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Rhode Island does not welcome you

Rhode Island does not welcome you

State and local police, and the National Guard, are stopping out-of-state vehicles and going house-to-house looking particularly for Wuhan coronavirus NYC refugees to enforce self-quarantine

Rhode Island’s Governor Gina Raimondo announced last Thursday that the State Police would be stopping cars with New York plates entering the state, and requiring drivers from New York who planned on staying in Rhode Island to self-quarantine.

Drivers would have to provide details about where they would be staying, so the police could follow up. Police and National Guard also were looking for NY vehicles already in the state for the same purpose. Bloomberg reported:

Rhode Island police began stopping cars with New York plates Friday. On Saturday, the National Guard will help them conduct house-to-house searches to find people who traveled from New York and demand 14 days of self-quarantine.

“Right now we have a pinpointed risk,” Governor Gina Raimondo said. “That risk is called New York City.”

New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., on Friday reporting a total of 44,000 cases.

Rhode Island has just over 200, and it has begun an aggressive campaign to keep the virus out and New Yorkers contained, over objections from civil liberties advocates.

Raimondo, a Democrat, said she had consulted lawyers and said while she couldn’t close the border, she felt confident she could enforce a quarantine….

“Yesterday I announced and today I reiterated: Anyone coming to Rhode Island in any way from New York must be quarantined,” the governor said. “By order. Will be enforced. Enforceable by law.”

This all was a reaction to New York City becoming the epicenter of the spread of Wuhan coronavirus in the U.S., and New Yorkers fleeing for safer ground.

Rhode Island is not equipped to handle a large influx of people, who might themselves be ill or might make others ill. Already, the largest maternity hospital is reporting an influx of New Yorkers, with the staff concerned that some might be positive for coronavirus:

Several expectant mothers have come from COVID-19-ravaged New York to deliver their children at Women & Infants Hospital, provoking health concerns among staff members, the Target 12 Investigators have learned.

A health care professional who asked not to be identified — saying criticizing the hospital could bring retribution — said several colleagues are worried about being exposed to coronavirus from mothers and their partners from nearby New York.

“These patients and fathers are not wearing masks,” she said. “If they show symptoms, and they decide to actually swab them for COVID-19, the results don’t come back until it’s too late and we expose others.” …

The hospital employee said the protocol has not been followed and that “nurses who treat these patients on the postpartum units” often do not have the proper protective gear.

“These patients are not placed on special precautions and have their support person with them from New York, able to walk the halls,” she said. “They use the kitchen without wearing masks.”

After NY Governor Andrew Cuomo threw a fit, Raimondo then amended the order, so that cars with New York plates would not be singled out, all out-of-state plates could make vehicles subject to being stopped.

I wasn’t orginally going to write about this tonight. Until an Emergency Announcement came on the TV.

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Comments

Escaped from RI | March 29, 2020 at 9:13 pm

Rhode Island’s closed. Quahog out front should have told ya.

Comanche Voter | March 29, 2020 at 9:20 pm

Geez are you going to hunt them down like plague infested rats? After all they made it safely across Connecticut.

Governor Gina Raimondo announced last Thursday that the State Police would be stopping cars with New York plates entering the state

So the next thing we’ll see is an increase in counterfeit license plates.

NYers should just not show the RI cops their licenses and claim to be undocumented immigrants seeking asylum. Then tell the cops this is sanctuary state – so buzz off. Nutzo but Gov Oberlin would accept unlimited amount of real undocumented imms in aNY minute.

No state is an island. Except RI and HI.

But here in the rockies, it would be best to keep the left coast in their area.

Well, that’s a switch. RI is actually trying to keep someone off the Plantation.

    papabear in reply to tom_swift. | March 30, 2020 at 8:10 am

    I never wanted to go to that HELL Hole anyway, nor did I ever want to go to ANY of the NE puke Liberal States. you all Shit in your bed a long time ago, I don’t need to go there.

Lucifer Morningstar | March 29, 2020 at 10:22 pm

Several expectant mothers have come from COVID-19-ravaged New York to deliver their children at Women & Infants Hospital, provoking health concerns among staff members . . .

Then simply turn away those “expectant mothers” that cannot prove Rhode Island residency. You know, make them show a RI driver’s license/ID card that has their name and picture on it and a valid RI address. Problem solved.

And before people complain that can’t be done please remember we are in a state of national emergency. And with that goes the fact that some unpleasant things need to be done to protect people. This is one of them.

This is blatantly unconstitutional. One state can not legally stopped people from another state from entering and they can certainly not require healthy people to be quarantined.

These tactics are going to end up in federal court on a large scale, or the common folks will resist. We are entering very dangerous territory here.

