I would feel a lot better about the strict measures being imposed via emergency proclamations, such as the latest curfew and ban on travel via “wheeled vehicles” imposed in Honolulu if there were some meaningful transparency incorporated in the process.
Mayor Caldwell, drawing on his emergency powers, declared the 11 pm to 5 am curfew on Thursday, April 9, via Emergency Order 2020-5. You can read the full text of this emergency order here.
What’s troubling to me here is that there is nothing at all in the emergency order itself indicating what problem this curfew is supposed to be the solution for. It recites what the city believes is the legal basis for the order, but nothing about the actual circumstances believed to justify it.
The problem here, it seems to me, is that emergency powers aren’t unlimited. Ultimately, the public should be assured that there is a compelling reason for each emergency policy, and that the specific restrictions on individual rights being imposed are justified and are not more extreme than necessary.
In the case of this curfew, it’s impossible to say because the reasons for it haven’t been openly discussed.
At a press conference at which Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced the curfew, Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard made only a few general observations hinting at a problem.
“There are a few who continue to not follow the rules,” Ballard said. “So what I want to let people know, HPD is going to be out there doing stricter enforcement.”
She specifically mentioned increasing enforcement at the beach parks.
But no specifics were given.
If there’s a problem such that a general overnight curfew is the best solution, shouldn’t we know a bit more about it? Are there statistics on police calls to or arrests as the result of significant gatherings of people between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.? Have there been more than a few hot spots? If so, why not lay out the situation clearly so that those of us in the public understand why we’re being asked to put up with this additional lock-down?
Of course, the curfew doesn’t affect me because I’ve usually been in bed for more than an hour by the time 11 p.m. rolls around. But, in general, the public should be given enough information to be confident that our elected officials are making the best policy decisions. We shouldn’t be asked to accept these policies on faith. This is still a democracy, despite the emergency.
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well said, I completely agree. Then again given the Mayor’s decision to bring a construction crew onto the beach in Waimanalo, he id not a man known for thoughtful introspection…..
on behalf of caldwell’s extra number of missteps in the past week, i came up with this acronym which i shall be using for him (and others) in the coming days: KAB. (karma’s a bitch). feel free to use.
I was wondering what metrics would be applied to determine whether this curfew was effective.
Yesterday we saw several vehicles parking in front of a Kaneohe house At noon. It was a birthday party.
The curfew makes no difference for a gathering like that.
Given Most Hawaiian democrats complete disregard for personal rights( like guns, asset forfeiture et al), I’m curious why this bothers you.
Government is great, government is good, let us thank government for everything.
Aloha and enjoy what little freedom you have left.
LOL.
Also sound asleep by 11:00 p.m. Likewise unaware of what COVID-related societal ill this weekend’s curfew was intended to solve. So, I’m with you – it had no direct impact on me whatsoever, but I treasure all of our freedoms even if I am not personally using them, and I don’t want our government treading on them without very good reason to do so. Our Mayor has a law degree, no? This is basic stuff. He should get it.
A curfew would seem to be counterproductive.
Thought experiment: Let’s take the curfew concept to an extreme, say, 1 pm to noon, so everyone who needs to do anything outside the house has an hour to do it.
That would create crowds of people during that hour, exactly what we want to avoid to suppress spread of the coronavirus.
The wider we open that window, the fewer people those who have to leave the house will encounter during those excursions.
So yes, I’m also curious as to the reason behind the curfew.
Yes, it’s problematic specifically because the mayor used the COVID19 health emergency as the basis for issuing this curfew. But by the date that this curfew was issued, new cases of coronavirus on Oahu had already dropped to single digits. Peak infection occurred almost a week prior to the date of the curfew, as the mayor would certainly have had to know. (And it has continued to drop since, now down to two cases/day for the last two days.) So not only was the curfew unwarranted, but Oahu should be preparing to rescind Stay At Home by the end of this week as well as the shutting down of local businesses if new infections continue to be in the single digits. (Travel needs to continue to be constrained until the rest of the world gets the virus under control so we don’t have another wave of cases.)
As painful as it is, there’s does not seem to be any support among health professionals for rescinding the “Stay at Home” plan until well after the number of new virus cases has been falling for some time in order to avoid another rapid return of Covid-19.
