Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Arizona reached 241,165 on Wednesday, Oct. 27, an increase of 1,044 from the previous day, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
A prominent health expert expressed worry about rising COVID-19 numbers across Arizona, saying the trend is reminiscent of early summer conditions that preceded a spike in cases and rollback of measures to reopen businesses. COVID-19 cases in Arizona surpass 240,000:
“This is a moment to sort of stop and take measure and think hard about: What can we do to prevent this?” said Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, which is tracking case trends across Arizona’s 15 counties, as well as in the state overall and the nation.
LaBaer said the numbers of new cases reported recently by the Arizona Department of Health Services are figures “we haven’t seen that in a while.”
“In terms of numbers of new cases, we are on a path headed toward exponential growth,” LaBaer said. “The tricky thing about exponential growth is that it doesn’t look like it’s growing very fast at first. The numbers day over day don’t look like they’re big changes. But then all of a sudden, it really can take off. And so I am concerned.”
In other words, we are looking at a potential big spike in COVID-19 cases over the holiday season if people do not wear masks and social distance in public, limit social gatherings and frequently wash their hands.
So I read in the Arizona Daily Star today that a group of anti-mask COVID-deniers who have been protesting against Tucson’s mask ordinance for months has now filed a recall petition against Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. Group begins effort to recall Tucson Mayor Regina Romero; needs 25,000 valid signatures:
A group of Tucson residents has begun an effort to recall Mayor Regina Romero.
Initiated by residents Joseph Morgan, Dawn Polotto and Alexander McKenna, the petition is a result of what they are calling “Romero’s failure to fulfill her duties as the Mayor of Tucson.” Morgan, the lead organizer, is also the administrator of a social media group called RecallRegina2020.
This is the same Joseph Morgan who ran for Congress in the Republican primary in CD 2, and finished a distant third in a three-way primary. Go figure.
This head case is a major piece of work:
Joseph Morgan, who is running in the GOP primary to represent Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, has spent recent weeks calling public health advocates “Big Brother” and characterizing Tucson city government as a monarchy. Along with that, he co-opted the “My Body, My Choice” dictum of the reproductive justice movement, a slogan he repurposed as a signal of noncompliance with public health advisories. Morgan is appalled at the idea that a deadly pandemic, which by the end of June had brought more than 119,000 deaths to the U.S., should merit any precautions that don’t fit his personal whims and anti-science politics.
On Thursday, June 18, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero signed a proclamation calling for the use of face masks in public, citing the alarming increase of COVID-19 cases in Pima County, from 2,382 at the beginning of the month to 4,329 at mid-month. In response to that rise, the proclamation mandated that Tucsonans follow CDC guidelines and use cloth face coverings to slow the spread of infections.
Morgan, whose campaign Facebook page is full of regular ridicule of COVID-19 concerns, quickly became a voice of opposition to the mask mandate — and a loud and influential one at that. Morgan was soon using Facebook as his platform to organize a protest, a call to action that was echoed on MeetUp as well. On the following Saturday, when the mandate officially took effect, a post in MeetUp’s “Tucson Trump MAGA” group announced, “Protest today w[ith] Joseph Morgan [at] mayor [Romero’s] home.”
Late that afternoon, Morgan and his group arrived at Mayor Romero’s house, bearing signs that were strong in hyperbole but weak in fact-checking. One sign warned, “Wearing a Face Mask Suppresses the Immune System.” It’s a claim from a viral Facebook post that has been roundly rejected by credible sources. Another sign proclaimed an “Inflated COVID Death Rate,” an accusation that Snopes places in the realm of fantasy.
As if the questionable claims weren’t enough, so was the choice of venue. Arizona law prohibits residential picketing — or protests in front of private homes — declaring it a “class 3 misdemeanor” when someone “engages in picketing or otherwise demonstrates before or about the residence or dwelling place of an individual.” Romero later called the rally an act of “intimidation” that put the health of her family and the public at risk during a pandemic.
