A terrible snowstorm just blew across a large swath of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, from roughly the Washington D.C. area to Southern Connecticut. To be sure, other areas got dumped upon, but nowhere near the severity that hit the affected areas.
Upwards of 35 people died of situations related to the snowfall, and while we might be splitting hairs in regards to what “related” means, a lot more deaths might have occurred had the New York City Police Department and other agencies not talked tough.
In this massive snowfall, anywhere from 18” to 27” blanketed New York City. It is one thing when snows of this magnitude blanket the Rocky Mountains; in fact, it is welcomed. It is quite another thing when massive snows coat Times Square. The Chief of People, expecting the massive snowfall, got on his podium and declared that after 2:30 p.m. on the day the snows blew in (January 23, 2016), if they caught you driving around the Metropolitan-area, they would be arrested. These were extreme measures, but…they had nothing to do with martial law.
Fanning the flames
Several peripheral news sources such as Weekly Standard, wnd.com and thefederalistpapers.org, accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of declaring martial law. Those were pretty inflammatory words. More than that, they were clueless as to what martial law constitutes. Martial law, at its simplest, is what happens when a government collapses and the military takes over a country in order to prevent rioting, looting and other forms of mayhem.
All the police in New York were saying was “stay the heck off the roads.” They are not stupid, and this is not their first “dance.” Truth is (here come the comments) that a great many people who have large SUVs and other 4-wheel drive conveyances, can’t drive them in 3” of snow, let alone two feet.
I realized some people might have been inconvenienced, but by and large the level of inconvenience was nothing compared to what would have happened if everyone with an SUV, front-wheel drive sedan, Jeep and scooter had piled into their vehicles and tested their prowess in the snows of Manhattan or Brooklyn or Queens. The gridlock would have been enormous as stunt car driver wannabe’s would have potentially jammed the roadways thereby making it impossible for the passage of ambulances, fire engines, police cruisers and the like.
Unlike martial law, the police made it clear that the citizenry was free to walk around, stroll arm-in-arm to restaurants, make snowmen, and roast chestnuts or anything else they wanted to do. What they didn’t want people to do was to jam a busy street with their Corolla’s so that medical attention was delayed to someone having a heart attack or rushing assistance to those whose apartment was engulfed in flames from chestnut roasting.
The media
I have many friends in the media and I suppose from time to time I am a part of it as well. People who write the news are also, believe it or not, people. When the studio lights go out, most of them need to find ways to get home in a snowstorm.
However, we also live in an age where far too many people are “offended” and inflamed rather than taking a deep breath and understanding why a temporary measure has been taken. I blame the media for fanning flames where no flames should be fanned.
Did the New York City Police Department remove anyone’s civil rights? No, not really, unless the right to try and drive the family Fiat in 2-1/2 feet of snow was suspended so that a medical crew could deliver a baby.
Sometimes, just sometimes, things are simply done for the common good. Despite some in the media crying foul at every perceived injustice, they fail to realize there are fools who believe their rights, no matter what, supersede common sense. In this case, fanning the flames, was simply unethically inflammatory.
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