Below is a statement issued by California Senator Mike McGuire on yesterday’s Brius-organized rally held outside Partnership HealthPlan’s Eureka office. Senator McGuire, who has elsewhere referred to Brius’ media campaign as “disingenuous,” said Brius’ rally was “trying to take advantage of families and patients at this difficult time.”
Brius’ “so-called protest,” as McGuire calls it, was opposed by a counter-protest of dozens of angry community members determined to make sure that passersby remained aware that the controversial decision to shutter three Humboldt County nursing homes was made by Brius and its owner Shlomo Rechnitz alone. The counter-protesters, who outnumbered the handful of employees and supporters that Brius managed to turn out, held up signs that read “Shlomo’s greed will kill,” “Rockport: End poverty wages!,” and chanted “Shame on Shlomo.”