(KVOA News Video June 20, 2020)
The Daily Star continues:
On its website, the group identifies several complaints toward the mayor, which include her decision to remove Tucson police officers from election polls, her approval of a “Black Lives Matter” banner at city hall and her One Million Trees Initiative as well as her backing of a citywide mask mandate.
Let’s break this down:
Any conduct that intimidates voters is prohibited by federal law and several states expressly forbid law enforcement presence at the polls. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has posted this Guidance on Voting Location Conduct and Preventing Voter Intimidation which includes this provision:
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND UNIFORMED PERSONNEL
Generally, law enforcement officers, whether uniformed or plain-clothes, should not be stationed within the 75-foot limit of a voting location. Exceptions may apply if the officer is voting, if the voting location is located within a public safety building, or if an officer is called to respond to a specific emergency.
The presence of uniformed law enforcement personnel at a voting location, whether in or outside of the 75-foot limit, may have the effect of intimidating voters. Counties will balance this potentially intimidating effect with the need to preserve the peace and respond to emergencies.
As noted below, each voting location is overseen by an inspector and has a designated election marshal charged with keeping order in and around the voting location. Poll workers should make all reasonable efforts to de-escalate disturbances without engaging law enforcement whenever possible. Situations that cannot be solved by poll workers should be resolved with the assistance of county election officials. In circumstances where there is violence or threats of violence, including any instance when a private citizen carries a weapon into the 75-foot limit, the marshal or election officials should contact law enforcement for the limited purpose of resolving that situation.
Additionally, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has posted this Law Enforcement Quick Reference Guide On Arizona Election Law.
Their objection to the “Black Lives Matter” banner simply indicates that these COVID-deniers share their Dear Leader’s white nationalist racism and xenophobia as well:
On the group’s Facebook page, many members have expressed their support for President Trump as well as their opposition against the Black Lives Matter movement. The group has also openly opposed the sanctuary city initiative, saying “many (but not all) illegals are gang members, murderers, child traffickers, drug dealers, identity theft, and gun runners.”
Could it also have something to do with the fact that Mayor Regina Romero is Tucson’s first Latina mayor? Sure, you know it does.
I have no idea why these losers are objecting to the “One Million Trees” initiative, other than they also appear to be climate change deniers in addition to being COVID-deniers:
In a video on the group’s website, Morgan accused Romero of “lawless behavior” and a “Marxist agenda” and criticized her for promoting “things like climate change rather than taking care of our streets.”
I think we can all agree that these losers are “fringe” wingnuts, to be generous. I strongly suspect they may also traffick in QAnon cult conspiracy theories as well. They certainly fit the type.
Mayor Romero responded to the recall petition:
“Tucsonans can evaluate whether they believe masking up protects our community’s public health,” Romero said in a statement Tuesday. “I happen to disagree with this group, who gathered outside my personal residence earlier this year, that wearing masks is ‘tyrannical.’”
So what comes next?
After filing for the petition with the City Clerk’s Office on Monday, the individuals have 120 days to gather nearly 25,000 valid signatures. If the petition gets enough valid signatures by the deadline, the mayor would either have five days to resign or be automatically placed on the ballot for the recall election.
The group has until Feb. 27, 2021, to collect 24,710 valid signatures for the recall petition.
The city clerk will then have 10 days to examine the petitions and the Pima County Recorder’s office will have 60 days to certify the number of valid signatures.
If the group’s effort is sufficient, the mayor will have the opportunity to resign or face a recall vote. After that, the mayor and city council will have no more than 30 days to call an election.
The only appropriate response if you are approached by someone with this recall petition is “Fuck off!” We are not going to waste any time and money on a COVID-denier recall election during a deadly pandemic. Even if these losers did manage to get a recall election, they are going to get crushed by Tucson’s Democratic voters, and everyone including them knows it. So what is the point? Other than these losers are desperately seeking public attention for their “fringe” wingnut ravings.
The Tucson Weekly used to run an annual “get out of town” feature for people like this in our community. Maybe Jim Nintzel should revive this feature for these COVID-deniers. They most definitely should “get out of town.”
