BEACH SHUT-DOWN PROTESTERS ARRESTED

April 2020 Articles

By Miriam Raftery

April 25, 2020 (Encinitas) – The San Diego Sheriff arrested three protesters today for violating county and state orders against public gatherings during the COVID-19 emergency. The action follows several similar rallies around the county.

The protest at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas drew 75-100 demonstrators who called for beaches to be opened.

According to Lt. Amber Baggs, “Several protestors walked onto the beach and sat as deputies began speaking to them regarding the County Public Health Order. The people were given multiple opportunities to comply with the state and county orders. Three attendees refused and were arrested.”

The protesters then began to march towards Swami's Beach Park where they walked along the sidewalk, not impacting traffic. Once at Swami's Beach Park the remaining protestors began to disperse and left the area without incident around noon, Lt. Baggs said.

In addition to the three people arrested for health order violations, one traffic citation and seven parking citations were issued during the event.

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Comments

"Either I am free, or I am not", staring at the sun

From another news site's reporting, one of the protesters breathed "Either I am free, or I am not." The ignorance is amazing. Probably a good place to start would be to read the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Federalist Papers. The founders of this country thought very carefully, and argued and debated at length, about the granularity of human rights. They balanced individual rights against the public good, and for all of their faults (see slavery, 3/5 of a person, "well regulated militias" which honest "orginalists" understand actually refereed to runaway slave hunting parties), they nevertheless created a template for liberal democracy that most of the world still follows. Probably follow this reading with a history of epidemics, and the many court rulings that have established the legitimacy our public health laws under which these ignoramuses were arrested yesterday. In the mean time, our President says that holding daily briefings is just not worth it because he takes criticism (free speech) for his crazy talk. We all understand that the man is just does not measure up to the scale of the task, or importance of the office. The governor of Maryland reports the state fielding hundreds of calls this weekend about the efficacy of ingesting surface disinfectants, after the President's Friday comments about researching these, as well as bright lights, as a treatment. I have been tempted to ask, "Dear Republicans, did you know that you can get Covid-19 out of your eyes by staring at the sun?", but sadly a few might not get the joke. In any case, we can now begin to see the limitations of a political movement founded on willful ignorance, BS, and the promotion of populist sentiment. As sad as this time in history is, at least we once again confirm that education, knowledge and a commitment to facts based reality are important parameters of good governance, civics and leadership. Too bad this is not as obvious as it should be!