Yes, unfortunately that seems to be the case. So is it any wonder why nobody trusts these officials? After all, they were presumably protecting the tourism industry by telling us that there were *no* cases of COVID19 in Hawaii (without telling us that the reason there were no confirmed cases is because they had not yet sent a *single* sample to the CDC for analysis). And this was after a Japanese tourist had visited Waikiki who they believe contracted the virus before visiting. And that’s just one of several cases where there was an Oahu link to COVID19 cases reported elsewhere.
The reality is that when they open businesses back up, the number of cases will rise. But that will happen regardless of whether you have only had two new cases per day for a week or two new cases a day for a month or two new cases a day for a year. Keeping tourism closed down for a while longer makes perfect sense since many/most other parts of the world don’t have the virus under control yet. But there is no justification for not reopening businesses to locals. They would presumably do it in phases, anyway, so if the current infection rate remains in low single digits here, for a week to ten days, I think “public safety” is no longer a viable excuse for a continued lockdown (much less a curfew).
“But there is no justification for not reopening businesses to locals.”
What kind of medical/epidemiology degree do you have Greg?
I don’t need a degree in medicine to know that Gov Ige claimed that 11 cases on a particular day was the reason we don’t meet the federal standard for entering Phase 1 of reopening. I only need to know what a “two week downward trajectory” looks like and that not only does Hawaii have one already, but that in fact if you look at the chart at health.hawaii.gov that shows the same data based on the date when the disease was actually contracted, we have already been on a downward trajectory for over a month.
I think it is safe to assume those federal guidelines were based on input from *exactly* the kind of authorities you would defer to (otherwise why ask me whether I have such a degree). So it is by extension safe to say that these authorities at the federal level believe it is safe to start reopening.
So I think it is fair to throw your question right back at you and ask what kind of degree *you* have that makes you better qualified to decide when it is safe to start reopening than do the federal health officials who provided these guidelines.
And just so readers can see for themselves that Hawaii has been in a downward trajectory of new cases for over two weeks, BuzzFeed News has just published an interactive chart to let you see the trend line for any state in the US. You can find it here: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/when-will-my-state-reopen
Just add “Hawaii” and look for a trend line added to the bottom of the chart. There you will be able to confirm that Hawaii has been in a downward trajectory since its new cases peak on April 3.
I do not understand the need for the curfew either. But during the day, the beaches continue to be a problem. Every time I go surfing there are groups of people hanging out. HPD has been patrolling, but they’ve been inconsistent and arbitrary. We need a way for people to communicate with each other about this. We cannot fine everyone and arresting people is just counterproductive since it creates more of the danger we’re trying to lessen.
Germany is easing up on its lockdown. The new regulations are as follows:
–Retailers smaller than 800 square meters (8,610 square feet) will be allowed to open under the current physical distancing rules on April 20.
–Schools will slowly re-open their doors on May 4, with pupils in their last years of primary and secondary school having the priority. Schools that re-open must have a strict hygiene plan in place.
–Hair salons can resume business on May 4 if strict protective measures are observed.
–The ongoing rule that individuals may only meet with one person outside their household remains in place, as well as the rule about keeping a minimum of 1.5 meters (5 feet) away from others.
–Large events, such as sports and concerts, will remain banned until August 31.
–Bars, restaurants, day care centers, theaters, and cinemas will stay closed until further notice. Religious gatherings are also canceled for the foreseeable future.
–Protective masks are “strongly recommended,” but not mandatory, in shops and on public transportation.
–Strict controls at Germany’s borders will stay in place for at least 20 more days.
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-what-are-germanys-updated-lockdown-measures/a-53139313
Applied to Hawaii, this would mean opening up local business and schools in the beginning of May, but just about everything related to tourism would remain shutdown until September.
What this article does not mention is that many epidemiologists are stating that the coronavirus will probably come back in force in Autumn. So in Germany, one might expect the complete lockdown to be reimposed in some form in September — just when the ban on large events was planned to end. And perhaps the German authorities privately know this.
In Hawaii, this would mean no tourism well into 2021.
Wow. That’s a troubling prospect to say the least. We cannot simply assume that will happen, but of course need to have some contingency plan in case. Yet, conversely I would not be surprised if optimism IS our officials’ contingency plan, which scares me most of all.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/hawaii-coronavirus-cases.html
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
Click on Deaths/1M pop.
Hawaii has the second lowest death rate in the United States.