California Sheriff on Stay-at-Home Order: “I Refuse to Make Criminals out of Business Owners, Single Moms” and Others

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said he will not be enforcing California’s stay-at-home order. He said it would make “criminals” out of business owners and those exercising their constitutional rights.

Bianco made the announcement in a meeting with the county’s board of supervisors. According to him, the order forced people to stay home, closed their businesses, and kept them from going to church.

“In the name of a public health crisis, our civil liberties and constitutional protections were placed on hold,” Bianco said.

“The measure's role in flattening the curve and in preventing hospitals from being overcrowded,” the sheriff acknowledged. However, he also says that city officials have not acknowledged that nearly half of the 4,300 people who've tested positive have recovered, reported Fox News.

“What that means is that out of 2.5 million people in Riverside County, we have only 2,300 residents positive with this virus,” Bianco also said. “Statistically, that is less than a tenth of one percent. Unfortunately, we have lost 181 of our residents to this virus. But keep in mind that that is only 7/1,000 of 1 percent.”

“Not only do we not have the resources to enforce unreasonable orders, I refuse to make criminals out of business owners, single moms, and otherwise healthy individuals for exercising their constitutional rights,” Bianco said.

“There cannot be a new normal. We are talking about a country formed on the fundamental freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Any new normal is a direct attack on those basic rights which set us apart and make us the greatest country in the world,” he then added.

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