Meet The Manicure Police
A crisis is not just a crisis but a series of opportunities for the tiny little authoritarians.
Christian Britschgi writes at Reason:
Undercover cops arrested two women in Laredo, Texas, for violating the city's COVID-19 shutdown order. The women, Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia and Brenda Stephanie Mata, had been operating prohibited cosmetology businesses from their home.The Laredo lockdown mandates that "non-essential" businesses, including cosmetology services, must close. Police say the women were reported anonymously through the department's app.
...Their arrests are yet more evidence of law enforcement's self-defeating trend of arresting people for violating stay-at-home orders and social distancing protocols. (The Atlanta Constitution Journal has published a long list of examples here.) Arrests, by their very nature, require police and suspects to come into physical contact with each other. The people being arrested are then put in jails that have become breeding grounds for the novel coronavirus.
The reality seems to be that not all people are at the same level of risk, and there's risk in going bankrupt and losing everything.
Since we don't seem to be having the overwhelmed hospitals that were predicted, should we be letting grown adults make decisions about what risks they will and will not take?
I'm glad that crime is down so much that they can expend under cover officers to enforce this.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 28, 2020 7:17 AM
And in many places authorities have released prisoners to keep them safe from Xi's disease. But, hey let's lock up otherwise law abiding citizens and send them to Covid Island.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 28, 2020 7:20 AM
One of my long-time subscribers warned me he may have to cancel his subscription because the hospital he works for (remotely) is cutting his hours by half, because they don't have enough patients to keep paying their bills. All due to hospitals listening to politicians' medical advice.
Government is never a credible source, and it is NOT your doctor.
Kent McManigal at April 28, 2020 7:49 AM
If you were a cop why would you spend time arresting a real criminal that will just be let go. I am disappointed that law enforcement isn't pushing back on this silliness.
Kent, the parent company of a hospital in Oregon has filed bankruptcy. They have quite a few other medical providers they own. I received the notice late yesterday from our Dept of Justice.
In Oregon the Governor prohibited "elective" procedures, to prevent use of PPE, so it wasn't advisory. Although if it had been advisory they probably would have complied anyway.
Bill O Rights at April 28, 2020 6:21 PM
I've noticed the shutdown has people out I'd never normally see, like the guy with a blaster in his backpack pumping out the beats as he and his girl hike up the forest trail. In the forest. On the trail. Dance music.
Right now the ice cream truck is driving through my neighborhood, so everything's fine.
I'll have a Cornonapop and a couple o' them I Scream For Ventilators sammiches.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at April 28, 2020 6:28 PM
The theory was that without the lockdowns, hospitals would be overwhelmed with Covid patients and unable to function.
The reality is that with the lockdowns, hospitals are going broke, state governments are overwhelmed with unemployment claims (I've heard of claimants who filed in early March and haven't received anything), and food banks are running out.
It's frustrating that Trump doesn't call bullshit on this, but of course the Left would crucify him if he did. I guess that's even more frustrating.
Rex Little at April 28, 2020 9:34 PM
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