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Health agencies have also found themselves short of respect.
Musk, the Tesla CEO, opened his production factory Monday despite a request from the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. President Donald Trump tweeted out encouragement for Musk,and Governor Gavin Newsom described the problem as a “county issue” without taking a side.
By Wednesday, the county had backed down, giving the already-open factory permission to operate.
Musk is just the most high-profile rebel. In Los Angeles, police have been forwarding reports of businesses operating outside the rules to City Attorney Mike Feuer. His office has filed 60 criminal complaints, more than half against stores selling vaping supplies, pot, cigars and cigarettes. The city cut water and power to one particularly recalcitrant offender.
“Those stores are clearly not essential to the basic functioning of our life right now,” Feuer said.
Some openings are political. A Dallas beauty salon owner refused to close her salon and was sent briefly to jail. It earned her celebrity status among conservative Republicans; a policy reversal from Texas’ Governor Greg Abbott; a televised haircut for Senator Ted Cruz -- and more than $500,000 for her own GoFundMe campaign.
Refusal to enforce the rules has become a badge of honor for some politicians. In North Carolina, the Johnston County sheriff has refused to enforce limits on church attendance. A sheriff in Racine County in southern Wisconsin refused to enforce that state’s stay-home order -- now struck down by the state supreme court -- calling it a violation of individual rights. So did a sheriff in Douglas County, Illinois. And in Greeley, Colorado, the Weld County health department is allowing restaurants to open in violation of Governor Jared Polis’s rules.
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo ordered the public to wear masks or risk fines beginning May 8, drawing a quick response from a police union.
“Our officers work every single day to bridge the gap with our community and earn their trust,” wrote Jedidiah Pineau, president of the Warwick Fraternal Order Of Police Lodge 7.
“We will not stand idly by and allow Governor Raimondo’s overreaching order to tear that bridge down,” he wrote. “And we will certainly not be a part of it by enforcing this order against our community.”