Friday, April 10, 2020

Saying, "That's the Most Stupid Thing I've Ever Seen" is Not a Challenge

A week ago, I saw the story of man being arrested while out alone on a paddleboard, nowhere near another person, for violating social distancing rules.  He might have come within 25 feet of a pier.  And so, because a lifeguard ordered him off the water and he either didn't know, didn't hear or just didn't comply, police boats were scrambled to arrest him.  In which the police had to violate social distancing to get close enough to touch him for coming within a couple of hundred feet of a pier. 


Seriously, when we say, “that's the most stupid thing I've ever seen”, the police have got to stop saying, “hold my beer.”

Take Wednesday night services at Temple Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi.  As they've been doing, they were holding services over Low Power FM radio.  The churchgoers were in their cars, listening to the teaching on the radio when police arrived and ordered everyone to leave.  Those who questioned that were handed $500 fines.  That story link is from theBlaze, linked to the Delta Democrat-Times.
Lee Gordon — a 23-year member of the church as well as a representative for the Washington County Board of Supervisors — told the Democrat-Times the church has been using a low-power FM frequency to broadcast sermons in the parking lot for the last three weeks.

"The preacher is in the church at the pulpit, and we are streaming the service live as well," Gordon added to the paper. "But a lot of our membership is elderly and [lacks access to streaming technology]."

Gordon told the Democrat-Times he and his wife were among those gathered in the church parking lot — and figured they all were abiding by the coronavirus social distancing guidelines given they were in their cars with the windows rolled up.

But that wasn't the case — and they paid for it.

Gordon told the paper he and his wife were both issued $500 tickets.
I should note that Mr. Gordon said the police "were respectful and just doing their job. They asked us to leave first, and those who stayed got a ticket."  

(Bad quality screen capture from YouTube, posted on The Blaze)  The article explains the sole occupant of that car is a retired nurse.  Clearly the only person within 6 feet of that vehicle is the officer giving out tickets.

The arguments are just as inane as you'd think.  The Mayor of Greenville says “It's all about trying to save lives,” and “gatherings of 10 or more people have been banned in the city for more than three weeks,” but it's hard for me to grasp why having several cars with people in them constitutes a public gathering.  Perhaps if the cars were door to door with the windows open, you could violate six feet social distance, but everyone says they had their windows up.  (I don't know about Greenville, Mississippi, but around here you'd have your windows up, your car idling and your air conditioner on!)  

Despite getting the $500 fine, County Board of Supervisors member Mr. Gordon says,
"There's 25 cars 200 yards away all in the same place at the Sonic Drive-In. What we're doing endangers nobody," he said.
Frankly, that makes it sound to me like the Mayor got his panties in a bunch because he thought the church was defying him.  



10 comments:

  1. This is why tar and feathers were invented.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed.
      Voting the sumbitch out is too good for him.

      He needs hot tar and feathers on bare skin, and a rail ride at the head of the mob to the city limits, there to be deposited with orders never to return, on pain of a good neck stretching from the first light pole they can find.

      Delete
  2. And yet that Sheriff in Maine says he'll have no part in Gestapo like activities.
    Here in Michigan, our governess has blown any chance of re-election, much less avoiding a tar and feathering if she comes out of isolation.
    I hope Biden chooses her for VP. He'll stand no chance of taking Michigan.
    I aim to misbehave.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And what are the legal definitions of "distancing" and "crowd". Because we know as this continues on, not enough lawyers were included in the body counts.
    Jerry

    ReplyDelete
  4. This keeps on much longer and somebody's gonna start shooting.....and then ALL bets are off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A few dead minions is frequently the best way to let them know they've exceeded their authority, and run out of the public's goodwill, at just exactly the same time.

      Delete
  5. I haven't ever seen a deputy around the White Wolf Mine. I doubt that I ever will. Having said that and made the point for social distance, this behavior by law enforcement is despicable.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Last week I was listening to my scanner, and heard a Sheriff's call for a "Social Distancing Violation" in a park. A Deputy responded that he was in the park, in the area in question, and things looked fine to him.

    Then he and the dispatcher had a "Some People!" laugh at the call, and life went on.

    From what I've seen on the news, that type of call could result in a SWAT response in certain Big Cities.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hopefully the judge hearing the cases when people contest their tickets will exercise some common sense and throw all the tickets out. Otherwise, an Athens TN situation at the courthouse might be the result.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Last Saturday, after having spent two weeks at home, except to go to the grocery store twice for a total of one hour, I went for a ride in my car. I stayed on of the beaten path roads or ones that I could maybe reasonably persuade a police officer that I was indeed on a trip to permitted activity. In the end, I escaped detection, probably because I just didn't see any cops. I did kinda screw up in that a part of the route I took passed within sight, 100 yards, of a police station in one of the little bergs I drove through.

    I've gotta admit i was more that a little miffed that I even had to think about that kind of stuff.

    Nemo

    ReplyDelete