Grand Rapids Reporter

Although Black Lives Matter rallies took place throughout Michigan in recent weeks, evidence exists that cell phone monitoring focused primarily on conservative COVID-19 restriction protesters in Lansing on April 14 and April 30 who were tracked by former Democratic candidate Dr. Rob Davidson, executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare.

As a result, Dr. Davidson faces criticism for picking and choosing which demonstrations he places under the coronavirus infection microscope, according to the Detroit News.

“The idea that the Committee to Protect Medicare finds it necessary to track the data of cell phones from conservatives who engage in their first amendment rights and doesn’t necessarily have the same concerns about spreading the virus from those they may be more ideologically aligned with is a form of rank hypocrisy from people like Dr. Davidson, the governor and really large segments, if not all segments, of the Left and Democrats here in the state of Michigan,” said Tony Daunt, executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund.

As of June 12, there are 59,496 confirmed coronavirus cases statewide and 5,738 deaths, according to the Department of Health. Nationally, the CDC reported 1,979,971 cases with 112,006 deaths.

"The media has a real problem with selective reporting," said David Schneider, regional director with the Convention of States. "Their bias is not always in what is printed but in what isn't printed. In this case, they pushed the fear of COVID-19 about a peaceful protest in Lansing while rioters and looting did not somehow promote the spread of the virus." 

The vast majority of conservatives who rallied in April protested from their cars in order to practice social distancing, while supporters demonstrating against George Floyd’s killing by a police officer took to the streets and marched together quite closely, according to Daunt.

“They're just simply not interested in using that information to embarrass their allies and that's unfortunate,” Daunt told the Grand Rapids Reporter. “It just goes to show the intellectual dishonesty among so many on the Left and it's a shame that they would engage in such behavior.”

When asked about the appropriateness of tracking Michiganders for clearly political purposes, Daunt characterized it as “distasteful when you see tracking used on one set of individuals and not on the other especially when the reason given is protecting public health because if that was the true reason, you would be tracking and monitoring the movement of people regardless of the issue they are protesting.” 

According to the Detroit News, 422 mobile devices monitored at the American Patriots Rally showed protesters traveling back from the Capitol after the rally to places like Northern Michigan, the Indiana border, West Michigan and Metro Detroit.

"The data is highly unreliable," Schneider told the Grand Rapids Reporter. "It simply is mass tracking of cell phones. With 148 members of the legislature, there are always individuals coming in and out of town. Long story, it does not differentiate and with selective public shaming of individuals exercising their rights, there certainly might be a case of disparate treatment toward those of a certain viewpoint, or those exercising their rights."

More than the legal issue of being tracked or disparate treatment, Daunt is concerned with the chilling effect cellphone tracking could have on conservative protesters in the future.

“People who were made aware of this may think twice about exercising their First Amendment rights and attending a protest in the future,” Daunt said in an interview.