Illinois State Police Won’t Arrest Individuals for Violations of Executive Orders
“No individual will be arrested or taken to jail for a violation of the Executive Orders or emergency rules.”
The Illinois State Police (ISP) announced they “will not issue any criminal misdemeanors to individuals for violations of temporary emergency rules or executive orders” set in place by the state government due to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
ISP will not arrest or jail any individual “for a violation of the Executive Orders or emergency rules.”
ISP encouraged people “to continue to do their part to maintain public health.” They urged “voluntary compliance.”
The note did not specify what kind of citations a business might receive or if they will go to the extreme with the Class A misdemeanor.
— IllinoisStatePolice (@ILStatePolice) May 20, 2020
The announcement comes almost a week after Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued new emergency rules that say businesses that violate the stay-at-home order would be considered breaking Illinois Department of Health regulations.
The rules state businesses can receive a Class A misdemeanor, which could result in fines between $75 to $2,500 and possibly less than a year in jail.
Instead, ISP may issue citations “to entities such as corporations, LLPs or other business entities consistent with state and constitutional law.”
Pritzker’s executive order requires everyone over the age of two to wear a mask when out in public. Unless you have a specific reason to be out and about, citizens “are ordered to stay at home or at their place of residence.” If outside of their home, everyone must “maintain social distancing.” He also closed playgrounds, funplexes, water parks, etc.
[Featured image via Facebook]
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ISP will not arrest or jail any individual “for a violation of the Executive Orders or emergency rules.”
Sounds like they’re laying the ground for whopping fines.
Bet you’re wrong.
How do I put this? I grew up around a fireman’s kitchen table. Others who had seats there were police officers. My dad was a Coastie. Life savers and life takers.
I would stake my life that the Illini have no evil intent. That they have only good will.
Just as it’s only tonight.
It was only a matter of time before people rose up in defiance of their civil liberties and livelihoods being oppressed. While some police departments knowingly enforced these unconstitutional edicts, others realized that such actions would only enhance the negative impression the general public has about them (justified or not). Not to mention the legal liability they open themselves to should someone be harmed enforcing these edicts that have no legislative backing.
Love good news in the morning! (It’s morning in CA.)
Governor Billion Dollar Baby has got his Big Brother act down pat. A guy who has never worked a day in his life at a real job hasn’t a clue about the hardship and financial pain his dictatorial edicts and proclamations are causing the ‘little people’ who live outside of Crook County. These are people who have been barely affected by the Wuhan, if at all, and who would barely have been affected if there had been no lockdown.
It appears the governor is not a well man. Isn’t there some section of the state constitution that covers such contingencies?
He’s beyond morbidly obese. I only say this because I care so much about his health, and it’s OK to say it now.
He needs to cut down on the deliveries from those 5-Star Gold Coast restaurants near his mansion. Where he’s enduring the lockdown all alone because his wife needs to milk the cows in Wisconsin and feed the horses in Florida, in defiance of his stay-at-home edict.
Good. The goal is to mitigate progress [of the Wuhan virus and Covid19 disease], not to inflict punitive measures of [social] justice.
Please people, you need to parse this statement. They won’t arrest _individuals_, but they’ll sure as hell arrest and fine the _owners_ of hair salons, restaurants, and barber shops.
Owners are individuals. And you can fine a business, but you can’t arrest it.
Police agencies are not staffed totally by idiots. Arrests for these ineffective, stupid and most probably unconstitutional edicts will lead to more and more negative press and potentially to civil rights violation enforcement, including criminal and civil penalties. Now, the ISP would probably have preferred to remain under the radar and simply ignore violations of these edicts. However, the Governor is totally out of control, at this point, and will soon be issuing stupid enforcement orders, such as is happening in other places such as the gym in NJ and the restaurant in Maine. So, the administration of the ISP issues a public warning to the Governor not to issue an order which will not be obeyed. It is interesting that thee ISP thinks that a corporation or business entity can be “arrested”. It will be interesting to see them handcuff a high-rise building and drag it to the local hoosegow.
Mac, they aren’t thinking of the business; they’ll be happy to arrest the employees.
In 1982, I was working at a chain bookstore in Montgomery AL. The local DA got on an anti-pornography kick, and his definition included Playboy.
He told the manager: “If you don’t stop selling it, I’ll arrest you and your assistant manager, and both of you will sit in jail until any decision gets appealed as far as it will go. I don’t care if she’s seven months pregnant.”
The manager pulled the magazines that day, and corporate backed his decision.
Businesses are people, who you can arrest, fine, etc.
No, the ISP statement specifically said that they would not arrest individuals, but that they would “cite” businesses. Now, it is impossible to issue a criminal citation to a business. A business is not a human being and only a human being can be charged with a criminal offense. Civil penalties can be levied against the assets of a business for damages, but not criminal penalties.
So, if the ISP is not going to take criminal action against human beings, how are they going to take criminal action against a business?
If the Illinois governor were to visit my neck of the woods, he’d have an attack of the vapors.
The Bride and I contributed to the controlled enthusiasm at the local Great Clips yesterday. Everybody seemed to be doing fine.
.
If you have a choice of vapors, my personal favorite is anhydrous ammonia.
That is a somewhat refreshing stance by Illinois State police.
That said has there been a challenge specifically to these lockdown provisions relative to the constitutionality of mandatory stay at home orders?
The state obviously has some ability on public health grounds to limit the numbers of people in a location to some ratio of their fire code occupancy maximum. So the state can say go wherever you want but no more than 25% capacity in a building. Even then, the application would have to be neutral and not discriminatory.
The state can obviously impose quarantine on infected persons and on those who are likely infected based upon some observable standard. If cohabiting with someone who is infected or maybe traveled from some hotspot or had a long duration of exposure to an infected person. No real issues there that is the state exercising public health power.
What is an issue is attempting to apply quarantine upon persons who the state has no real reason to suspect that they are infected or have been exposed to infection.
Quarantine is preventive detention. So how is it constitutional to impose quarantine upon those persons the state can’t prove are infected nor have any reasonable suspension that they are infected? The state public health power doesn’t extend to all persons, only those who are infected or can be presumed as infected due to provable exposure.
Illinois’ threat remains toward business owners who “open.” Like the gym members in NJ who got arrested or mailed citations, Illinois won’t do that but it will arrest the business owner for opening. Kinda like going after the drug dealer, not the end-user. At least that’s my take on the State Police memo…
A popular sign in IL yards these days;
PRITZKER
SUCKS!
The life out of Illinois Small Businesses
Somebody voted for him.
He had overwhelming support from the dead community.
Well, if Governor’s Off wants to be a cartoon supervillian, turns out he-she-it-they need minions, not law enforcement officers.
Whatever they call themselves, you can tell what they really are by what htey do. Governors’ Off and Rhambo’s Following Act are cartoon villians. Chicago city police are in the main minions (or is that mooks.) Illinois state are in the main law enforcement.
And now we know…