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National Guard Officers work at a checkpoint, amid restrictions on travel due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Westerly, Rhode Island, March 28, 2020. (Oliver Doyle/Reuters)

At a time when everyone in the country needs our leaders thinking the clearest, the governor of Rhode Island has decided to deploy police and the states National Guard for a house-to-house search for transplanted New Yorkers.

With support from the Rhode Island National Guard, local police officers set out on Saturday to identify New York state residents in local neighborhoods and provide face-to-face notification about newly imposed quarantine requirements for visitors from the Empire State.

The operation represented a more residential offshoot of other law enforcement efforts, mostly on the road, that Rhode Island State Police led off on Friday with support from the Guard.

They encountered people in authoritative attire, either police blues or camouflage fatigues, who notified them of a requirement for New Yorkers to immediately go into quarantine for 14 days on arrival in the Ocean State.

In Westerly, no one was arrested or cited. But the historic spectacle of authorities pursuing non-Rhode Islanders, who are now subject to special rules, highlighted the challenges Rhode Islands public health leaders face in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Westerly,six teams went driveway to driveway as Westerly police Chief Shawn Lacey put it, to identify cars, SUVs and trucks with New York license plates.

Then the duos, one police officer and one National Guard member, approached whoever was living in the house.

For those wondering if this violates the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, the National Guard can be used to assist state and local law enforcement, if invited by the states governor. Air Force general Joseph Lengyel said earlier this month that was one reason the president should not federalize the National Guard in response to this crisis; once nationalized, the National Guard cannot assume any role in assisting state and local law enforcement.

Im trying to think of a decision that would do more to stir public panic than members of the military going door-to-door with police and checking the legal residency of those inside. Theres plenty of precedent for using the National Guard in emergencies, but even in the worst of circumstances, National Guard leaders understand the importance of not creating the impression that the area is under martial law and all traditional protections under the law have been suspended:

In one now-famous scene during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who was in charge of the Defense Departments response to the catastrophe, shouted at troops to lower their guns.

Put those **** weapons down! he shouted, waving one arm for emphasis. Im not going to tell you again, ******* it! Get those ******* weapons down!

The presence of armed guardsmen can spook locals into thinking that they are under martial law, which means that the military assumes police powers because local courts and authorities arent functioning.

In the face of criticism from the ACLU and New York governor Andrew Cuomo, Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo chose to implement a new orderrequiring anyone entering the state from anywhere else to quarantine for 14 days, making exceptions only for public-health, public-safety, or health-care workers.

There are a lot of things that the Rhode Island National Guard could do to help in this crisis. Going door-to-door looking for non-state residents is not one of them.

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union; some of the cars on the highways are no doubt traveling from Connecticut to Massachusetts and vice versa or from other states. The Fourth Amendment would probably prohibit police from stopping any car with out-of-state plates simply for that reason.

Our liberal friends have warned the world about the barely repressed fascist impulses of conservatives and Republicans for a long time. What would they think if a Republican governor were deploying the National Guard door-to-door demanding to know what states people were from?

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Rhode Islands Governor Sends the National Guard Out in a Door-to-Door Search for New Yorkers - National Review

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Robert Whitcomb, Columnist

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Robert Whitcomb, columnist

Spring hills, dark contraries:a glade in a fall valley,its one flower steeped with sun.

From Sixty, by Philip Booth (1925-2007)

Whatever is a reality today, whatever you touch and believe in and that seems real for you today, is going to be like the reality of yesterday an illusion tomorrow.

-- Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), Italian writer, best known for his plays

When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

-- Ernest Hemingway in A Moveable Feast, his memoir of life in Paris in the 1920s. Its slightly weird to me, by the way, that it will soon be misleading now to refer to The Twenties, Roaring or otherwise, now that were in the, what? Viral Twenties?

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Vacant Waterplace Park

The current emergency may be making far more people aware of early-spring Nature because far more are walking around outside to battle claustrophobia and to get exercise, partly because most gyms have been closed. But its not a very social experience, as, for example, people tend to keep on the other side of the street from fellow walkers. Still, at least theyre looking at the flowers and trees more than they might have in a normal spring.

Ive been thinking that this would be a good time to head up to New Hampshire and Vermont, get a room at a Motel 6 and check out maple-syrup-making operations for a few days. Yeah, COVID-19 will be circulating up there too but the scenery is therapeutic.

