How wonderful that Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser wants to immediately limit the continuing spread of the coronavirus by arresting and fining anyone who travels outside their home for reasons other than trips to get groceries or medicines or even just because they might want to hang out on the corner and chat with a neighbor.
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If Bowser is serious about her stay-at-home mandate, then it will entail locking up and fining these residents. It would disproportionately affect minorities — the magical phrase that invokes social justice rules and makes liberal lawmakers chicken out.
This is why it’s no longer a crime in D.C. to hop over the Metro transit turnstiles without paying the fare. Some liberal advocacy group found that policing the rule-breaking led to the apprehension of mostly black people. (Who would have ever thought that in a plurality-black city, such a crime might be mostly committed by blacks?!)
Even simple rules like no eating while patronizing the Metro system was described by the Congressional Black Caucus as “systemic racism” after a woman back in February complained on social media that another woman, who was black and also happened to work for Metro, was eating while aboard one of the trains. The woman who complained, by the way, was Natasha Tynes, a Jordanian immigrant.
Two years ago, D.C.’s council also voted to no longer suspend the driver’s licenses of residents with unpaid tickets and who had missed their court hearings related to traffic violations. Why? Because the practice was deemed “discriminatory against the poor” — and that meant mostly Latinos and blacks, so therefore no more policy.