You Can’t Arrest A Virus

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Friend,   You can’t arrest a virus. But that didn’t stop Mayor de Blasio from putting police on New York’s bridges and tunnels as part of the fight against COVID-19.   This pandemic is deadly serious, but using police stops to “educate” the public on quarantine requirements is absurd. As I wrote in the N.Y. Daily News last week: “If we turn COVID-19 quarantines into a policing matter, if we subject thousands of travelers to unnecessary stops, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing New Yorkers of color being arrested, beaten or worse because of this law.”   Luckily, our objections gained momentum, and our pushback was highlighted in the New York Times, Salon, The AP, and dozens of other outlets. Since our founding, S.T.O.P.’s media engagement has challenged the surveillance solutionism that dominated New York’s political dialogue. With your help, and our growing network of supporters, we can not only roll-back these surveillance measures, we can dispel the belief that mass surveillance is the solution to New York’s problems. It’s not, and it never will be.   With thanks, Albert Fox Cahn, Esq. Executive Director Our First Year Our Team Share Tweet Forward