An old friend of ours who lives in Florida part of the year has several dozen acres of field and woods in the Clayville section of Scituate, R.I. She only half-jokingly suggested that shed move full time back to Clayville and live off the land, as people there (mostly) did 250 years ago. It wasnt that long ago, historically speaking, that many of our ancestors lived on farms. My maternal grandfathers family had a couple of farms in Upstate New York, and even some of my New England ancestors in the great-grandparent generation had working farms in Massachusetts. Those who didnt might have had a couple of cows and some chickens.

Newspapers Shrinking to Death

With many newspapers shrinking unto death, all they seem to have room for is COVID-19 stuff; there are many other important things happening around the world that arent being reported. As the late Bill Kreger, a news editor to whom I reported at The Wall Street Journal once observed: Sometimes the most important story starts out at the bottom of Page 37. What might we be missing?

Well, The Boston Guardian reports that property and violent crime is down in its circulation area this year. But maybe thats a virus-related story? As newly unemployed people run out of money will property crimes increase?

Then theres an inspiring little item from the March 24 Wall Street Journal: Voters in Mexican border city of Mexicali have admirably told the U.S. company Constellation Brands not to complete a $1.4 billion brewery there because the facility would take so much water that it could jeopardize the irrigation-dependent agriculture in the region.

In other heartening, if mostly symbolic, news, the U.S. has indicted Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and some sidekicks for drug trafficking and is offering $15 million to those who aid his capture. Dont expect Maduro to appear any time soon in a federal court, but the move is apt to make him nervous.

And theres the important unhappy news that the worlds greatest coral reef, Australias Great Barrier Reef, had just suffered another mass bleaching caused by global warming, whose associated increase in carbon dioxide makes sea water more acidic. For more information, please hit this link:

More virus-free stuff below!

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Gotham Greens

With some medical-supply chains from China and now India broken, the idea of reducing our dependence on some Chinese imports, as Trump and many others have proposed, is quite right. But domestic supply chains can be compromised, too, by pandemics. That includes food. Thus the more food we can grow and ship regionally the better e.g., via the huge Gotham Greens greenhouse in Providence.

xxx

My heroes! A fine bookstore open near our house has remained open, God bless em, with proper space precautions inside. It offers some mental trips into brighter days.

xxx

Much has been made of the dangers of living in cities in times of epidemics because of the density. Quite a few people, mostly rich folks, have, for example, left New York in the past couple of weeks to shelter in place in rural and/or summer resort places angering many of the locals. But too little has been made of cities advantages during such times.

The biggest is having lots of hospitals and other health-care facilities, and thus lots of health-care professionals, of which there are obviously far fewer in exurban and rural areas. Indeed, many rural hospitals have been closed in recent years. (So have some urban hospitals, such as Pawtuckets Memorial Hospital. Can and should Memorial be reopened? Its closure has put intense pressure on nearby Miriam Hospital.) The fragmented, inefficient and astronomically expensive U.S. health-care system is a mess. The failure to have adequate testing systems and equipment in place to address the current crisis is yet another symptom of how disordered it is.

The failure to have enough testing kits, and protective gear for health-care professionals, has resulted in a huge undercount in the number of people with COVID-19. So many of us have it now, but have no, or mild, symptoms. The development of extensive herd immunity through mass exposure, is probably well underway. The surge in reported cases probably mostly just reflects belated testing. Speaking of reported cases, dont believe numbers from China (or Russia).

Ironically, as my friend insurance executive Josh Fitzhugh noted: New York City may be one of the first places that could reopen for business because most residents will have been infected and either recovered or unfortunately passed away.

In any event, with our health-care systems inadequacies, we must focus even more on the most vulnerable populations the immuno-compromised and the elderly and limit our ambitions regarding the wider population. Eventually, herd immunity will bring the pandemic to heel, although there will be, as with flu epidemics, recurrent waves of sickness. But a vaccine, and better treatments, will probably be available within a year or so to stop or at least mitigate such epidemics. Be it by Easter, as per Trump, or later, when social-distancing rules are to be loosened, they should be eased gradually, not all at once, so that the sudden resulting increases in real or suspected cases dont further overwhelm health-care personnel and institutions.

Throughout the crisis, the core emphasis should be on tracking cases by testing so that medical resources can be most effectively geographically deployed and the most at-risk populations isolated. Then whack-a-mole, maybe for years.

Meanwhile, watch this extended interview by an old friend at The Press and the Public Project with Dr. John Ioannidis of Stanford University. Dr. Ioannidis cautions that we do not have reliable data to make long-term decisions about COVID-19, and that an extended lockdown could have far graver effects than the disease itself.

Dr. Ioannidis is C.F. Rehnborg Chair in Disease Prevention, Professor of Medicine, of Health and Research Policy, of Biomedical Data Science, and of Statistics, and is the Co-Director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford.

