NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 05: An NYPD traffic officer poses for a photo amid the coronavirus pandemic on ... [+]
Topline: Local police in the U.S. are arresting people who fail to comply with social distancing and stay-at-home orders. The American Civil Liberties Union cautions against this practice, saying jail time is potentially more dangerous, as it could expose detainees to COVID-19 and may disproportionately affect minority communities that are already highly policed.
- A 25-year-old man was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor on Saturday in Cincinnati for allegedly violating the governor’s “stay-at-home” order after posting a video on Instagram Live showing an outdoors gathering, which he narrates, saying: “We don’t give a [expletive] about coronavirus.”
- In nearby Toledo, two people were separately arrested Sunday: one for allegedly failing to disperse from a gathering of 20-plus people; the other arrest was a woman apparently among a group of 50, but “the circumstances surrounding the arrest or the reason for the crowd were not immediately available,” according to TV station 13ABC.
- Eight abortion protesters (who were originally part of a 50-person group) in Charlotte, North Carolina were arrested outside A Preferred Women’s Health Center after refusing to comply with officers orders to disperse, Charlotte’s 3 WBTV. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to Twitter expressing his dismay, calling the arrest “unconstitutional.”
- Nine people have been arrested in Hawaii for violation of stay-at-home orders, which can result in up to one year of jail time and a fine of no more than $5,000, according to local news site West Hawaii Today.
- A paddleboarder in Malibu, California was arrested on Thursday after allegedly ignoring lifeguards’ requests to come ashore on a closed beach, paddleboarding for at least 30 minutes, according to the LA Times.
- In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, two people drinking alcohol on the street who allegedly refused to comply with officers’ orders to disperse were arrested for violating the state’s stay-at-home order, which carries a $200 fine, and alcohol charges, according to LancasterOnline.
- Though social distancing-related arrests is a new and relatively rare practice with little data, the ACLU is concerned: “This will be enforced disproportionately in black and brown communities because that’s where the police already are,” Carl Takei, Senior Attorney at the ACLU who focuses on police practices, told Forbes.“The good news is that many jurisdictions have stated they are not using arrests as the primary means of enforcing these orders. Arresting people for violating a public health order is something that actually harms public health.”
Key Background: With the exception of Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, all states have mandated stay-at-home orders for all non-essential outings and non-essential workers. (The holdouts’ republican governors have defended their decisions with belief in small government and personal responsibility, says the New York Times.)
The broad call for social distancing has also highlighted the economic challenges to following safe social distancing guidelines: Wealthy individuals with homes in suburbs can work comfortably from home, while this is virtually impossible for people who live in poverty, with cramped, crowded and uncomfortable spaces, according to Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Center.
“Staying at home is a privilege. Social distancing is a privilege,” writes New York Times’ opinion columnist Charles M. Blow. “People can’t empathize with what it truly means to be poor in this country, to live in a too-small space with too many people, to not have enough money to buy food for a long duration or anywhere to store it if they did.”
