Call the Exterminator: Leviathan’s Bugging Us

Doug Hand writes from the “backwaters” of New York State on

grocery store chains here and their mask policies.

It seems local Tops and Wegmans grocery store chains are on the same page:

“Deana Percassi, Director of Public Relations for Wegmans, said they are focused on complying with local and state mandates for face coverings and prioritizing the health and safety of employees and customers.

“It is important to note that the mandates do not require a mask or face covering if it would inhibit or otherwise impair an individual’s health,” Percassi said. “In addition, we cannot question what that health or medical condition is or may be. Short of refusing entrance to our stores, we are doing everything we can to educate our customers and stress the importance of voluntary compliance to keep themselves and everyone around them safe.”

Percassi said management has been offering free masks to all customers who they see without one, but said if a customer declines to wear a mask, they will not push any further or deny them entry to the store.”

Good for them! Let Our Rulers enforce their own illegal and unconstitutional “mandates.” What despicable cowards, to dragoon entrepreneurs into bullying the patrons who keep them in business!

By the way, this story’s lede notes that

New York is in the minority of U.S. states whose coronavirus cases have declined over the last month.

In Monroe County, the number of current active COVID-19 cases has fallen below 450, with fewer than 70 of those resulting in hospitalization.

No matter: Leviathan never lets a waning “crisis” decrease its tyranny. And so New York State’s

Department of Health has increased the consequences for violations.

Late last week, the agency updated its emergency regulations to include a maximum $1,000 fine for businesses that allow customers to enter or remain on their premises without wearing masks or practicing social distancing. 

Only the newspaper reporting this totalitarianism is more contemptible than said Department from Hell—sorry, of Health: the Democrat & Chronicle includes a telephone number and a website so snitches can rat out their betters.

“Despite the state’s move, Tops Friendly Markets does not to plan to revise its policy on masks, which is to remind shoppers of executive orders signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the spring regarding face-coverings and to offer bare-faced customers masks but not turn them away from stores or make them leave for refusing to wear masks, said spokesperson Kathleen Sautter. 

“The safety of our associates is our number one priority,” she said. “We do not want our associates getting into a confrontation with a shopper who elects not to wear a mask for reasons other than a medical exemption.”

Doug observes:

It sounds like the legal departments are deferring to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (never mind the pesky constitutionality issues with that “law”) instead of [Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s] mask decree. Perhaps this is a time when two wrongs make a right.

Indeed! And I’d like to know whether a shopper who is medically exempt from wearing a mask but is nonetheless ejected from a store can then sue for discrimination under the ADA. 

I also find it curious that the penalties of the threats keep increasing instead of hearing about enforcement of the original threats. Have I missed the stories about how many people and businesses have been fined the lower amounts and how many liquor licenses and other state permission slips have been revoked? I am not a lawyer, so I am wondering if there may be a concern that if the fines were actually issued then the person fined would have “standing” and actually be able to challenge the penalty in an official court of law?

What astute questions! Should anyone out there know the answers, kindly email me. 

As an aside, Rochester, NY also has reopened playgrounds including putting basketball hoops back on the backboards. In March they removed the rims because they knew their edicts would be ignored by various ne’er-do-wells. Well, now that they have returned the rims, the local “progressive” fish-wrap (because the other local media outlets are not liberal enough – sheesh) is celebrating the lack of masks and social distancing. No wait, I guess that does not get mentioned…. 

So I cannot walk without a mask into a grocery store or from the front door of a restaurant to a table, but I can grab some other diners/shoppers and go shoot some hoops, no problem? Explain to me again how this is about health and safety?

Why, Doug, it’s about health and safety the way the TSA is about protecting aviation.

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