By the way, some major work on researching COVID-19 to develop a vaccine is being done at Boston Universitys National Emerging Infectious Diseases Institute in Bostons South End and elsewhere in Greater Boston. Yes, its supposed to be a very secure location though it unsettles some of the neighbors. To read more, please hit this link:

Recession Was Coming Anyway

After a few more weeks of severe social controls, we must start opening up the economy again to have the resources to address the longer-term public-health, economic and social effects of the virus. When a country has a market economy, it has few alternatives to doing so. That said, COVID-19, even without the social controls now in place, would have accelerated a run into a recession already made inevitable by the business cycle turned toxic by burgeoning corporate and public debt and runaway speculation in the financial markets, fueled by politically driven Federal Reserve Board policy. (And if you thought public debt was bad before.)

People calling in sick with the virus, and an increase in death rates, would be hitting the economy now anyway even without states and localities severe social-distancing orders.

Then there are aging populations, ever-widening economic inequality, trade wars, and, perhaps, the growing economic effects of global warming. How unfair all this is to the young adults hammered by the Great Recession (also caused by runaway speculation fueled by deregulation) of 2008-09, with painful lingering effects for years after! But they plug on.

As to where this pandemic is going public-health-wise, economy-wise or politics-wise: A hearty Who knows! But I do think that New Englanders, with a tendency to follow the facts, to be more skeptical than other Americans and with stronger health-care systems and institutions, will do better than in most of the United States. As our flinty second president, Massachusettss John Adams, famously noted:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

xxx

Trump has grossly exaggerated his actions in the early days of the virus crisis, which he downplayed for weeks. His only early action against the virus came on Jan. 31, when he blocked most foreigners who had recently visited China from entering the United States. Good! But his order didnt apply to Americans who had been traveling in China.

See Here

Hes also lately bragged again that he patriotically doesnt take the $450,000 presidential salary even as he sends millions in taxpayer dollars to his resorts, clubs and other facilities of the Trump OrganizationAnd so it goes: a nonstop smoke machine.

And the Electoral College may well keep him in office. Demagogues, who prosper by appealing to many citizens fear and wishful thinking, and know how to use their lack of interest in important, if boring, facts, can do very well in crises. Thats especially if they have developed superb skills of mass-media manipulation, and especially of television. (It also helps to have a foreign dictator helping out.) Biden looks like a weak candidate, at this point.

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Governor Gina Raimondo

This goes too far: Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said Thursday she plans to give State Police the power to stop any car with New York license plates in order to obtain contact information from the driver and passengers as part of her COVID-19 quarantine program.

Sounds brazenly unconstitutional to me! As the ACLU noted:

While the governor may have the power to suspend some state laws and regulations to address this medical emergency, she cannot suspend the {U.S.} Constitution. Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate simply does not, and cannot, constitute probable cause to allow police to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the goal of the stop may be.

I think that Governor Raimondo, except for the excess above, and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker have done fine jobs overseeing their states response to the virus: They are calm, articulate, data-savvy and very well-informed. What a difference from Trumps fantastical campaign-rally-style briefings. More Deep State experts, please, and less noise from our Duke of Deception. (Still, Ill miss the daily spectacles, if they ever end, especially Mike Pences impersonation of a butler -- or is it Stepinfechit? -- and Dr. Anthony Fauci with arms crossed and looking at the floor as the carnival-barker-in-chief unloads yet another whopper for his adoring Red State audience to consume whole.

Hit this link to see how one media outlet is responding to Trumps briefings.

Just Obsess on the Asteroid

View post:
Whitcomb: Cities vs. Countryside in COVID-19 Crisis; Baker, Raimondo Handling It Well - GoLocalProv

Rhode Island police have begun stopping cars with New York license plates, and the National Guard will soon help officials conduct house-to-house searches to force anyone who has traveled from New York to enter isolation.

Right now we have a pinpointed risk, Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) said, according to Bloomberg.That risk is called New York City.

Raimondo on Thursday issued an executive order enforceable by law mandating that anyone who has traveled to New York via any form of transportation must enter into a two-week self-quarantine.

The order applies to anyone who has been in New York within the past two weeks and will remain in place until at least April 25. The order, however, does not apply to public health, public safety or health care workers.

Raimondo announced on Friday that members of the National Guard will be present at T.F. Green Airport, train stations and bus stops to collect contact information for the state health department so they can keep track of who you may have been in contact with.

National Guard soldiers will then follow up with people at their local residences to ensure they are following through with self-quarantine orders.