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We’re proud to have Regina Romero as our Mayor. But for some people, just as it was for Barack Obama as a black man, having a woman , a Latina, a believer in science and justice and equality as their leader is just too much for their scared racist little egos.
You say you have an army to gather signatures, though you will most likely fail at that, but if you do force an election you will see what real grass roots support looks like.
We don’t want to have our time or our tax dollars wasted by your idiocy but if the time comes we will rise up and smite you to smithereens.
We will drive you racist, misogynist, anti-public health, science denying, chicken shit bullies back into the cracks in the dark where you belong. You have our word.
At least we put our names and opinions out there. Although, what you are saying about the mask mandate being the reason for the recallis wrong. But you, as the author of this misleading article, choose to remain anonymous? Go figure.
Maybe the author should read the petition before making misleading headlines and inaccurate statements.
You might want to double check your facts.
1) The recall is not because of the mask ORDINANCE (city law), not “mandate” or “proclamation”. There is a long list of problems, including instances of failing to follow required procedures, misuse of funds, not only not upping our police protection to adequate levels, but attempting to reduce it further (FBI just rated Tucson among the 10 most dangerous cities), libeling people who disagree with her, dissuading new businesses (and their taxes) from locating here, “implementing” a sanctuary city DESPITE voters rejecting it, failure to maintain city infrastructure, particularly the roads, possibly violating her oath of office and AZ law.
2) The people who don’t like wearing masks do not deny COVID-19 (the disease) exists. They just point out that it does not appear to be nearly as deadly as it is claimed to be. And it appears the tests get a fair number of false positives, and even if the test is correct, multiple tests of one person are treated as multiple cases. Many of the deaths were listed as being due to COVID-19 even though the actual cause of death was another condition. This was because if an institution treated for COVID-19, they got more money than for the underlying condition and/or they were directed to list COVID-19 as the cause of death whenever possible. There was a recent announcement from, I think, the CDC which had the deaths ONLY from COVID-19 as being under 5,000. Furthermore, the mask is of questionable effectiveness AND safety.
3) Why not adopt “my body, my choice”? If a person can make the decision whether or not to end their pregnancy, why can’t a person chose whether or not to wear a mask which theoretically and demonstratably provides minimal protection to the wearer, and has evidence on both sides of the claim that it protects others FROM the wearer. Plus some evidence that wearing a mask long term has harmful effects to some people, particularly if they are not trained in the correct usage, which almost nobody has been..
4) Although it is illegal to demonstrate at someone’s home, there is a clause which allows it if it is also a place of business. If the Mayor is working from home, then is it not her “place of business” at the time?
5) There are actually “three” Black Lives Matters. The first is the concept that Black lives DO matter and are currently at more risk than other lives, which anybody who does not agree with ;should turn in their “human” card. The second is the BLM organization which does not seem to be focused on the BLM concept. It’s founders are committed Marxists, and their goals are changes to society which are not all that supportive of lowering the danger to Black lives. People who bother to do the research are understandably nervous about this group. And the third is the protests, where a number of people who have the right and perhaps even the duty to protest police violence against them, but have some people infiltrate the protests to damage property, start fires, loot and attack people. Why? Because they like to riot with minimal chance of being arrested, and/or for the profit from stealing stuff or being paid to foment violence. And this is what gets the media focus, and this is what our Mayor supported
and this is what makes them leery of “BLM”. .
6) The sanctuary city concept is unacceptable and unwise. Some of these people are dangerous; many are not. But every single one of them is, unquestionably and by definition, a criminal. This does not mean they should be mistreated, but they should not be coddled or rewarded for their crime either. And it is illegal for a city to put themselves between federal law enforcement and federal criminals.
7) The problem with the “million trees” project is first of all, this is the desert. Where are we going to get the water for all those trees? IF it reduces the amount of water for people or significantly increases the cost, that is a problem. And where are the trees going to be planted? Private property, with or without permission? Purchased property, at what cost? City property? And has an environmental impact assessment been done to determine the impact to the desert environment and impact to the native flora an fauna? It’s not that we are against the project, just not convinced that it will provide more good than harm.
