on Martin’s legal history.
Martin had a sit-down with Dyer and Fresno’s new Police Chief Paco Balderrama after the Sprouts protest, which like the one at Trader Joe’s targeted the store over requirements that customers wear masks to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Some in the community were critical of what they believe was a soft approach by local officials toward Martin.
‘They can’t beat us in court’
In Martin’s latest live video, he tells supporters that after meeting with Dyer and Balderrama, he realized he needed more information. He says he researched several different penal codes, which he cites in his video.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to continue to stand up, we’ve got to continue to fight back, and we’ve got to continue to let these people know that we know more than they do,” he says. “They can arrest us, they can detain us, they can do what they want, but they can’t beat us in court.”
He shares the penal codes with his followers, so that, according to him, they can read the information for themselves.
“Jerry Dyer has said that if you are shopping in a store without a mask, that you’re trespassing,” he says. “The truth is guys, ... you can absolutely be arrested .... Now, you can challenge the arrest .... They can arrest you, however, I don’t think they’ll be able to prosecute you if you’re trespassing.”
Martin claims that a business that is open to the public cannot discriminate for any reasons, and says it would be a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
He further tells his supporters that what they’re doing is “legal under the Constitution” and “legal under the penal code of California.”
However, legal experts have said anti-maskers are on shaky legal ground when arguing federal law protects them.
Martin urges supporters to ‘step up’
Martin says the “problem” is that Dyer and Balderrama don’t know what they’re talking about.
“They don’t really have any knowledge ...,” he says. “Jerry Dyer is a moron. I said it Jerry, I know you probably don’t like me anymore, I’m OK with that.”
He then tells his followers that he’s not trying to make enemies, that he’s only trying to get “people to actually step up and do what’s right.”
Martin tells his supporters that they need to be able to recognize what their rights are, and not allow an overreach by the government.
“When you become a politician, you become an open target, and that’s what you are, man. You put yourself in a position to be chastised, to be called out and and to be pointed at when you’re incorrect,” he says of Dyer. “Jerry, I’m sorry, man, despite your years as the head of the Fresno Police Department, you don’t know the law.”
Before ending his video, he tells his followers to stay tuned because he has “two new ideas.”
“Our next protest is going to be phenomenal, they just don’t even know,” he says.
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 3:01 PM.
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