Great Post and absolutely true.
Shelter in Place is even worse than martial law.
What kind of authority can they use to order such a thing?
My answer to shelter in place is : Bite me.
Actually no it was not worse than martial law because the government cannot legally have dictated anyone to stay at home in the absence of greater circumstances. What happened in Boston was clearly called a voluntary advisory and not an order, and there were no reports of police harassment from residents who were traveling from one place to another in the Boston area. Another consideration in this particular case is that downtown Boston is relatively geographically small and densely populated and dependent upon public transit so it was probably prudent to shut train service down early as a precautionary measure. A more sprawling metropolis like Houston or Jacksonville would be completely different kind of demographic terrain for police and the public alike.