TOPEKA, Kan. – A group’s plans to arrange for unmasked people to gather Saturday inside two stores along west Topeka’s Wanamaker corridor apparently didn’t materialize.
St. Marys martial arts instructor Jason Harpe in September created a website, unmasktogether.com, in which he recently urged fellow mask deniers to join him in gathering as a large, unmasked shopping group Saturday at two west Topeka grocery stores in violation of a mask mandate approved in July by the Shawnee County Commission.
Those gatherings were to take place at 1 p.m. at Walmart, 1501 S.W. Wanamaker Road, and at 2:30 p.m. at Aldi’s, 1530 S.W. Arvonia Place, both of which require customers to wear masks.
But Harpe’s website was no longer online Saturday morning, and no unmasked demonstrators could be seen in either store during the time periods for the which the demonstations had been announced to take place.
