Tell City of Milwaukee to enforce its mask and distancing requirements
Thanks to your support, the City of Milwaukee passed an ordinance last summer requiring masks and distancing.
But is the city actually enforcing the ordinance?
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday, not so much:
- “Just a few evening and weekend inspections have taken place in recent weeks with one health inspector and one police officer.”
The results of such no-inspections?
- "The city recently raised the fine for violations of COVID-19 orders but had not issued any citations at the higher amount as of Dec. 23, Jackson said last week."
Breaking news -- if they don't look for violations, they won't find any. And it looks like they’ve given up looking.
As tough as it can be, other cities are taking this job seriously, putting in the effort and figuring it out, as The Washington Post reported yesterday.
Why won't Milwaukee?
A requirement is meaningless if everyone knows it won't be enforced. The goal isn't to look for businesses to punish -- the goal is to show the community it needs to follow the law. Many businesses are following the rules, but others aren't, and they have no incentive to do the right thing.
What to do? Let your elected officials if you live in Milwaukee know you want their public health requirements to mean something — by enforcing them.
You can write a short, polite email to:
- Mayor Tom Barrett.
- Your alderman or alderwoman. (Follow this link and click where you live on the map at the bottom of that page, and you’ll be taken to a website with their email address.)
We all want to patronize Milwaukee businesses and help them survive. But we also don’t want bars and restaurants to become Covid incubators. The only way businesses are going to truly come back is by getting the pandemic under control. And we need our government to lead the way.