After changes to order to wear Covid-19 masks, city stresses education, will hand out thousands
Thousands of masks will be distributed by police officers to residents beginning Thursday, the day after their wearing becomes mandatory by city order and people without one might risk a $300 fine.
“The city’s order requiring face coverings in public settings is intended to protect our residents – not punish them,” Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and City Manager Louis A. DePasquale said in a joint press release Wednesday. “We have built in a one-week grace period. Following that timeframe, our police department will exclusively focus on education for a few weeks when encountering someone without a face covering.”
After that, education will stay the “primary focus,” the city leaders said, because “face coverings are not simply about protecting the person wearing it – they are about protecting others in the community, and we all must do our part.”
City councillors taken by surprise
City councillors expected to discuss an order for mask wearing at their Monday meeting, but the city manager jumped ahead of it by announcing his order. A few moments of discussion followed in which councillor Patty Nolan expressed concern about “unintentional racial profiling” and the “draconian” nature of the fine.
On Wednesday morning, councillor Quinton Zondervan said he agreed. “The city manager’s preemption sidelined the voice of the council and our democratic process, which would only have improved the policy,” he said via Twitter. “There wasn’t enough discussion of the immense potential for bias in enforcement, especially given the announced $300 fine.”
The mask order had already been revised once, on Tuesday, to iron out some policies and inconsistencies with the rules as announced.
Zondervan suggested further than police hand out masks, a “proactive” approach that was being taken in a similar Somerville mask order. “I expect to not hear any horror stories stemming from this policy, and ideally there will be no enforcement at all,” Zondervan said.
Emphasis on education
The city press release followed some three and a half hours later.
“The priority for our police officers is to not issue fines, but rather to make residents aware of the importance of wearing a face mask and provide them one if needed,” police commissioner Branville G. Bard Jr. affirmed in the press release.
Many of the masks to be handed out were donated by the Massachusetts Chinese Community and Fo Guang Buddhist Temple to Siddiqui’s office, a city spokesman said Wednesday. They will be made available to residents on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last, and quantities will be limited to the number of residents in a household.
In addition to being distributed by police officers in marked cruisers, in a dispenser outside police headquarters at 125 Sixth St., East Cambridge, and by homeless outreach officers, masks will be made available at the city’s school meal distribution sites and at drive-through sites at the Tobin and Kennedy-Longfellow elementary schools from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Why is there a fine?
If “The city’s order requiring face coverings in public settings is intended to protect our residents – not punish them,” so say Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and City Manager Louis A. DePasquale, then WHY IS THERE A FINE?
If education will stay the “primary focus,” then WHY IS THERE A FINE?
It was an aggressive and disrespectful move for the Manager to step on the toes of our elected Councillors by issuing this serious Order moments before the Council was planning to discuss their own Policy Order on mask wearing recommendations.
It was spineless for the Council to back down and fail to have a full discussion and fail to vote on their Policy Order, just because of the Manager’s shameful move. Councillors, we elected YOU to take charge when things like this happen. YOU are the board of directors. YOU decide whether the Manager is handling his job properly. Order him to do so, or fire him!
Handing out masks is a great idea. Not sure how the Manager even considered issuing this Order without providing masks to the public. They should also be provided to restaurant workers, who the city has continued to refuse to acknowledge as front line workers. They work in close proximity, less than 6 feet often times, and until this order were not required to wear masks.
The amended Order is still poorly written, making it unclear what is expected of the public, businesses and workers.
The amended Order still requires the public to wear masks in public even when not near others. Where is the evidence from the Manager that the public is at risk of infection of Covid-19 by not wearing a mask in public when further than 6 feet from others? By the terms of this Order – which by the way could be in effect for months, or even a year – you can be a mile away from any other human, and still must wear a mask. This is nonsensical!
Councillors, let’s get this redrafted to actually make sense.
Councillor Quinton Zondervan stated “I expect to not hear any horror stories stemming from this policy, and ideally there will be no enforcement at all”.
Councillor, if you feel that way, you must order the Manager to remove the fines and consider making this a recommendation, rather than mandatory. I could see possibly making it mandatory inside of businesses (only if masks are provided).
My experience with Cambridge Police is that they fail to understand the proper scope of their responsibilities, and do not hesitate to overstep their authority. The department will follow its leaders. The Police Commissioner and City Manager seem to have no problem with behavior that violates the civil rights of our residents and businesses. I can testify to this first hand.
We must expect more from our city government.