Authorities will also be checking towns where many New Yorkers are known to have summer homes, according to the governor.

The maximum penalty for those found to be defying the executive orderis a fine of$500and 90 days in prison, according to Bloomberg.

The outlet reported that state police cars were stationed along Interstate 95 northbound on Friday afternoon and that signs ordered all New York passenger vehicles to pull over at the rest stop closest to the Connecticut border.

The outlet also reported that Raimondo had consulted with lawyers about the order and was confident it could be enforced.

However, the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) objected to the collection of motorists data.

While the Governor may have the power to suspend some state laws and regulations to address this medical emergency, she cannot suspend the Constitution, Rhode Island ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown said in a statement. Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate simply does not, and cannot, constitute probable cause to allow police to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the goal of the stop may be.

The group urged Raimondo not to follow through with such an ill-advised and unconstitutional plan.

New York has emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., accounting for roughly half the total number of cases in the country.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Saturday reported that 728 peoplehave died in the statebecause of the coronavirusand said there were 52,318 confirmed cases, including 7,681 new cases.

By contrast, Rhode Island reported only 203 positive coronavirus cases on Friday.

Original post:
Rhode Island police, National Guard begin stopping cars with NY plates and going door-to-door to enforce quarantine | TheHill - The Hill

The coronavirus epidemic has taken a new turn in recent days as officials from upstate counties and other states attempt to keep outsiders away. While Gov. Andrew Cuomo can overrule local officials in New York, his options are limited beyond state boundaries.

The governor has promoted a multi-state approach to battling the coronavirus in recent weeks, but his efforts have faced a new test in recent days as governors in Florida and Rhode Island with the blessing of President Donald Trump begin implementing restrictions on New Yorkers entering their states.

I have not heard that, Cuomo, who is chair of the National Governors Association, said of quarantine restrictions put in place by Democratic Gov. Gina Marie Raimondo of Rhode Island. I dont know any details about that. The governor will reach out to Raimondo later today, said Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa.

Trump also suggested on Saturday morning that he would impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut. I didnt speak to him about any quarantine, Cuomo said of his Saturday morning conversation with the president. I dont know how that could be legally enforced, and from a medical point of view I dont even know if that would be effective. I dont like the sound of it.

State troopers have set up checkpoints on the Rhode Island at entry points into the state where they are checking for New York license plates and demanding that any person coming from the state abide by a 14-day quarantine. Door-to-door searches by police and the state National Guard are also part of efforts to isolate anyone who has been in New York during the past two weeks.

While state governments have significant powers in an emergency, that does not mean the state can override the U.S. Constitution, according to the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties. Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate simply does not, and cannot, constitute probable cause to allow police to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the goal of the stop may be, reads a Thursday statement from the organization.

Raimondo began implementing the new restrictions on Friday. Similar measures have also been rolled out in Florida in the past week, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis now requiring all people coming from New York to self-quarantine for two weeks. He also called on the National Guard to keep tabs on passengers arriving on flights from New York and then turning that information to local officials, according to Politico.

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, a Republican who has taken controversial stands before on issues like drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, is pursuing measures that would require people coming to the county from New York City and Westchester County to report to county health officials and quarantine for 14 days. Pandering to fear and prejudice, whether against a racial and ethnic minority or a minority coming in from elsewhere, is not helpful, said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The U.S. Supreme Court leaned on the Interstate Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution in striking down a California law in 1941, and similar laws in other states, that restricted the movement of people. The legality of similar moves during the pandemic could likewise be challenged in court, though it remains to be seen what Cuomo or civil liberties groups can do about the situation in the short term. New Yorkers are not the only target of restrictions by communities across the country. Some island communities in Maine and North Carolina are barring all visitors. What happens next is unclear considering the fast-moving pace of the epidemic.

An economic downturn, state border checkpoints and increasing desperation among people across the country suggest that as time goes by the story of coronavirus will only become more like a John Steinbeck novel whose ending no one can yet know. The bum blockade garnered attention, and criticism, throughout the state and nation, reads one history of the Great Depression in California. After the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court, (law enforcement) backed down, and the bum blockade ended. But the anti-Okie sentiment continued. Now, it is New Yorkers who are facing the wrath of their fellow Americans.

Continue reading here:
'The Grapes of Wrath,' coronavirus edition - City & State

WESTERLY A patrolman knocked on Mary Patricks Misquamicut door the other day. A neighbor had reported seeing her apparently menacing license plates in the driveway.

Having New York tags is all it takes now to draw the authorities.

