Any New Yorkers in there?
Rhode Island plans to send the National Guard out
to knock door-to-door in an attempt to hunt down anyone who has arrived
in the tiny state from New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.
State police, meanwhile, have begun pulling over cars with New York
state plates.
Gov. Gina Raimondo said anyone traveling there from New York will be
ordered to undergo a 14-day quarantine and could face fines or even jail
time if they’re found to not comply.
“Right now we have a pinpointed risk,” Raimondo said at a news conference Friday. “That risk is called New York City.”
Rhode Island, which had some 162 confirmed cases by late Friday compared to New York State’s total of more than 44,000,
joined a host of other municipalities and states trying bar entry to
New Yorkers living in the epicenter of the US’ coronavirus outbreak.
The Hamptons,
counties north of the city, and governors in Florida, Maryland, Texas
and South Carolina have all also ordered New Yorkers to keep out or
undergo mandatory two-week quarantines.
Cuomo said he was opposed to such restrictions, at least within the state.
“I don’t like it socially or culturally,” Cuomo said during a radio
appearance Friday on WAMC. “I don’t like what it says about us as one
state, one family. Also, I don’t believe it’s medically justified.”
In Rhode Island, Raimondo maintained she’s within her emergency
powers to impose the aggressive measures and said she had consulted with
state lawyers.
“I know it’s unusual. I know it’s extreme and I know some people disagree with it,” she said.
“If you want to seek refuge in Rhode Island, you must be quarantined.”
But the American Civil Liberties Union said giving police power to
stop cars simply for having New York license plates is an “ill-advised
and unconstitutional plan.”
“While the Governor may have the power to suspend some state laws and
regulations to address this medical emergency, she cannot suspend the
Constitution,” said Steven Brown, the executive director of the ACLU of
Rhode Island, in a statement.
“Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate
simply does not, and cannot, constitute ‘probable cause’ to allow police
to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the
goal of the stop may be,” Brown added.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/28/rhode-island-sending-cops-national-guard-to-find-new-yorkers-seeking-coronavirus-refuge/
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