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

U.S. Nuclear Modernization is Urgent Priority

The undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force, Melissa Dalton, warns that “With two nuclear-armed peer competitors — Russia and China — and with both advancing their nuclear capability, the U.S. now, more than ever, must move at full speed to modernize its nuclear deterrence capability. That effort is not just for U.S. national security, but as well for partners who depend on the U.S.” She stressed that the threat from aggressive, unfriendly nuclear armed nations is unprecedented. “We face for the first time in our nation’s history, two strategic competitors that are nuclear states with large and growing nuclear arsenals. When we look at the [People’s Republic of China] and its breathtaking modernization over the last two decades, we see today they have over 500 operational nuclear warheads, far exceeding prior projections.” Some suspect that China’s nuclear force may even be larger than commonly believed. According to recent Pentagon report, “Over the next decade, the PRC will continue to rapidly modernize, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces. Compared to the PLA’s nuclear modernization efforts a decade ago, current efforts dwarf previous attempts in both scale and complexity. The PRC is expanding the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms while investing in and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support further expansion of its nuclear forces. The Undersecretary noted that in coming years, the U.S. expects China’s warheads to exceed 1,000. Russia, the worlds preeminent nuclear power, also remains a challenge. “We see Russia brandishing its nuclear weapons in the context of the Ukraine conflict and also possessing novel nuclear capabilities that are designed to challenge our escalation calculus.The stakes are incredibly high.” Dalton noted that During the Cold War, the U.S. maintained top-notch nuclear deterrence, and the domestic defense industry stood ready to provide whatever was needed. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, and with the U.S. focused on other parts of the world for the past 20-plus years, the U.S. must now up its game. “We mortgaged our nuclear modernization for 30 years. We had the post-Cold War peace dividend… But the fact is, the bills are now way past due, and in that time, our competitors went to school on us, and they caught up.” With U.S. defense underpinned by its nuclear deterrent, modernization of that capability is a top priority for the Department of Defense, she stressed. Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said that while two-thirds of the nuclear triad, the ground systems and the aircraft-based systems belong to the Air Force — the submarine systems belong to the Navy — modernization is not just an Air Force effort or even just a Navy effort. “It is imperative that we understand that it’s not a Department [of Defense] imperative that we maintain the nuclear security and nuclear triad,” he said. “It is a national imperative. It’s national policy that the foundation of what we hold dear, the framework of that is nuclear deterrence. And to add to that, and I’ve seen this in the last 19 months of being in command, our allies and partners are counting on us more than ever.” Last year, Senator John Kennedy (R-La) warned that “Today, we no longer face just one threat. Russia still maintains the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, but China’s nuclear stockpile is growing rapidly. North Korea continues to threaten our allies with its collection of nuclear weapons. And, thanks to the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, Iran is marching ever closer to developing nuclear weapons of its own. The United States must now counter nuclear superpowers in both China and Russia while also deterring the itchy trigger fingers of unstable dictators like Kim Jong Un and the Ayatollah in Iran. We should be innovating and preparing our nuclear arsenal for this new global dynamic, but instead, our nuclear stockpile remains stuck in the Cold War. Simply put: America’s nuclear stockpile is old and shrinking. And while modernizing our nuclear arsenal should be a top priority, our effort to restart nuclear weapon production has been riddled with delays and poor planning. And we don’t have time to waste.” Photo: A Titan II missile on display inside the missile silo at Missile Site 8 in Green Valley, Ariz. (DoD)