    Milhouse in reply to Mac45. | March 29, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    Actually they can require healthy people to be quarantined. The state’s police power extends to that.

      Mac45 in reply to Milhouse. | March 30, 2020 at 12:03 am

      Not so. Anyone who is subject to detention, by the state, for any reason, has the right to due process. Now, case law has held that a person, who exhibits symptoms of a contagious disease may be quarantined to protect the public. No case law exists which allows the state to incarcerate healthy people, on mere suspicion or no suspicion. For that you would need a court order and the order would require strict interpretation in order to justify issuance. I expect to see this issue taken up by the federal courts with severe restrictions being placed upon government in public health cases. These draconian actions have gone far beyond any justifiable authority.

        Milhouse in reply to Mac45. | March 30, 2020 at 12:25 am

        Curfews are constitutional in an emergency. Therefore, a fortiori, so are quarantines of individuals whom there are grounds to suspect of being carriers of a disease.

        SDN in reply to Mac45. | March 30, 2020 at 12:36 am

        Sorry, quarantine is black letter law and has been a legal reason to detain someone since before the United States was founded. You are simply wrong.

        CommoChief in reply to Mac45. | March 30, 2020 at 12:46 pm

        Mac45,

        I have to disagree with you. Assuming that the state government has lawfully made the appropriate emergency/disaster declaration then they can take prudent actions to protect their citizens.

        Requiring a two week quarantine at a specific address of the out of state persons choice doesn’t seem overly burdensome. In fact I would suggest that these travelers should be arriving with the necessary supplies to sustain that two week period.

        Now what would be totally different is to shut the border to folks who have a second home or are going to stay with family. Again, as long as these travelers have a definite destination and are bringing in supplies to sustain themselves then they shouldn’t be turned away.

        Mac45 in reply to Mac45. | March 31, 2020 at 1:04 pm

        A quarantine is a state ordered detention. And, just as in the case of arrest, it requires the civil equivalent of probable cause. When someone has recognizable symptoms of a communicable disease, then probable cause exists that the person has the disease and he can be legally quarantined. If he had no symptoms and can not be placed in close proximity to a person who has such symptoms, then no legitimate grounds exist to forcibly quarantine a person. This is akin to arresting someone for theft, because they live or come from a bad neighborhood and then forcing them to prove their innocence. And, the person affected has the right to due process. He can challenge the detention as being unlawful or unconstitutional.

        New, about a curfew. A universal curfew can be established, especially in a time of emergency. However, the curfew has to be reasonable. What we are seeing are unjustifiable curfews. A curfew which exists between the hours of midnight and 7am serves no legitimate purpose if the object is to curtail the spread of a communicable disease and the vast majority of people are out in public during non-curfew hours.

        Then we have the practice of stopping people from out of state, simply for being from out of state. This practice has been universally declared unconstitutional. Some reasonable suspicion has to exist that a criminal act or dangerous situation exists and that the person stopped is involved. Again, simply being from a neighboring jurisdiction does not provide sufficient reasonable suspicion to justify the stop.

        Sorry, but Rhode Island’s actions are blatantly unconstitutional.

      GWB in reply to Milhouse. | March 30, 2020 at 1:15 pm

      Even if they couldn’t quarantine “healthy” people, the issue is you can’t prove you’re healthy until you’ve been quarantined. (Or, you’ve been shown to be free of the virus via testing.)

        Mac45 in reply to GWB. | March 31, 2020 at 1:08 pm

        Do we live in France now? Since when have people been required to PROVE their innocence, in the US, especially when no probable cause or reasonable suspicion exists that they are infected or doing anything wrong? By your reasoning, the state can search your person and your home or office based upon a whim and you would have no recourse.

    heyjoojoo in reply to Mac45. | March 30, 2020 at 1:52 am

    this hasn’t stopped them before.
    Guess how many times we’ve complained about something “unconstitutional” only to have it continue. Democrats have powerful people in powerful places, irrespective how abusive they are with their powers.

    jhn1 in reply to Mac45. | March 30, 2020 at 11:39 am

    As I read it, R.I. is not barring entry but requiring out of state entries to quarantine for 14 days. Self quarantine even.And that most certainly IS within the powers of the various county and state public health authorities if not the Governor’s person themselves.

    GWB in reply to Mac45. | March 30, 2020 at 1:22 pm

    Actually, Mac, given an infectious disease, I think precedent says they can keep people out.

    While there is a difference between people and fruit (normally), I think the courts upheld things like Arizona’s ban on citrus fruit from outside the state, because they were the only folks around without a particular pest. And, yes, police stopped you at the border and made you throw out your oranges. (IIRC, it was Arizona. I could be wrong on the state.)

