Social distance warriors

Published April 24, 2020 3:00am ET



Snitching? There’s an app for that.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recently took to the airwaves to announce that responsible citizens could turn state’s witness in reporting crimes against public health: “When you see a crowd, when you see a line that’s not distanced, when you see a supermarket that’s too crowded — anything — you can report it right away, so we can get help there to fix the situation. And now, it’s as simple as taking a photo. All you’ve got to do is take the photo, put the location with it, and bang. Send a photo like this, and we will make sure that enforcement comes right away.” (Far from cutting off infection chains, this narcing might even be a way to spread the disease. The New York City Police Department had a recorded rate of infection nearly 7 times the average of the population at large as of a week into April, with numbers trending up.)

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