Visitors seeking ‘essential‘ drinks face $7,000 in lockdown fines, California cops say
Seven men on a road trip to Santa Cruz, California, now face up to $7,000 in fines for violating coronavirus lockdown orders, police say on Twitter.
“Everyone should know by now that this is not the time to meetup and party,” police wrote in the Saturday post “Officers cited seven $1000 tickets for #ShelterInPlace Violations to help these guys remember their time in Santa Cruz.”
Calling it “one expensive hang out,” police added a hashtag reading “#ShelterInYourOwnTown” to the Twitter post.
In a Twitter post earlier Saturday, Police Chief Andrew Mills said the seven men came from Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area seeking “essential” drinks. Fremont is about 50 miles from Santa Cruz.
“If you are not from Santa Cruz and you put our community at risk, you will get a ticket,” Mills warned in the post.
Police did not say where the men were cited but a photo posted to Twitter by Mills shows them sitting outside a 7-Eleven store.
More than 1.8 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 115,000 deaths as of April 13, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 550,000 confirmed cases with more than 22,000 deaths.
The World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 virus a global pandemic. In the United States, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency.
States and cities across the U.S. have implemented lockdown orders intended to help curb the spread of the virus.
Santa Cruz County banned surfing and closed parks and beaches Wednesday, setting fines up to $1,000 for non-essential businesses that stay open and people who gather in large groups, The Mercury News reported.
“We’re serious about it,” Mills said, KNTV reported. “Stay home. Don’t come down to Santa Cruz right now. After this is over, come down and enjoy the waves, the sunshine, the beach. But right now is not the time.”
Mills said police have given out dozens of citations for violating the shelter-in-place order, according to the station. A court will assess the final fines for citations.
While some commenters on the Twitter posts praised Santa Cruz police, others were critical, predicting the citations will eventually be reversed by the courts.
“What if they already had it and are not a risk to the public anymore?” read one comment. “Did the officers administer tests to see if they were a risk? Will the fine be waived if they present a doc’s note showing they aren’t a risk? Is this just a way to steal money from people that are hurting?”
“Once the country returns to normal, lots of attorneys will be making extreme bank when they sue these jurisdictions for violating the constitution,” read another reply.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 10:20 AM with the headline "Visitors seeking ‘essential‘ drinks face $7,000 in lockdown fines, California cops say."