When the sheriff in Marion County, Fla, wrote an email to his deputies this week about a new mask assignment, he expected there would be complaints. “I can hear the crying already,” Sheriff Billy Woods wrote, noting that he did not “take the decision easily.”
And at a time when more states and cities require face-covering, Sheriff Woods’ decision was unusual – he forbade his deputies to wear masks while on duty, with some exceptions, and visited visitors to his offices not to wear them.
Sheriff Woods said the purpose of his order, first reported by The Ocala Star-Banner, was less about the effectiveness of masks in stopping the spread of coronavirus than about improving communication with the public.
He wrote that “in light of current events regarding sentiment and / or hatred against legislation,” an apparent reference to national protests over police brutality this summer, that it would be better if officers’ voices were not echoed. muffled. masks and that the faces of citizens were not hidden.
Public health officials around the world now agree that wearing a face mask in public is essential to slowing down the spread of the virus. In the United States, many locations that initially opposed the imposition of mask mandates changed course after virus falls began to die in the summer, and now require.
But Sheriff Woods, a Republican who was elected in 2016 and took part in a phone call between law enforcement and President Trump on Tuesday, was not driven by the scientific consensus.
“We can debate all day and argue about why and why not,” he wrote. “The fact is, the number of professionals who give the reason why we should, I can find exactly the same amount of professionals who say why we should not.”
Marion County, a county in Central Florida that holds about 365,000 people, has not been hit as hard as some other places in the state, but has suffered 6,798 cases and 104 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The province added about 176 new cases and four new deaths per day, on average, in the seven days ending Tuesday.
The sheriff’s order made exceptions for officers at the Judiciary, in prisons and in public schools – but he made it clear that he was not convinced they were necessary.
There remain deep divisions in the United States over the wearing of masks, often rooted in partisan politics. Some people dare themselves to be told to wear masks, and others dare people refuse to wear them; the arguments have sometimes become great.
That officials in some parts of the country put their foot down.
In Miami Beach, officials have fined more than $ 14,000 to people who refuse to wear masks. Illinois, where cases of coronavirus have increased, introduced a measure Friday that made it a crime to attack a retail worker who adheres to a masked policy.
And the sight of thousands of unmasked faces at a motorcycle rally last week in Sturgis, SD, asked Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire to change his mind, and gave an order demanding masks at meetings of more than 100 people in his state, including a motorcycle rally planned for later this month.
In Marion County, the sheriff’s order came amid a fight over a mask order in the province’s largest city, Ocala, which last week secured a face order, only to be vetoed by the mayor of the city, Kent Guinn.
Mr Guinn also said he was talking to Ocala Police Department Chief Greg Graham, who agreed that a mask mandate would not be upheld. “We will never write a fine,” Mr Guinn told 97.3 FM The Sky. “We just will not do it.”
But his veto was overturned on Wednesday by the city council, which issued the emergency ordinance requiring face masks within businesses.
Local response to the mask commands is mixed. “Make me happy,” one Facebook user wrote in a City Council post about Wednesday’s refund of the ordinance. “I stand behind the mayor, the police officers and Marion County Sheriff and I vote out of today’s city council.”
But Amber Gibbs, a Marion County resident who described the situation as “a kind of mask war”, said decisions like those made by Sheriff Woods “send the wrong message.”
“I do not feel at all safe when our leaders promote anti-science,” she said. “That’s why we stay at home for the most part.”
Still, Sheriff Woods said visitors to his offices are being asked to remove their masks. If they refuse, Mr. Woods, they will be asked to leave.
He also gave advisers to his deputies on how to deal with people who may be asking why they do not wear face masks. “If you are confronted at any moment by an individual who is complaining, touching you or just being a troublesome individual,” Mr Woods wrote, “you will tell them politely and professionally ‘I am not obliged to wear a mask , and I will not, by the Order of the Sheriff ‘and then run away from her.’
The sheriff ended his email with a strict tone of enforcement: “My orders will be tracked or my actions will be quick to respond.”
Eileen Sullivan contribution reporting.
