Californians Are Revolting Against the Lockdown

00:03 - It’s getting to a point of ridiculousness that I’m somehow responsible for the whole world around me and I’m simply not and I’m unwilling to be.

00:11 - We need to bend the curve. California Governor Gavin Newsom has imposed some of the most stringent COVID-19 restrictions in America and some golden state residents are starting to revolt.

00:22 - The dictatorial attitude toward California residents while dining in luxury, traveling, keeping his business open and sending his kids to in-person private schools is very telling about his attitude toward California residents, and it is extremely hypocritical.

00:37 - These closures and stay at home orders are flat out ridiculous.

00:41 - Riverside County Sheriff, Chad Bianco released this video announcing that his department wouldn’t be enforcing the governor’s order.

00:47 - Sheriffs in Los Angeles County, El Dorado County, Orange County, and even the governor’s home of Sacramento County have also said they will not enforce aspects of the lockdown order.

00:57 - Bianco says County sheriffs are acting within their legal authority.

01:00 - We’re constitutional officers. Some of the sheriffs believe that it’s a constitutional violation.

01:05 - We don’t answer to a board of supervisors. We don’t answer to a governor, or to a city council.

01:12 - We answer to the entire 2. 5 million people of our county.

01:16 - Do you worry that there’s any sort of legal action that can be taken against the department for not following a governor’s orders? Yeah, no, there is not.

01:26 - We don’t have to arrest just because there is a law.

01:29 - On December 3rd, Newsom’s stay at home order barred in-person dining of any kind at restaurants where hospital ICU capacity has fallen below 15 percent, as it has in four of five California regions, but there’s no evidence that the shutdown has stemmed the growth in cases, hospital admissions, or fatalities.

01:48 - Several restaurants in Riverside County are defying the ban, including Marla’s Cocina and Cantina in the city of Beaumont.

01:56 - At this point with this shutdown we really have just kind of decided, listen, I don’t know how much more we can bend.

02:02 - You don’t like it, don’t come. A cantina started only accepting takeout orders for one week in March.

02:08 - The owner Diego Rose says never again. I can’t open up for just to-go’s. I would be losing every day.

02:15 - At that point, you have to make a decision.

02:16 - Do you shut your doors and lose all your inventory, and let your staff go, in hopes that somebody along the way knew what they were talking about, and that “two week flatten the curve” thing was what they said? California’s order to stop outdoor dining has generated outrage, controversy, and legal challenges.

02:37 - A county judge invalidated the L. A. ban on the ground that there’s a lack of scientific evidence to justify it.

02:44 - Rose is even permitting his customers to dine in inside, though he’s spaced out the tables and installed extra ventilation.

02:51 - He also spent about $35,000 converting an indoor space into an open air patio, and keeps the restaurant doors open whenever possible.

02:59 - We have every option your little heart could desire.

03:02 - You want to sit outside, sit outside. You want to sit in the patio, sit in the patio.

03:06 - You want to sit in a booth, sit in a booth.

03:08 - You want to sit on your thumb, sit on your thumb.

03:10 - I’m not the world’s keeper. He says he’s received visits from the Health Department, Alcohol and Beverage Control, and angry citizens over the past several months, and faced threats of fines for his patio not being COVID compliant.

03:22 - But he remains committed to staying open, and was emboldened by Sheriff Bianco’s public statements.

03:28 - To himself out there for the scrutiny has definitely, I think, transcended the strength needed for business people in all kinds of different capacities right now.

03:39 - To say, hey listen, my sheriff has my back.

03:44 - But California is reaching record levels of COVID infections, and a new, more easily transmissible strain has appeared in the state, and in several California counties hospitals are completely out of ICU capacity.

03:57 - What do you say to people who look at that situation and argue, you’re creating a more dangerous situation by failing to discourage the spread of COVID? Making someone wear a mask or close their business, that has absolutely nothing to do with someone that is overweight, diabetic, unhealthy heart wise, possibly cancer, going through treatments, with a weak immune system, them going out into public and putting themselves at risk.

04:27 - That wasn’t my fault. It had nothing to do with me.

04:30 - It had nothing to do with any other sheriff in the state, but no one wants to take personal responsibility.

04:36 - It’s better if you blame someone else. There’s little evidence that in-person dining, particularly outdoors is a major source of COVID spread, a fact the state’s health director appeared to admit on a recent Zoom call.

04:50 - The decision to include among other sectors outdoor dining really has to do with the goal of trying to keep people at home.

05:00 - Not a comment on the relative safety of outdoor dining.

05:05 - Research out of New York City found that 74 percent of COVID spread happens in households.

05:10 - Rose, who once worked as an emergency room nurse, says that the responsibility for stopping the spread of COVID to the vulnerable doesn’t rest with law enforcement or business owners.

05:20 - Every individual has to keep and maintain the amount of risk they’re willing to assume and that’s inherent to the individual.

05:29 - California’s stay at home order, prohibiting restaurants in counties with available ICU capacity below 15% remains in effect.

05:36 - A judge in San Diego County ruled that restaurants there can remain open pending a ruling in an ongoing lawsuit, and San Bernardino County has filed suit against the governor in the State’s Supreme Court to keep its businesses open.

05:49 - Rose says he hopes more restaurants continue to ignore the order and reopen.

05:54 - I’m not worried about my business as much as I’m worried about my country.

05:57 - If I have nothing to open back up to, what’s the point again? Freedom first, our choices are first, your choices are first and I hope more and more people get on that kind of a bandwagon to protect each other’s rights.

06:11 - We have to, we have to do something. .