The officer was very nice about it, said Patrick on Friday from the driveway of her familys summer home. The small Cape has been in the family for about 17 years. He said a neighbor had called and said we just moved back in, which wasnt true. Weve been here for about three weeks. But he wanted us to know we had to stay home for 14 days.

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In this sun-bleached coastal neighborhood, suddenly busy again with walkers and lit kitchen windows, The atmosphere is a little bit hostile, said Patrick, who is 30 and teaches 10th grade in New York City in normal times. But we understand. People are scared at the same time.

While Gov. Gina Raimondo announced on Friday that the National Guard would be going door to door in such summer colonies starting Saturday looking for New York residents and reminding them to quarantine to help blunt the spread of the coronavirus, the practice has already started in some border communities like Westerly.

Patrick, who is staying in the family house with two others and her tiny dog, Pablo, said we understand the precautions, but I would say that calling the police on us because you saw our New York license plates isnt all that neighborly or a good use of police resources. Weve been here a long time.

A few miles away in downtown Westerly, an unmarked blue cruiser with dark-tinted windows slowly circled the parking lot of McQuades Marketplace.

There had been a report of a car with New York plates in the lot, but so far the responding plainclothes officer hadnt found it. A marked cruiser with two other officers arrived as well.

A few rows away, Robert Fitz, 77, of Hopkinton, exited the grocery carrying his wifes medication and a blueberry pastry for himself, wearing a protective medical mask over his face.

Fitz said he had no problem with police stopping New York cars on the roadways as Raimondo ordered Thursday with the directive to have those residents self quarantine for 14 days if they were staying in Rhode Island.

There are a lot of people from New York who think, Let me get out of here and get to Rhode Island. But you dont know if theyve been close to it or not, he said. And I dont particularly want to catch this thing because I have a heart condition and diabetes. So go to your summer home, quarantine for 14 days and then go out and enjoy yourself when needed.

Thomas Perkins, of Charlestown, came out of the grocery wearing a mask, too, but carrying a different opinion about stopping travelers on the road.

Such a drastic action seemed an infringement of personal liberties, he said, agreeing with the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, which on Thursday questioned whether such an unprecedented move violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful search.

Thats the kind of stuff we [the nation] escaped from, said Perkins, who moved to Rhode Island 10 years ago from New Yorks Hudson Valley. I can see keeping your distance and staying home. But we are one country.

Picking out the residents of one state to move against is a bit flimsy for me, he said, even if New York is a hot zone for the virus.

Around the corner, on the bridge that spans the Pawcatuck River and joins Westerly and Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Jeremy Mottala, 46, of Westerly, stopped on his walk to snap a photo of the unusual scene: an electronic sign in the middle of the road.

The sign faced the Connecticut side and flashed the message in staccato succession: Travelers out of state for residence 14 day mandated quarantine. A Westerly patrol car idled nearby.

Im a native Rhode Islander and people come here because its a beautiful place and we are glad to have them, said Mottala. But New York is a hotspot. Err on the side of caution. Im not saying were at the point where were going to put in some crazy martial law or something into effect. But Ive been quarantined for a month. And probably will for another month. So just do it.

Out on the northbound side of Route 95, between Exits 2 and 3, Rhode Island state troopers began directing vehicles with New York plates off the highway and into the parking area of the Rhode Island Welcome Center.

There, a dozen members of the Rhode Island National Guard waited by a Humvee and a white tent to question travelers. Those who said they were just passing through Rhode Island were quickly waved through. Those who said they were staying were asked to give their names and addresses.

In the first half-hour of the road stop, at least a dozen New York cars pulled in. The interchanges between the drivers and the Guard members were polite and quick.

Apparently not all the New Yorkers saw the turnoff. State police Col. James Manni was the first trooper to chase down a driver who didnt turn in, eventually stopping the car and approaching, wearing a surgical mask and blue gloves.

Responding to the ACLUs concerns, Manni said, We are not going to detain, search or violate anyones constitutional rights. We are following a lawful order by the governor.... We recognize people are scared, theyre stressed. There is a tremendous amount of anxiety out there. It is not our intention to escalate any situation or amplify their stress.

Back in Misquamicut, Mary Patrick was out for a walk.

She said shes not worried about police coming again to her door under the governors new order. They know us down here and theyve been really, really nice.

But she hopes her New York plates dont attract any more unwanted attention: These are really stressful times.

tmooney@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7380

On Twitter: @mooneyprojo

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Not all that neighborly: Police, National Guard out in Westerly, looking for New Yorkers - The Providence Journal