I do not work at a bar LOL. I was celebrating football night in America with five friends like all people do. A party of 70 hospital workers surrounded us, arrogantly flashing their hospital badges saying that it was safe, they were all tested and they were not endangering us. (Turns out they had lied to the bar and said it was a reservation for 16 people but the bar wouldn't turn them away despite our pleas). Clearly if this many people are willing to patronize it with zero concern, there is no appetite for your public policy. If you close these bars (mostly outdoor at this point), the gatherings will have to switch to my lavish indoor residence which I can't imagine is much better - shared ventilation and common areas and such.
Zero people would respect a ban of households intermingling LOL. Are you that far out of reality? Philadelphia banned that last Friday, and we all had a fantastic Thanksgiving anyway. You can't even go to a restaurant with another household under the new law. (LO freaking L)
Philadelphia also tried banning bars from operating after 10 PM and had a 24 hour pause for Thanksgiving. I am thankful we have a guy three blocks from my house operating an illicit street stand for the shadiest mixed drinks until midnight. We love patronizing that place!
If you wanted to crack down on any of this, maybe you shouldn't have made an enemy out of the police. In Philadelphia, enforcement of anything dropped the second Krasners got into office and became basically nothing after the antics of this summer.
I mean, I know that the policy will be unpopular, but it will save lives and what not.
Yes, I know bars closing will throw people off of them and into private houses which are arguably worse ventilated and what not. But the point is that
some people will respect the ban, and the local news will be showing eveyr day all the illegal parties and the police going into the houses to "stop the party" and give the homeowners and everyone there a big fine. (as well as any bars that are open against the law)
I don't know the degree to which the Boris Johnson ban on households intermingling was followed or not; but rates in the UK are going down. Alternatively our similar bans on "no more than 5/10 people meeting" were reasonably followed. Yes, dumb people still threw parties with tons of people; and I imagine many were caught and others were not. But many others did not, or they cut the attendance to said 5-10 people maximum.
Irresponsible people will always exist, but if even just 50% of people are "law-abiding" you are still cutting the amount of parties and what not by 50%. There is a decent amount of people that will follow the restrictions set up by the government, but stop there.
The specific stand you describe where one guy was selling drinks should have been closed by the police and the guy given a very heavy fine, it is very logical? It should not even be legal without COVID, let alone during a pandemic!
And for some reason you seem to think I am of the "defund the police" crowd? Definitely not. I am not aware of the specifics so I can buy attempts at police reform, but stuff like defunding them (or even making an enemy of them) is a bad idea?
In any case, if police aren't following orders from their bosses, tbh the entire police department should be fired and in fact thrown in prison alltogether. If it was the military, it'd be called a coup or rebellion and the same applies with the police.
