Miami Police Setting Up 'Mask Traps,' Issuing $100 Fines to People Wearing Masks Improperly

The theoretical case for government mask mandates has to be weighed against the reality of their enforcement.

It's been less than two weeks since Miami-Dade County announced it would be fining people for not wearing masks in public. Already, Florida media outlets are filled with stories of people cited for wearing masks improperly, lowering masks to sip a drink, or removing their face coverings once outside of a store. On Thursday, the Miami Herald reported that the Miami-Dade Police Department has issued 162 citations for violating the county's mandatory mask ordinance, which comes with a $100 penalty. One woman, Johanna Gianni, says she removed her mask in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store in North Miami Beach, when a police officer approached her and wrote her a ticket for not wearing a mask. Gianni told the Herald the parking lot was nearly empty and that she felt set up by police. She's not the only one.

The ABC affiliate Local10 reports that Dean Gonzalez was fined while leaving a North Miami Beach Publix because his mask didn't cover his nose. The encounter was captured on video; in it, an officer can be heard telling Gonzalez that improper mask usage is as bad as not wearing a mask at all. Gonzalez accused the cops of setting up a "mask trap" and said that they threatened him with arrest if he didn't sign the ticket he was issued. The Herald article includes several other examples of people being fined while wearing masks, including a customer at a barber shop who lowered his mask to take a sip of water right as a police officer entered the business. NBC Miami reports that Miami-Dade police conduct 500 random compliance checks each day to enforce the county's public health ordinance. The Herald also identified one Wawa convenience store where eight people were cited over two days for not wearing masks, suggesting that police are indeed setting up "mask traps."

Mask mandates have proliferated across the United States as a way of combating the spread of COVID-19. Police are often empowered to enforce these rules through fines and even arrests. Enforcement varies between jurisdictions, however, with some communities aiming for voluntary compliance. Miami-Dade County appears to be among the most aggressive enforcers of its mask mandate. The Mercury News reports that in San Francisco, another large city with a mask mandate, police have issued 26 citations for violating that city's emergency health order. One could make a libertarian case for government mask mandates during a pandemic, on the grounds that no one has an inherent right to cough deadly pathogens on another person. But that theoretical case has to be weighed against the reality of policing in America, where cops frequently resort to petty and overaggressive enforcement. To judge from these reports in Miami, the pandemic has done little to change how such officers go about enforcing the law.

https://reason.com/2020/07/27/miami-police-setting-up-mask-traps-issuing-100-fines-to-people-wearing-masks-improperly/

>>10103699

All that needs to happen is for one of these to make through the court process..see who will up hold this, from each of the districts, thinking some thing along the lines of Sullivan, trying to keep Flynn's case alive. Like rats exposing themselves in the sunlight.

Carter Page sues Yahoo, HuffPost parent company for 'false and defamatory' articles

Page's 'life was shattered as a direct result of being defamed and falsely branded as a traitor,' suit claims

EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page is suing Yahoo parent company Oath Inc. over “false and defamatory statements,” claiming the outlet “portrayed him as a traitor to America” who illegally conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. The suit – obtained by Fox News – was filed Monday in Delaware Superior Court and accuses Oath’s Yahoo News and HuffPost of publishing stories about Page “with actual knowledge of falsity or with a reckless disregard of truth or falsity” with a motive of generating clicks online and aligning with the political bias and aims of senior management. “Page is an innocent individual whose entire way of life was shattered as a direct result of being defamed and falsely branded as a traitor to his country by the Defendant’s media brands,” the lawsuit claims. “He was allegedly secretly plotting with Russian leaders to sabotage the 2016 Presidential Election and give ‘aid and comfort’ to Russian President Putin’s efforts to ‘weaken’ America.” The suit notes that criminal acts of treason against the United States are punishable by the death penalty. Claiming the stories falsely painted Page as a possible traitor, the suit alleges the reports “catastrophically harmed” an innocent person. “Overnight he was defamed and thrown onto the world stage as a traitor,” the suit said.

Page is seeking punitive damages, an award requiring the defendant to disgorge any benefits obtained from publishing the defamatory statements, attorneys’ fees and costs associated the suit, prejudgment and post-judgment interest, “other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper” and a trial by jury. “Since the defamatory statements were published within weeks of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, and contained lurid and sensational alleged facts describing international political intrigue involving the presidential candidates, the Defendant’s economic expectation that the false and defamatory statements would increase ‘clicks’ and globally drive internet traffic to its various websites and thereby result in a financial benefit is undeniable,” the suit said. The suit claims that then-Oath CEO Tim Armstrong had ties to Hillary Clinton and ran his media organization to help her defeat President Trump, resulting in an “epic failure of journalistic integrity.”

Page was a central figure in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election. Mueller did not find any wrongdoing by Page and was unable to substantiate the anti-Trump dossier’s claims about him. Last year, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a long-awaited report finding that the FBI made repeated errors and misrepresentations before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) as the FBI sought to monitor Page in 2016 and 2017. Horowitz’s report also confirmed that the FISA applications to monitor Page relied heavily on the now-infamous Trump dossier, authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, and funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign through law firm Perkins Coie.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/carter-page-sues-yahoo-huffpost-parent-for-false-and-defamatory-articles-that-portrayed-him-as-traitor-to-america