Cooper Caves, Issues Statewide Open-Ended ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order Beginning Monday 5PM

RALEIGH – After much prognostication Governor Roy Cooper has taken executive action issuing a statewide ‘stay-at-home’ order to become effective Monday, March 30 at 5:00 PM. The order also reduces the size of what’s deemed a ‘mass gathering’ to 10 people, banning any non-exempt gatherings of 11 or more under penalty of law.

“To continue our aggressive battle to slow the spread of COVID-19, today I have signed a Stay-At-Home order for the entire state of North Carolina. Enforcement begins at 5 p.m. on Monday, but we urge you to start as soon as possible,” Cooper said at a press conference at the N.C. Emergency Management Command Center.

For jurisdictions already facing local shelter in place orders, the state measures that are more restrictive will override them. It was not clear how long the order is in place for. It appears to be open ended and ‘data dependent.’

When asked how they deemed businesses as essential, Cooper answered that they “look at other state orders,” reinforcing the sense that these progressively restrictive orders are a consequential game of ‘Keeping up with the Jones’ as the fear of inaction builds on itself and among leaders.

So all those small-business owners that are facing demise because of these orders, there was never any diligent consideration of how essential your business was other than copying other states and following generic guidance from the feds. We’re willing to bet that business, or that job, is essential TO YOU.

Cooper gives these notions lip-service in his press conference, about how hard and damaging it must be to lose a job or your business, yet it is always filed by a big ‘BUT’ that thanks you for your sacrifice for the collective, we’ll try to cushion the blow with stimulus from the government. These are damages merely a speed bump in our leaders myopic focus on lockdown policies as some sort of panacea in this struggle with an uncertain virus, and our struggle with our individual reactions to it.

There have been nearly a quarter million new unemployment filings in the state because of these lockdown orders. Millions of kids missing months of school before it is all over. Incalculable negative health outcomes resulting from the extraordinary disruption caused by these closures.

This order directs you to stay home unless you need to leave for essentials, such as your job, food, medicine, outdoor exercise, or to help someone. It bans gatherings of more than 10 people and directs everyone to stay at least six feet away from each other.

— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) March 27, 2020

The order allows essential services to continue, and directs that those businesses that need to remain open use a strong social distancing policy. These are tough directives, but I need you to take them seriously.

— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) March 27, 2020

More and more, Cooper and his Health Secretary tell us that “there is a lot we do not know about this virus,” “we wish we had more data to tell you those answers.”

Why are they shutting down our entire state for something they have a glaring lack of reliable information or data on? Why are they actualizing the ruin of countless people’s livelihoods on worst-case ‘What if?s’ and limited evidence?

And why threaten people with the law if they don’t ‘stay at home’ and then make the rules so vague as to sow even more confusion.

This looks like an exception that swallows the rule. How would this be enforced? Will there be sting operations to monitor whether businesses are enforcing social distancing? #NCPOL https://t.co/6Ujrcrx6BJ

— Brent Woodcox (@BrentWoodcox) March 27, 2020

You can see more highlights from the governor’s press conference here.