It’s been another busy week, with Governor Newsom ordering Californians to wear masks when we can’t stay at least six feet away from others, but will that order be enforced?
Are Californians getting mixed messages, as counties reopen more but the state still warns us to keep our distance?
And the movement for police reform seems to have much longer legs than in the past, as the demonstrations go on. While reforms are being proposed and implemented, there seems to be no let up in the civic focus on this issue here in the Bay Area and across California and the nation. A lot of ground to cover today, as we look back at the week in review and ahead to what’s coming up.
On masks, the Governor has said all along that he thinks that social pressure will get people to do the right thing. We haven’t been able to ask the Governor specifically, you can bet it’ll be among the first questions at the next briefing: “What are you going to do when people don’t do it?” He has said that people will do the right thing and public pressure will be enough.
These Sheriffs in at least four counties are saying that it’s a misdemeanor and they don’t want to get in angry confrontations, it’s not worth the manpower and could lead to some bad consequences. They’re doing more education, they might tell people they should be wearing a mask, but I would not expect to see a lot of citations or enforcement of this. The Governor just hopes that people will do the right thing, and most people are, but there are people who simply refuse to do it.
A couple weeks I traveling up in the Northern counties and a lot of people there aren’t wearing masks, in comparison to the central Bay Area where most people are wearing masks. Now, of course masks are required everywhere under the Governor’s current guidance, we’ll see if that makes a difference. In some more conservative parts of the state, people simply don’t want to be told what to do and see it more as the ‘authoritarianism’ of Gavin Newsom telling them that they have to wear a mask.