Say a fine and community service, with jail time for repeat offenders.
The biggest problem with this (and we've already seen it in some places) is that it would be used to target POC and the poor in due to the nature of policing. If the police didn't suck then I'd be in support, but they do so I can't.
Fines are regressive, some rich fuck can afford $500, whereas it could put a poor person on the street
In Finland, speeding fines are linked to salary. The Finns run a “day fine” system that is calculated on the basis of an offender’s daily disposable income – generally their daily salary divided by two.
The more a driver is over the speed limit, the greater the number of day fines they will receive.
In 2002, Anssi Vanjoki, a former Nokia director, was ordered to pay a fine of 116,000 euros ($103,600) after being caught driving 75km/h in a 50km/h zone on his motorbike.
And in 2015, Finnish businessman Reima Kuisla was fined 54,000 euro ($62,000) for driving 22km/h over the 50km/h speed limit.
jails = bad. i'd just have them escorted back to their home if they refuse to put one on. I guess that's basically house-arrest but like,,, just wear the free provided mask if you want to come out. If things got bad i'd go full tankie lockdown like china did and just you know, make everyone lock down for a month or two (while providing food/med/necessities for all) and then masks would be far less of a concern.
I live next to a much bougier county. No cops would enforce it there.
I couldn't get behind this in good faith if there wasn't a similarly strong shutdown order/eviction moratorium/rent pause/mortgage pause/weekly stimulus checks/food guarantees. Enforcing a mask mandate with cops should be the last thing on the list of things to do to make coronavirus safer. "Making something illegal" is the same liberal thinking that got us in the war on drugs.
If it isn't coupled with monthly checks and an extended eviction freeze, it's only gonna further irritate maskless people.
honestly these jokes aren't even funny anymore. they're tired and old because the WS is so ubiquitious that it's basically expected at this point.
not trying to rip on you, I did it too
You beat me to it. Hand out masks for first offence, then fine and jail.
We should not be putting more people in jail during a pandemic. That's ridiculous.
Hand out a mask at first offense, continue handing out masks on subsequent offenses.
A punishment of a fine just means that it's legal for wealthy people, both fines and jail time will hurt the working poor the most.
Bullying/harassing people into wearing a mask, and giving them the means to, will actually change peoples' actions.
Fines, jail, and other punishments have shown to not be effective deterrents for many crimes, so what do they accomplish?
Punishment. Nothing else.
E: Not to mention that enforcement for fines and jail will be done by our incredibly racist police force.
I would be ecstatic about it. With a large but.
Any policy like this will disproportionately affect poor people. In both enforcement and acquisition of a mask.
In a perfect world where I could trust cops, I would like to see first offence handled with a warning with the officer giving the offender 2-3 masks. Then we get into fines and potentially prison.
Just don't know if it would work like that. It sounds great in my head but reality is shit.
Can we make the masks interesting? "I'm a science denying fuckwit". " I love sharing corona." "It's not jut the flu" etc?
I don't like it. If they're not wearing masks they're more likely to be carrying the virus so putting them together with other people at community service or jail seems like a dumb idea. I think the biggest penalty ought to be, don't wear a mask and we'll dock the monthly check you're getting. Anything more than that seems excessively punitive, there are more effective approaches that aren't as harsh, they just require money and effort.
It has worked in other countries, but they have also received unemployment benefits and other support when covid hit. In the US people are close to being evicted, the police are insane, and there's no handouts coming from the government. So if it was implemented in the US it would be a complete shitshow. I guess the argument is whether that shitshow is better or worse than the current one.
Hey, it could be worse. It has been worse. In the 1330s, during the plague pandemic, the pope issued a decree that cats were doing witchcraft and were to be exterminated. So everyone went out and killed all the cats. Low and behold, the plague, which spread through rats, went from bad to extremely bad.
That would escalate things into complete chaos. Think the conservatives that constantly compare the Michigan governor to Hitler and talk about authoritarianism. You would see a massive reactionary right wing backlash and it wouldn't be pretty.