I watched President Trump’s conference this evening. They’re entirely focused on this disease, with not a look at the economic consequences. I’m guessing that this entire deal will cost $15 trillion in economic damages and .gov pork bills. With all of our businesses shut down, we will not last until June 1st.

I cannot understate the size of the economic catastrophe coming. The first shoe to fall will be the bank runs and defaulting on US debt.

    Milhouse in reply to rdmdawg. | March 29, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    And economic damage costs lives.

    n.n in reply to rdmdawg. | March 30, 2020 at 12:41 am

    The goal is… has to be limit excess deaths and collateral damage. This is not selective-child. We cannot afford to indulge PC (“Progressive Church”, Pro-Choice religion), the left’s “wicked solution”, and avoid reconciling the two.

    That said, it will be interesting to see if the Wuhan-sourced virus and Covid19 disease curb the progress of globalism, immigration reform, and planned parenthood (i.e. excess deaths).

      David Lentz in reply to n.n. | March 30, 2020 at 9:49 am

      Given that the green agenda is openly hostile to the market economy and the greens are openly cheering the effects of the disease, this has to hurt their cause, at least among people with about room temperature IQ who do not work for the propaganda media. Consider the pandemic a preview of the Green New Deal.

should be happening in penna… a surge in cases… a surge in travellers from nyc by bus daily… but you should see the license plates from ny/nj in poconos..

not to mention the rudeness in stores, hoarding, who knows? its just very odd & unusual

    rdmdawg in reply to jmt9455. | March 29, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    Hell yeah, everywhere I look in Bensalem Township, New York state driver’s licenses. That’s in addition to all the New Jersey licenses I started seeing last year. They clog the roads and spread their disease. I’m not optimistic that our democrat governor will do anything sensible.

    ronk in reply to jmt9455. | March 30, 2020 at 2:27 am

    the big spots in Utah and Idaho correspond with the ski resorts and tourist areas

Well, Cuomo’s right about the license plates, because I’ll let you in on a secret: Many NYC drivers have their cars registered in other states. I have for years had a hobby, whenever I go walking, of taking note of how many different license plates I spot, and usually within 10 minutes I’ve seen at least 10 states and in an hour’s walk I can expect to see more than 30. Over the course of time I’ve seen plates from all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, “Diplomat” and “US Government”, as well as almost all the Canadian provinces. Now some of those are just visiting, but the sheer numbers I see from many eastern states implies that most of them live here and have the car registered elsewhere because the insurance is cheaper. So if you focus only on NY plates you’re going to miss a lot of NYers.

Curiously, I’ve never seen a Mexican plate. Not even in LA, where I kept my eyes out specifically looking for one.

Everyone I know that has traveled and returned home has decided to self quarantine for 14 days. Prudent and proper. IIRC the RI Governor’s updated announcement to self quarantine for 14 days now applies to all out of state folks coming to stay in RI, not just NY folk.

Comanche Voter | March 30, 2020 at 12:36 am

Milhouse you must be a white boy living in Bel Air or Brentwood. While they aren’t thick on the ground I’ve seen Sonora and Baja California plates on pickup trucks over in the Glendale Pasadena Burbank area. You’ll also spot the occasional truck with a Baja plate on I-5 driving between San Diego and Los Angeles.

    Milhouse in reply to Comanche Voter. | March 30, 2020 at 2:09 am

    As I wrote earlier, I live in Brooklyn, NY. But on occasional visits to LA, while out walking I have looked for Mexican plates and not seen any. This would be mostly within a mile or two of the Beverly/La Brea area.

      CommoChief in reply to Milhouse. | March 30, 2020 at 12:38 pm

      I can understand the seeming absence of Mexican plates in Brooklyn. Here in EL Paso however we have an abundance of them. Some are legit, workers and shoppers crossing at about ten million times each year; 2018 statistics. Many others game the registration process by registering a vehicle in Mexico using a cousin’s address while actually residing in EL Paso. Anecdotally this can be seen at local schools. These are not paid nannies dropping off the kids while driving a car with Mexican plates.

        Milhouse in reply to CommoChief. | March 30, 2020 at 7:23 pm

        I wasn’t expecting to see Mexican plates in Brooklyn, though as I said I have seen here just about every plate there is in the USA and Canada, including HI, PR, and USVI. I think the only ones I haven’t seen are New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Nunavut, and NWT.

        But I was expecting to see them in LA, and when I went for walks I kept my eyes open for them but never saw any.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to Comanche Voter. | March 30, 2020 at 7:17 am

    Im a Los Angles native. When I was younger, Id look for odd cars; ones not commonly seen even in a place like LA where strange cars are, well, common. Id see the occasional Dodge labeled “Dart” when the same model was being sold as an Aries here. I even saw what I think was an Azteca. That was to be a Mexican-made car, built from tooling bought out of the Borgward bancruptcy.

