On May 3, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Superintendent David Brown held a press conference were they reminded their subjects that police will take a heavy-handed approach in enforcing the city’s stay-at-home order.
“Now I’ve directed Superintendent Brown to order all police districts to give special attention to these parties and this is how it’s going to be,” Lightfoot said at the press conference. “We will shut you down. We will cite you. And if we need to, we will arrest you and take you to jail. Period.”
“There should be nothing unambiguous about that. Don’t make us treat you like a criminal,” she commented. “But if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and you refuse to do what is necessary to save lives in the city in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail. Period.”
Beth Baumann of Townhall noted that the city of Chicago is “encouraging residents to rat out their neighbors by reporting house parties and large public gatherings either online or by calling 911.” Individuals who violate Chicago’s stay-at-home order will be fined $5,000.
Baumann highlights the hypocrisy of Lightfoot’s behavior and her desire to impose such a policy:
Lightfoot has a lot of nerve to tell residents to stay home to help stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. She was the one who broke her own orders to get a haircut. But that’s okay. She takes a page from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s playbook when he decided to use a public gym minutes before public facilities were ordered to close.
The Wuhan virus saga is showing the entire country how political elites use crisis to exert power, while flouting the very laws they impose on regular citizens. When you’re in a position of power, it’s clear that you hold privileges that no private citizen could ever dream of having.
Politicians only pass regulations to protect themselves and the interest groups that bankroll them, while imposing their will on private citizens.
