Californians Are Ignoring Gavin Newsom’s Statewide Mask Mandate
JOEL B. POLLAK 17 Dec 2021
FTA
Californians are ignoring Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide mask mandate, which went into effect Wednesday for most indoor spaces, and is meant to prevent a winter surge of coronavirus cases associated with the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, Newsom exempted San Francisco — where he used to be mayor of the city — and the surrounding counties, because of the high vaccination rate in the region. But others are just ignoring the mandate.
In Los Angeles County, for example, gyms and restaurants are continuing as before. Podcaster and model Jessica Vaugn tweeted her observations from a party in Hollywood on Thursday night, where patrons were ignoring the new mandate:
The Sacramento Bee reported that no one can figure out who is responsible for enforcing the mask mandate, and that Newsom says he has “faith” in Californians to enforce his mandate themselves, saying that they would “self-enforce”:
When asked about the lack of enforcement mechanism for the mandate, which went into effect Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he “has faith” in Californians to follow it, but didn’t provide specifics on what would happen if they didn’t.
“I have more faith than you do in the capacity of people to do the right thing. That’s the response,” Newsom told a reporter during a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“I think people are more capable once they’re given the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ to apply themselves…and I think a lot of people will self-enforce and do the right thing.”
Local government officials say the state hasn’t given any guidance on enforcement, and some local authorities say they won’t enforce the state’s order at all.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has previously said he would not enforce vaccine mandates in his county.
Ha!
Sherriffs have the final say on mandates.