Roy Cooper has been under fire for closing down the North Carolina economy and costing thousands of people their jobs, livelihoods, mental and emotional health, and possibly ultimately their lives without any actual science or evidence to suggest it was necessary to do so amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Cooper has been criticized for seemingly disallowing protests as the State Capitol Police dispersed and even arrested protestors for holding a constitutionally-protected gathering outside the State Capitol last week citing protesting a “non-essential” activity. Subsequently, Cooper responded to an intent to sue letter calling on him to clarify his executive order and guarantee that protestors would not be unlawfully arrested. Thankfully, he did so. However, his shutdown orders are still upsetting citizens of the state and people are growing restless waiting on the governor to re-open the state.

Today, hundreds have gathered once again outside the state capitol to express their frustration with the decisions and are calling on Cooper to begin the process of removing the largely unconstitutional measures and let people go back to work.

Travis Fain, a state government reporter for WRAL in Raleigh now says he estimates that the number of protesters is closer to 500 rather than 200. He has been following closely and covering on Twitter: