My city’s government has closed the entrance to the parking lot of a park near my home in an effort to prevent people from congregating. The main result, as far as I can judge, is that a lot of people are irritating the neighborhood outside the entrance by parking their cars there illegally. The closure does not appear to have done anything to stop the spread of the coronavirus, even if crowding in parks were a vector for transmission — which a recent study suggests it isn’t.
But overzealous or otherwise foolish lockdown policies are a good way to increase the size of that minority and make its case look reasonable. The protesters do not have to look far for examples, which are everywhere.
Mayors in several southern U.S. locales tried to prohibit drive-in church services before an outcry or court order got them to back down. In some cities, police have forcibly ejected people from subways for not wearing masks.
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