Fresno County sheriff won’t enforce Newsom’s mask rule, but has a duty to stop COVID-19
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide mask order will not be imposed on Fresno County residents.
Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims made that clear last week in an emailed statement to The Bee, writing her agency lacks “the resources to direct toward this type of enforcement.”
On Monday, spokesmen for the Fresno and Clovis police departments echoed Mims’ view. The bottom line: Going maskless in public is not a citable offense.
Mims has been sheriff since 2007 and has a better understanding of her department’s resources than any of us. So let’s accept her words at face value.
Let’s also, at least for the moment, sidestep the larger political context over masks. Or get sidetracked by arguments over whether Newsom’s mandate has the authority of law and law enforcement’s sworn duty to uphold.
Leave that to the legal scholars residing on Facebook and Twitter. Sure are lots of them.
The other thing we’re not going to do is debate if masks, combined with measures like social distancing, are effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19. Of course they are, and every scientific study backs that up.
Instead, let’s take a stroll through the wide-open pastures between strict enforcement of the governor’s edict and strong encouragement to do so by people in positions of local authority and influence.
People such as Mims, who has been re-elected three times. Last election, no one even dared run against her.
Don’t need mask police
I sort of agree with Mims on the enforcement part. The last thing we need is for sheriff’s deputies, or city cops, to become mask police. Not when there are many more important crimes to solve.
Unless it’s an egregious situation, like a business that refuses to comply or a serial cougher on the Eaton Trail, leave those tickets in their holster.
But Mims’ duties don’t end with enforcing laws and rules. She also has a responsibility, bestowed upon her by the voters of Fresno County, to do all she can to ensure they are followed. During a public health crisis, that means modeling actions and behaviors that have been scientifically proven to help prevent coronavirus-laced droplets from spreading.
I know Mims understands this responsibility. She’s shown it.
Early on during the pandemic, Mims got some mileage in certain media circles by saying her deputies wouldn’t enforce Newsom’s statewide shelter-in-place order.
Nonetheless, that didn’t prevent the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department from putting Mims’ face, wearing a stern but friendly expression, on two large billboards around town accompanied by this message:
“Staying home means saving lives” – Sheriff Margaret Mims
Where’s Mims’ mask billboard?
Now that shelter in place has ended, I expect to drive to the corner of Blackstone and McKinley or Clovis and Shields, where those billboards were located, and see Mims’ covered visage and the words, “Wearing masks means saving lives.”
That would be the consistent thing to do, would it not?
And not just Mims. I’d also like to see the masked face of Jerry Dyer, Fresno’s mayor elect and former police chief, promoting mask-wearing on billboards around town. Just like Dyer promotes donating blood. Both can save lives.
If they refuse or demur, there really can be only one reason: politics.
Republican leaders, from President Donald Trump on down, have largely refused to wear masks. And we all know where right-leaning folks get their cues.
Two longtime, dedicated public servants such as Sheriff Mims and Mayor-elect Dyer would never place personal politics ahead of public health.
Right?
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Fresno County sheriff won’t enforce Newsom’s mask rule, but has a duty to stop COVID-19."
