Bredefeld: Nowhere in Constitution does it say our rights are to be removed for a virus

Ten weeks ago, the nightmare of the coronavirus began, which led to “shelter in place” orders and the closing of “non-essential” businesses. We were told this was necessary to “flatten the curve” and not overwhelm our hospitals and medical care system. In Fresno, St. Agnes Hospital recently laid off nearly 200 medical staff and no emergency beds provided by the federal government were ever needed.

We were told by Gov. Newsom that 25 million Californians would be infected. We now have 71,000 cases. We were told 1-2.4 million Americans would die. Tragically, 85,000 people have died, but nowhere near these predictions. New York and New Jersey have been the hotspots for COVID-19 with nearly half the cases in the country. Fresno County has painfully had 13 deaths (as of Wednesday) with a population of 1 million people. But we’re clearly not a hotspot for this disease, just like 46 other states are not. Yet our citizens have been under lockdown orders as though we’re New York.

Never in our nation’s history have we witnessed healthy and young people being placed under house-arrest orders (“shelter in place”) for over two months. Data should always drive these kinds of policy decisions. While it made sense the first two weeks of this pandemic, we soon realized that the elderly, those with compromised immune systems and people with other significant medical problems were particularly susceptible to this disease, not young, healthy people. In reality, we’ve learned nearly 99% of all people recover from COVID-19. Yet, these draconian and unconstitutional orders have remained in place with devastating consequences to our society, families, and economy.

Medically, people have been terrified of going to their doctors or hospitals to be treated for heart attacks and strokes because of fear contracting COVID-19. Undiagnosed cancer tumors have not been biopsied.

Economically, 33 million Americans have been thrown out of work by government, resulting in 20.6% unemployed! The Great Recession of 2008 at our peak had 10% unemployment. We have doubled and may triple that.

Locally, we’re told we’ll have a $40 million budget deficit. This will likely result in layoffs, furloughs, and reduced services for our citizens, just as in 2008.

In a good economy, we average 50,000 suicides every year, 70,000 drug overdoses, 88,000 deaths from alcoholism. Those numbers are all going up. We have already witnessed dramatic increases in depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. There has been a 900% increase in calls to the mental health national hotline. Domestic violence cases have spiked and child abuse cases have not been reported because kids are not in school, and this is where cases often get detected and then reported.

Crime is going up. Gov. Newsom has released thousands of criminals to the streets — some child murderers, rapists and violent offenders — yet law-abiding citizens/businesses have been given thousands of dollars of fines for trying to feed their families. We’ve seen a patron at a waffle shop put in handcuffs. Churches have been closed while abortion clinics and pot shops remain open.

Nowhere in the Constitution or Bill of Rights does it state our God-given rights are to be removed if there is a virus with a 98-99% recovery rate. Or that government can then destroy people’s businesses, jobs, take away their freedoms, and put them under house arrest.

When Mayor Brand allowed certain businesses to open this past week he also mandated that they only allow in the store one customer per 500 square feet. This lacks common sense and is obviously not occurring in Wal-Mart, Home Depot or Target. He also mandated everyone had to wear face masks, yet the CDC only recommends wearing them. These orders are arbitrary and like other orders, are not based on any data or science but his own personal decision.

The city has no medical staff, and that’s why these decisions should be made by physicians with Fresno County Public Health, not politicians.

Additionally, this past week the Fresno County Board of Supervisors were planning to submit a comprehensive and flexible plan to Newsom to begin opening up all other businesses and restaurants. To avoid confusion, Fresno should follow Clovis’ example and rescind all the emergency orders so Fresno County speaks with one voice. No other city in our county has these orders except Fresno.

These arbitrary, draconian and unconstitutional orders must end. Next Thursday (May 21st), I will bring a proposal to end the city’s emergency orders. The City Council has never taken a public vote on these “shelter in place” extensions by the mayor and instead have let him issue orders without voting on them. Every council member should be accountable as to whether or not they support what has taken place over the past 6-8 weeks.

They, however, want to avoid the vote, which is why I may not get a second to vote on the orders or they may even pull the item from the agenda unless four council members vote to keep it on. That would be cowardly.

The public also has a right to speak on these critically important issues, and yet they haven’t been able to. The council has refused to open City Hall to the public to allow our citizens to address their concerns regarding these orders and extended unconstitutional lockdowns. We’re elected to vote on tough issues. It’s time for the Fresno City Council to vote on this and to allow our citizens to speak on the issue. Do you agree?

This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.