In one of the latest examples of people taking things a bit too far with regards to coronavirus safety measures, a Cambridge man allegedly threatened another man with a knife for having the audacity to exist on the same street as him. The victim was jogging and minding his own business. A man with two children, who was 30-40 feet away, screamed “Get the [expletive] on the other side of the street” and allegedly pulled out a knife. Although the man denied doing this, police found a knife in a yard bag nearby.
Speaking of overzealousness, in France, police dispersed a group of a couple dozen people who had the audacity to dance in the street. The cops also spoke to the person who was playing the music to which the group was dancing and warned him not to do so again. This individual, who had been playing music from his balcony for weeks to bring a bit of cheer to his neighborhood, publicly apologized.
And in another example of ridiculous excess, in Brooklyn, NY, cops broke up a funeral procession, chasing after and screaming at mourners. NYPD Chief Terence Monahan called this funeral for a rabbi “completely unacceptable,” and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said, “We will not tolerate it. You are putting my cops’ lives at risk and it’s unacceptable.” Since March 16, there have been 60 arrests and 343 summonses issued in New York for social-distancing-related “crimes.”
People should be able to play music in their own homes without being reprimanded, and to jog on a public street without being accosted and threatened. As for the funeral, how, pray tell, is a group of people going about their business, harming no one, and doing something they have a fundamental right to do “unacceptable”? And how does it put cops’ lives at risk? Anyone who does not wish to risk contracting the virus can simply not attend the funeral, and not have contact with the people who attended. There is no reason for cops to have anything to do with a funeral; the only reason they would need to be there is to enforce New York’s totalitarian policies, which should not exist in the first place.
These and similar incidents underscore the fact that we are now living in a world in which such simple actions as jogging on a public street, dancing, or attending a funeral are considered crimes. Police and private citizens are punishing innocent people who are doing nothing wrong and are simply going about their business. Mean-spirited, senseless statements and actions such as these are truly unacceptable and should not be tolerated in what is supposed to be a free society.