Houston cops are balking at imposing a Harris County official’s order requiring everyone over age 10 to use face masks in public, calling the step “idiotic.”
In a fiery letter, Joe Gamaldi, president of the Houston Cops Officers’ Union Fraternal Order of Authorities, stated that officers have no time to impose the order issued Wednesday, considered that violent crime and home criminal activity have both soared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
” Now we want to be really clear, HPOU thinks everyone must be wearing a mask in public, in order to secure themselves from the infection and we are encouraging all of our officers to use a mask,” said the open letter. “However, we draw the line at the oppressive measures Hidalgo has decided to engage in.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s elected president, announced the order at a Wednesday press conference, stating, “We need to use every tool in the toolbox.”
” If we get complacent, individuals will pass away,” she stated on ABC13 in Houston. “Those are the stakes.”
Republicans also pressed back. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tweeted that the mandate was “the ultimate federal government overreach.”
” On the very same day Harris County Commissioner’s Court prepares to close the $60 million-dollar pop-up medical facility at NRG Park, due to the fact that it wasn’t needed, Judge Lina Hidalgo orders anybody over the age of 10 to wear a mask in public,” Mr. Patrick said in a statement. “Her abuse of the usage of executive orders is the ultimate government overreach.
The order, slated to take effect Monday and last 30 days, needs Harris County locals 10 and older to cover their noses and mouths when outside using a cloth or homemade mask. Lawbreakers are subject to a $1,000 fine.
Mr. Gamaldi said the HPOU has actually reached out to the Texas Attorney general of the United States’s office on the legality of the order, however in the meantime, the union is informing officers that they have “DISCRETION, DISCRETION, DISCRETION” to enforce the mask requirement.
” We do not have time to be pawns in Hidalgo’s video game of trying to control the actions of law abiding, tax paying individuals of our neighborhood,” stated the letter. “Particularly considering that this idiotic order, is potentially an unconstitutional one, from the County Judge.”
HPOU reaction to @LinaHidalgoTX draconian mask order: “Now we wish to be really clear, HPOU thinks everybody should be using a mask in public, in order to safeguard themselves from the virus and we are encouraging all of our officers to wear a mask. Nevertheless, we fix a limit …” pic.twitter.com/XbphfNYHii
— Houston Police Officers’ Union (@HPOUTX) April 22, 2020
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick rips ‘overreaching’ Harris Co. judge https://t.co/GDMHIV8Xi6 pic.twitter.com/BGAmf6GuEJ
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13 houston) April 23, 2020
Mr. Gamaldi tweeted that he wears a mask every day, but that asking officers to impose such an order would “do irreversible damage to our relationship with the neighborhood.”
Harris County isn’t the only neighborhood in Texas with mask requirements. A minimum of two other communities, Laredo and Willacy County, have actually enacted comparable orders.
Harris County and Houston have a combined 5,211 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the brand-new coronavirus, and 80 deaths, according to the public health departments, or about a quarter of all cases in Texas. The county has 4.7 million residents.