It will be interesting to see if the Wuhan-sourced virus and Covid19 disease curb the progress of globalism, immigration reform, and planned parenthood (i.e. excess deaths).

Yup, those Demos are SO inclusive.

Empowering and protecting your family during the COVID19 pandemic
– Dr. David Price, Weill Cornell Medical Center

* social distancing (3 ft)
* hand to face hygiene
* coexisting with people (especially in close proximity) who are infected, who have the disease
* when to visit the hospital (e.g. resource management), and telemedical services

Bottom-line: We don’t have to shut down the country. We should avoid spreading a social contagion. There are rational and reasonable steps to take in order to mitigate infection, respond to disease, and to mitigate collateral damage.

    oldgoat36 in reply to n.n. | March 30, 2020 at 6:52 am

    It makes you wonder what grocery stores are doing to help prevent the spread of this Chinese virus. People going into the stores are handling items, and typical shoppers will pick up and put back items. This means if an infected person goes in, they have the potential to spread the disease despite “social distancing”.

      murkyv in reply to oldgoat36. | March 30, 2020 at 8:11 am

      Howard County, which is Kokomo, IN just banned selling anything non-essential

      Several merchants who sell only non-essentials raised a ruckus about Dollar General and Walmart being able to stay open and selling the same things they sell and the county council caved to them

      Can’t buy any coloring books or puzzles for the kiddies

      Needless to say, it hasn’t been too popular

      (and this was done by a newly elected (R) mayor and council)

      txvet2 in reply to oldgoat36. | March 30, 2020 at 1:22 pm

      At our local store, they’ve limited entry to one entrance. There are employees at the cart area with sanitary wipes for your cart handle, and an additional employee ensuring you use sanitary foam to clean your hands. A local cop stands by to ensure there are no arguments. As I noted earlier, they now have employees constantly restocking shelves. Others are using sanitary wipes to wipe down areas like the refrigeration unit. At the checkouts, there are marks on the floors indicating “proper” distance between customers.

      rdmdawg in reply to oldgoat36. | March 30, 2020 at 2:17 pm

      You can close the borders and avoid this ENTIRE problem… … entirely. ‘But muh borders!’ – Globalist shill.

    papabear in reply to n.n. | March 30, 2020 at 8:19 am

    the sad part is that there is NO common sense anymore, just look at the people licking Toilet seats to get 15 minutes of fame on Social media. Ignorant people don’t think nor do they give a Damn about anyone else. young people think they can’t get this Virus and they don’t care if they pass it to someone else who may pass it to someone else without knowing they they have it. the amount of damage done because of IGNORANCE is astounding.

      txvet2 in reply to papabear. | March 30, 2020 at 1:25 pm

      Not that many years ago, gays attended “AIDs parties”, where they knowingly engaged in unprotected sex with infected partners. You can’t fix stupid.

      rdmdawg in reply to papabear. | March 30, 2020 at 2:18 pm

      Tide-pod-eating millennials don’t count, I don’t know what is wrong with that generation but I’m through with listening to anything they have to say as mindless gibberish.

A few years ago, we tried keeping the damn yankees out. I wish you better luck.

A Candid Camera bit was stopping cars at the border and saying Maryland is closed. Typical response, “Will it be open Saturday?”

So knocking on someone’s door and searching their home is reasonable, considering the pandemic? Asking for a friend.

    jhn1 in reply to amwick. | March 30, 2020 at 11:48 am

    I read that as knocking on the door, nor breaking that door down, and talking to whomever answers that knock. No mention of searchs forced or not.
    Just passing on what might (should) be a public health authority order requiring persons who might have had higher risk encounters to self quarantine.
    I may be off, but I certainly see no Constitutional problems with what is mentioned at this time.

      amwick in reply to jhn1. | March 31, 2020 at 6:32 am

      TY…. I did try doing a bit of reading about that,,,I get lost in the weeds.. The discussions and posts here really help, most of the time..

I live in RI, and I was walking my dog over the weekend. A car with NY plates stopped and asked me for directions. From a safe distance I gave them instructions, but I said, “When you get there, you might want to put your car in a garage. Our governor has given us permission to hunt Hew Yorkers, and this neighborhood is heavily armed.”

I kept walking, and a few minutes later they stopped me again. “We knew you were joking, but our friends wouldn’t let us in.”

“But at least they didn’t shoot you.”

“Rhode Island is not a state, it is a state of mind.”