Posted on 03/27/2020 2:21:40 PM PDT by Kaslin
Back in the nineties, on an early episode of ABC’s short-lived series My So-Called Life, high school students were stunned when a handgun was brought into the school and it accidentally discharged in the hallway. By the end of the week, when they arrived at the school in the morning, there were metal detectors at the entrances and police were searching lockers and patting down some of the students in the halls. Everyone was walking around with dazed looks on their faces, but they quickly adapted to what had become “the new normal.”
I was reminded of that this week while watching the local news. The Mayor of a town near where I live was quoted as saying he was “fed up” with nonessential businesses that were still open, people not obeying the shelter in place orders and others failing to follow social distancing protocols. In response, he had somehow authorized the local police to begin breaking up gatherings of more than a few people and locking down noncompliant shops. Spectrum News interviewed a couple of police officers who sounded like they really didn’t want to do this, but planned to enforce the orders in the interest of the greater public good.
As it turns out, our community is far from the only place where this is going on. In Miami, the Mayor is similarly frustrated by the lack of compliance and the cops in his city have been instructed to get these people in line. (CBS Miami)
Sounding frustrated, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez says not enough of the businesses that are allowed to stay open are practicing social distancing. So if they won’t enforce it, the police will.
“Keep your distance. Six feet between all people is not a suggestion. It is now the rule of law,” Gimenez said.
Mayor Gimenez’s executive order limiting gathering in public places to 10 people or fewer while maintaining a safe distance has gone into effect. County police officers are now out enforcing those new rules.
Police all over Miami-Dade County have been visiting coffee shops, restaurants and other popular gathering spots, breaking up groups of people and threatening to shut down businesses that aren’t making hand sanitizer available to customers or sticking to only take-out orders. A spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department is quoted as saying, “Failure to comply with an executive order is a crime. It’s a misdemeanor and it could lead to an arrest.”
These aren’t unique cases. New York City police began enforcing social distancing rules on Monday. In the greater Boston area, police have been recorded stopping people walking along on the sidewalks and asking them, “why are you out in public?” And if the job turns out to be too much for the cops to handle, plans are already in place to mobilize the National Guard in many states and dispatch them to enforce these rules.
Is it just me, or are any of you starting to feel distinctly uneasy?
Look, I understand the rationale behind these orders. Elected officials believe that the virus could still wipe us out. (Professional estimates of precisely how dire the danger is vary considerably.) They’re making rules on the fly and doing whatever they can think of to show us that they’re working overtime to keep us safe.
But at the same time, the image of police rousting out citizens for the act of throwing a frisbee in the park or standing too close to each other at Dunkin’ Donuts is beyond disturbing. It simply feels wrong. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it feels unamerican. And if the National Guard begins deploying armed, uniformed troops on the orders of various governors to start doing the same thing, it’s going to look like something out of an early Stephen King novel.
I’ve yet to find a single incident of anyone actually being arrested for violating these orders. Why? Because for the most part, people are simply complying. When a law enforcement official shows up and tells them to break up their little coffee clutch or clear out of the dog park, people are just wandering off and following instructions. Much like the case with Angela Chase and her friends in My So-Called Life, we appear to be rapidly adjusting to our new normal.
At some point, whether it’s next month or next year, the broad danger from the novel coronavirus will have passed. But will the old normal in terms of social interactions and freedom of movement fully return? I’m sure that’s what we all expect and hopefully, that will be the case. But looking around on the streets right in my home town, it’s difficult to shake off the feeling that something has fundamentally changed. And not for the better.
and you’re now selling your soul to the devil over some nebulous virus that’s ‘supposed’ to get worse. This is an unprecedented forfeiture of our freedom and you better wake up to it
Play on Your Fears,,,
Yup,
Two weeks Ago
The Fear was everywhere!
I was Amazed
But didn’t want
Any part of it.
TRUE. The 'heart-burn' is smoke. The smoke comes from inefficient burning. It's like a campfire that is just smoldering, not burning.
The best and easiest remedy for 'heartburn' is to drink a small cup of vinegar (more acid). This will help the stomach digest(burn) the food properly (most efficient use of the energy in the food) and minimize the smoke (wasted energy).
I know about that.
Never take antacids.
Just makes it worse.
A drink of water stops it.
Didn’t have any on me in Autozone, though.
:)
“What about our civil liberties?”
These are extraordinary times, and citizens are being asked to comply with extraordinary measures judged beneficial to the common weal.
It is up to us to ensure that things return to the status quo ante—or better—when the epidemic passes.
So long as the Second Amendment remains intact, that should be possible.
Quarantines are part of English law we inherited with our constitution and there is no constitutional right against being confined so long as you are infected with a dangerous contagious disease.
Agreed.. like gassing or interring your neighbors scary.
You have it right. So many are duped with this issue just like the virus issue.
Trump was like an Deep State anti body. For three years he was our revived immune system keeping them in check, now like COVID itself, the Deep State virus has taken advantage overwhelmed our defenses, Trump, and the Deep State is running wild. The outrageous spending, authoritarianism, the lose of personal liberty and the grandstanding are like the secondary infection that is roiling our republic.
The worse part is how they(I mean the Deep Staters) are leading Trump around by the nose. The Deep State has cowed our Trump and making the most of it. It is sad and shocking. I hope Trump can recover his footing.
“Not obeying” ranks up there pretty high as well!
Those were the Dems and the Libs responding.
Smarter folks tend to stay under cover better.
Just once or twice!
How is his goat doing??
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
.
.
.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
Some are more equal than others.
“People are basically being taught that when they start going out again adopt a new permanent attitude of always being afraid of everyone else, as ANYONE else could “infect” you with something. The police state will play on those fears”
Got an uncle like that..... dude is afraid of his own shadow.
Damn shame really as he’s got a lot of potential.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.