8) Perhaps a more useful response would be “Why?” And then when any reason is given, evaluate to see if it is true AND an indictment of the mayor or is untrue or nothing more than dislike of her or disagreement with legal actions supported by the majority.
.
Dear John,
Did you really compare wearing a mask to protect others to being pregnant? And do you really wonder if the mayor can go onto private property and plant trees?
You know better.
There’s so much nonsense in your post but let me leave you with one small knowledge drop, one that will give you some peace of mind.
You could gather up all the Marxists in the USA into one Uber and take them all to dinner at The Cracker Barrel, and still have an empty space in the booth.
Same for commies, there’s just not that many of them, stop falling for right wing media scare tactics.
My goodness.
Tom
Golly, John, so much unverifiable bullsh!t in your post. It’s really hard to choose what to respond to, if anything.
But here’s an easy one. Black Lives Matter has a website.
“In 2013, three radical Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi — created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called #BlackLivesMatter. It was in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman.”
https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
Perhaps you didn’t pay a great deal of attention of to the murder of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman. But I can assure you that Trayvon’s murder changed everything, just as Emmett Till’s murder did in 1954.
This is where you start, assuming you are interested.
And BTW, your racism is showing. No one is fooled by “Black lives DO matter and are currently at more risk than other lives….” followed by your racist opinions of BLM and protesters.
Finally, you seem to have some difficulty understanding that believing in social justice, income equality, environmental justice, etc…does not make a person a “committed Marxist”.
And believing that a black teenager should be able to walk to a convenience store to buy snacks for himself and a friend and make it home alive is not Marxism. And believing that his murderer should have been convicted instead of set free is not Marxism.
And believing in equality before the law isn’t Marxism either.
The words of George Washington in September 1787 acting in his capacity as the President of the Constitutional Convention in a cover letter transmitting the Constitution to Arthur St. Clair, President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation.
How apropos and keenly prophetic to the anti-mask whiners. I am curious why this has not made it into the anti-mask debate as some form of touchstone baseline originalist precedent. To paraphrase and summarize his words in the modern vernacular, I think he saying,
“quit your whining, suck it up, put the damn mask on”.
Excerpting from the third paragraph,
“It is obviously impracticable in the fœderal Government Of these States to secure all Rights of independent Sovereignty to each and yet provide for the Interest and Safety of all—Individuals entering into Society must give up a Share of Liberty to preserve the Rest. The Magnitude of the Sacrifice must depend as well on Situations and Circumstances as on the Object to be obtained. It is at all Times difficult to draw with Precision the Lines between those Rights which must be surrendered and those which may be reserved⟨.⟩ And on the present Occasion this Difficulty was encreased by a Difference among the several States as to their Situation Extent Habits and particular Interests.”
What a lie. Look into the real reason people want he recalled. It’s not because of masks. False reporting again.
You dispute local news reporting and video, and yet you do not provide the “real” reason, according to you. Kind of a wasted effort on your part, dontcha think?
Is the real reason that they’re racist science denying QAnon whackadoodles who don’t care about other people?
I mean, really Grace, if you say something is not the reason, but then don’t give a reason, I must be right.
Whenever I read about COVID/climate change deniers I’m reminded of this tale (imagine Edward Everett Horton as the narrator):
One fine afternoon an enterprising reporter went to the local insane asylum searching for a story. The staff took him around and introduced him to some of the residents. The first resident he met was dribbling an imaginary ball and pretending to shoot it through an imaginary hoop. Asked what he was doing the resident replied he was playing basketball. Another resident was pitching and batting an imaginary baseball which he confirmed to the reporter. The last resident the reporter saw was lying naked on his bed and flicking peanuts off his manhood into his mouth. “What on earth are you doing?” exclaimed the reporter. To which the resident replied “Can’t you tell? I’m f**king nuts!”
Thank you thank you, I’ll be here all week. Try the veal!
America put a man on the moon in 1969.
We have spent the last 51 years bragging about it, because Exceptionalism!
Now we can’t get half the country to believe doctors over cable news and talk radio show hosts, or a bankrupt Manhattan condo salesman.