A local police chief says he won’t enforce New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s coronavirus orders for the Thanksgiving holiday season, calling them “basically draconian.”
On Sunday, Howell Township Police Chief Andrew Kudrick Jr. told Fox and Friends Weekend that he doesn’t want to contribute more to the distress people are feeling about the pandemic by enforcing rules against family gatherings.
“As a police chief, in charge of 100-plus police officers, I felt it was just incumbent upon me just to let them know, and let my community know, that we’re not going to enforce some of these executive orders which I feel are basically draconian,” Kudrick said.
Last week, Murphy limited indoor gatherings in New Jersey to 10 people, down from 25, and outdoor gatherings to 150, down from 500, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Murphy is among the several state and local officials across the country that have implemented new public health measures as coronavirus cases continue to spike. The United States has had over 12 million cases and surpassed 256,000 deaths.
“I, or any of us can’t be inside your living room for Thanksgiving,” Murphy said, regarding the new rules. “You probably wouldn’t want us to begin with, but that does not mean that we, as an enforcement matter, are not going to be as all over it as we can be.”
Unless an “egregious violation” occurs that would put many at risk amid the pandemic, Kudrick said he won’t use his officers to enforce the state’s orders door-to-door.
“When we’re hurting in society nowadays, our friends and families are the ones that provide us support and lift us up,” Kudrick said. “And I wasn’t going to have my police officers going knocking on doors and ruining somebody’s holiday just to check how many people are inside their house. It’s not happening.”
New Jersey has had over 300,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 16,000 deaths.
