
Rhode Island expands car stops from only New York to all states - hhs
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-29/rhode-island-ends-policy-of-stopping-cars-with-new-york-plates
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kbos87
It feels like Cuomo is on the wrong side of this. Like it or not, national and
state boundaries are the only boundaries we can reliably use to segment the
general population right now, and while it may be rudimentary, it’s one way of
identifying those coming from a very dense area with a very high rate of
infection.

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smacktoward
But Rhode Island’s stops _aren’t_ segmenting the population. They’re not
turning anyone around, just giving out-of-state travelers a verbal warning
that they need to self-quarantine for 14 days.

It’s the worst of both worlds: the extremely shaky legal situation of a real
border lockdown, without any of the supposed benefits.

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xenospn
A simple sign can probably accomplish the same thing.

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icedchai
Most people won't pay attention to signs. When the police stop you, you'll
remember.

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DoofusOfDeath
I live in Rhode Island, and it's been interesting to see my own gut reactions
to this.

The _short_ summary is:

\- I'm sympathetic to their urge to escape ground zero.

\- But I'm angry at those who put Rhode Islanders at greater risk when they
ignore the stay-at-your-residence order from our governor.

\- It's a little frightening to see the xenophobic and reactionary feelings
this brings me. I feel a strong tug towards us-vs-them mentality.

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rwmj
I'm interested what the legal basis is for this? I thought that the US
constitution provided fairly unconditional protections, unlike say in Europe.
(Not saying this is right or wrong, just wondering how the technicalities work
in the US).

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beerandt
One of the fairly explicit exceptions to federal jurisdiction on interstate
travel is precisely to prevent the spread of diseases, both human and
agricultural. Agriculture inspections and quarantine type cost recovery are
pretty much the only "taxes/tarrifs" the states are allowed to prescribe on
interstate (and international) travel and trade.

From US Constitution Article 1 Section 10:

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties
on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing
it's inspection Laws

Like much of the US Constitution, it's both a very loaded and ambiguous
statement, with much of it's meaning implied.

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chmaynard
The ironic thing is that while the wealthy 1% are driving to their second
homes in southern Rhode Island, the ultra-wealthy 0.1% are flying in their
private jets to the state's regional airports and are ignored. The governor
has admitted that the state can only afford to police one airport, TF Green.

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cbm-vic-20
The 0.1% only go to Rhode Island during yacht racing season in Newport. I
wouldn't worry about the three of them going to RI during all this.

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heelix
The 'house by house' bit with the national guard is disturbing. I'd be
concerned with someone pitching girl scout cookies door to door, much less
something like this.

As folks are getting back from spring breaks... I suspect it is too late to
really stop the spread. If I had vacation property in a sparsely populated
area, I'd take full advantage of it. (As things stand for us, we have more
ID'd infections in our county than RI, but several orders of magnitude under
what is happening in NYC right now)

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chmaynard
If all New York residents are under a shelter-in-place directive, then why is
anyone with a home in New York driving to Rhode Island or to any other state?
In other words, why isn't Cuomo policing his own border?

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jbeam
Why would Cuomo spend his resources policing the rather enormous NY state
border? What does NY have to gain from that? This whole thing smacks of the
decision to suspend travel to and from Europe. Maybe not the worst idea, but
also ultimately not going to make that much of a difference. This virus is
already everywhere. Rhode Island and Florida want to blame all their trouble
on New York rather than their own social distancing decisions.

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CPLX
Will the police stand six feet away while they issue these instructions?

I mean what could possibly go wrong by systematically exposing your law
enforcement to every person that enters the state at the moment of their
arrival?

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kbos87
They probably will. I don’t think it’s reasonable to think they are throwing
caution to the wind and not taking some measures to protect the folks working
at these checkpoints, who are trained professionals following orders.

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chadlavi
Not to be obtuse but I'm from eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island's "southern
border" is with the Atlantic, not CT.

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A4ET8a8uTh0
So the real question is.. what happens if you do not stop? As I stated before,
most reasonable people allow for a lot of leeway to the government during a
crisis, but.. the government response has been inconsistent ( at best ). I
don't feel good about it at all. It makes me feel like Super Sad Love Story
was basically a prophecy.

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chewz
Can't they introduce border controls like in Europe?

