In March and April of last year, drastic emergency measures were imposed by federal, state, and local government authorities for the stated purpose of curbing the spread of COVID-19. By March 16, 2020, all states had declared a State of Emergency, and by April 7 all states except four had imposed a “Stay at Home” order of some kind. Counties and municipalities also decreed their own separate COVID-related orders. As usual in the US, the details greatly varied by jurisdiction — some measures were far more stringent than others. But in general, a new legal regimen had taken hold across the country, in the name of combatting what was described as a once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis…
But around two weeks ago, I finally received a CD-ROM with the requested materials. It contained a list of over 2,600 summonses issued in the city of Newark between March 21 and May 13 of 2020 — at least 1,100 of which were expressly related to alleged COVID violations. The violations are imprecisely categorized, but all had at least something to do with COVID…
These violations are punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of $1,000.
On April 16, 2020, a woman was charged by police with violating another statute, 2C:24-7.1A1, defined as “recklessly engag[ing] in conduct which creates a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person.”
Her violation was described by police as: “did knowingly endanger other citizens by no having a face mask as per governor executive order to have one to quell the high rate of covid-19 exposure.” [All typos in these descriptions are police errors]
Here is a small sampling of the summonses issued on one day, April 3, 2020, taken from the police log I obtained. Read more…
