Continuing Violations of Civil Rights Under COVID-19

This article was provided exclusively to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by the distinguished Judge John H. Wilson (ret.)

Every day, we are witness to the battles being fought between the authorities and the citizenry. The cause of this conflict? The on-going violations of the Constitutional Rights of US citizens and residents by state and local authorities.

In my last article, I described the emergency powers held by the states to guard the health and welfare of their residents. I also noted that these powers do not supersede the rights we hold under the United States Constitution – we still have the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly guaranteed under the First Amendment. Unfortunately, too many state and local governments continue not to know where the powers of the state end and the rights of the individual begin.

Worst of all for our Republic, it appears that one political party in particular does not show respect for our God-given rights as free people.

In New Jersey, where Governor Phil Murphy (Democrat) has publicly admitted that taking the Bill of Rights into account during his exercise of authority is “above his pay grade,” the “public health emergency” has been extended until the middle of June. In response to a peaceful protest numbering in the hundreds, Murphy’s state police brought a criminal charge against the protest’s organizer, 48 year old Stephanie Hazelton, claiming she violated the Governor’s Executive Order prohibiting large gatherings during the pandemic.

Clearly, a governor who admits he is not familiar with the Bill of Rights can’t be expected to understand that the right to peacefully assemble is enshrined in the very first of those amendments. But why extend the emergency in New Jersey at all? As of early May, 2020, the number of coronavirus cases in New Jersey is on the downswing. All counties show decreased growth in new cases, with many counties showing less than 100 deaths per 100,000 people (0.1 percent).

Ostensibly, Governor Murphy claims that long-term facilities, such as nursing homes, are still a concern. Yet, in one of the better examples of talking out of both sides of his mouth, according to CBS News, the Governor claimed “the extension of the emergency declaration does not mean the restarting of the economy will be delayed, though no hard date for when business can open has been announced.”

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Then, there is Raleigh, North Carolina, where police arrested one out of 100 protestors for violating the Executive Order of Governor Roy Cooper (Democrat). In most states, you don’t need to be at a protest to feel the long arm of the law on your shoulder. In Colorado (Governor Jared Polis – Democrat), a man called the police and reported his roommate for having two friends over – the roommate and two friends were arrested for violation of “the self-quarantine order.” In Hawaii (Governor David Ige – Democrat), nine people were arrested for violating “stay at home” orders, / and in California (Governor Gavin Newsom – Democrat), as described by the LA Times, “a paddle boarder was arrested Thursday after ignoring lifeguards’ orders to get out of the ocean near the Malibu Pier despite beach closures.”

Yes, you read that last one right. One person, alone on a paddleboard in the ocean, was arrested for violating social distancing orders. Did I mention the paddleboarder was by himself?

In Brooklyn, New York, you can get arrested for going to the barber shop, but that rule seems to only apply to African Americans. If you are Jewish, you can’t go to funerals. And in other jurisdictions, you can be a crime victim and still be arrested for violating social distancing rules. In Lorain, Ohio, a man who was shot in the leg by an unknown assailant was himself charged with violating Governor Mike DeWine’s (Republican) stay at home order.

In Pennsylvania, you can also be arrested for violating social distancing rules if you crash your car, but to be fair, in that case, the man involved “was found to be in possession of 14 cans of baby formula, 3 cases of Red Bull and 2 cases of bottled water which were later determined to be stolen from a Weis Markets in Manheim Township, Lancaster County.” Nonetheless, a charge for violating Governor Tom Wolf’s (Democrat) Executive Order was added by the local police.

The Report Concludes Tomorrow

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Putin’s Saber Rattling

Earlier this week, President Biden reversed his 2022 decision, authorizing the provision of antipersonnel land mines to the Ukrainian government. It follows an earlier Administration authorization to allow the use of an advanced American missile system capable of striking as deep as 100 miles inside Russian territory. The US election season may be ending, but both Russia and the West show no indication of stepping down the conflict. Russian propaganda continues to swell as the Kremlin increases its threats to use nuclear weapons against the West. Last week Andrey Sushentsov, program director of the pro-Kremlin think tank Valdai Discussion Club (VDC), published an article on growing nuclear tensions in the region. Official Russian language in the last few years has been threatening. Since the US election, rhetoric like that in the Sushentsov article, has approached the level of nuclear blackmail. The VDC article’s main theme centers on Russia’s intent to directly confront the West militarily if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) becomes involved in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. “On the one hand, these threats are intended to frighten the West, but on the other, Russian propagandists themselves are starting to believe in the inevitability of escalation,” according to Ksenia Kirillova of the Jamestown Foundation. On November 11, Sushentsov wrote that “The conflict will reach a completely new level, with unpredictable consequences for Europe and the entire world.” Kirillova points out that Putin’s distorted image of the world is divorced from reality and is causing the Kremlin to issue demands that are impossible to fulfill. Financial and other Russian resources needed to support Putin’s war are growing scarcer at the same time. This week the Kremlin announced a reduction of payments to its soldiers. Recently North Korea acknowledged it was sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine as Putin is running out of bodies to use as cannon fire. The war is not going well for Russia. One question floating around the Washington intelligence community is whether Putin will act out of desperation before President-elect Trump assumes office. In recent months the Russian propaganda machine is spewing out materials from fairly reputable analytical platforms inside the country. Kirillova says that “Kremlin ‘experts’ do not conceal that such threats are only intended to break the West psychologically, as they themselves are not prepared for full-scale nuclear war.” Despite Russia’s lack of preparation for an all-out war with the West, the expanding nuclear rhetoric carries with it an increase in the threat of a full-scale war in multiple theaters of operation. In June 2023 a founder of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Sergey Karaganov, called for “delivering a pre-emptive strike of retaliation” on Poland to force the West to surrender. In the previous month, Dmitry Suslov, a direct of research programs at the policy center proposed organizing “a demonstration nuclear explosion” aimed at intimidating the West. In September, President Putin announced a reappraisal of Russian nuclear doctrine after speaking earlier in the year at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and jokingly calling Suslov a “scary person.” Pavel Baev, writing in the European Daily Monitor, says “Putin intends his announcement to mark an escalation of nuclear brinkmanship and influence the proceedings of future Ukrainian peace efforts.” Putin is expanding the list of environmental conditions that are acceptable for using a nuclear weapon and incorporating it into Russian military doctrine. Baev adds that “The ups and downs of Russian brinkmanship are disconnected from the kinetic battles of the war, correlating instead with Ukrainian peace offensives, such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first peace summit in Bürgenstock, Switzerland.” Despite the increase in vitriolic language, in a You Tube video published a week before the US presidential election, Karaganov openly assured the West the primary goal of the escalation is to break the American spirit and that of the West, not outright nuclear war. By Election Day in the US, with political prognosticators predicting a win for former president Trump, Karaganov changed his tune and called for an increased role in nuclear deterrence. Kirillova points out that Western concessions to Russia are unlikely to reduce the risk of nuclear escalation. The distorted reality inside the Kremlin continues to push that President-elect Trump is an adherent of “world government,” that Ukraine will create a nuclear weapon, and Russia must prepare for a nuclear conflagration to achieve its ambitions for a new world order. President-elect Trump has indicated he will not agree to concessions that destabilize Europe, the Middle East or other regions. Going forward a strong US foreign policy may be the most stabilizing course the West can count on to restrain Putin and his intent to rebuild the Russian empire. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay

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