What’s the point of a curfew if nobody is really enforcing it?

Good afternoon, 

Sara Rubin here, thinking about how close it is to California’s new curfew—which, coincidentally, has more or less become my pandemic-era bedtime. The new curfew, from 10pm-5am for California’s Purple Tier counties (that includes Monterey County), is the state’s latest public health control effort in the middle of an unprecedented spike in cases. It took effect on Saturday night, Nov. 21. Theoretically, at least.

Some of Monterey County’s law enforcement agencies issued statements about the curfew, more or less stating their intention was not to enforce it. 

“The Salinas Police Department is very sensitive to the pandemic emergency the state of California is facing,” reads SPD’s. “In light of the new curfew directive it is our commitment to our community to maintain the safety of our residents. Police officers have discretion when issuing citations. We support an approach of education and cooperation. We also [rely on] YOU, our community, to do its part for the safety of all.”

Great idea in theory, but relying on the “public” in “public health” has not gotten us very far as the U.S. faces its most extreme spike in Covid-19 cases yet. 

From the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office: “As always, Sheriff Bernal encourages everyone in Monterey County to be responsible in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Wear a mask in public, practice social distancing and wash your hands. In response to any kind of curfew or restrictions, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office will continue to respond to calls to immediate threat to life and public safety.” That means, in short, not curfew violations. 

One of the weird psychological tricks of this virus is that early on, none of us would’ve been out after 10pm anyway, because none of us had anywhere to go. A curfew then might’ve not mattered much to our behaviors nor our attitudes about our role in public health. 

But at this stage, eight months later, asking the public and business owners for another concession of this magnitude feels infantilizing, especially when the announcement comes a week after the governor was caught flouting SIP restrictions and dining with lobbyists from (more irony) the California Medical Association. 

Health officials have tried to get the public on board to participate in public health measures—buy-in is crucial to making that work. But the give-a-little, take-a-little approach is rankling the very people who need to participate to make it work. And who enforce it. 

-Sara Rubin, editor, sara@mcweekly.com 

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