Officials in one California county are considering taking legal action against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom if he doesn’t ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions soon.
Placer County, stretching from the northeast Sacramento suburb of Roseville to the shore of Lake Tahoe, won’t be one of the first counties to get the green light to reopen based on Newsom’s requirements, which have upset several officials, according to the Sacramento Bee.
“If we don’t see any action, we may be calling a special meeting to seek a legal injunction,” Placer County Board Chairman Kirk Uhler said, adding that he believes Newsom went too far in shutting down the economy and issuing a stay-at-home order. “I hear stories every day of family businesses that will never come back.”
Uhler added that Newsom’s criteria to open up, including a required 15 coronavirus “contact tracers” per 100,000 residents, are “completely arbitrary, completely excessive” and that the county is “not interested in playing Newsom’s little games anymore.”
“We have a grand total of 10 people in the hospital,” he continued. “We’re not beyond our control; we’re completely within our control.”
California began to loosen restrictions on Friday, but the majority of businesses remain closed. Many Californians have grown frustrated with the slow speed at which the reopening process is progressing since Newsom said in mid-April that the coronavirus infection curve has been flattened.
More than 500 people showed up in downtown Huntington Beach, California, last week to protest stay-at-home orders and beach closures. Businesses in Northern California have started opening their doors in disregard of state orders.
Frustration with lockdowns has reached the top levels of law enforcement as well.
“It’s time to get back opening up our businesses and letting our people do what our normal business activities are,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said on Friday. “And you know, you just can’t arrest somebody for going out and exercising in public or not wearing a mask. You know, at the same time, they are trying to force me to release real criminals from jail. They want me to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens that are, you know, trying to support a family. It doesn’t make sense anymore.”
