While Austin officials are funneling hundreds of thousands of citizens’ dollars toward killing babies, they are now acting decisively to “save lives”—by fining businesses $1,000 per day for not mandating face cloths, and sending police to potentially jail citizens who don’t wear masks.

This week, Democrat Mayor Steve Adler enacted a new decree, ordering all businesses—including retail, offices, and apartments—to require everyone inside over 6 years old to wear a mask. Adler also “encourages” restaurants to keep an activity log of all customers, collecting their contact information and tracking where they go in the building.

Punishments for business owners who don’t comply? The city can fine you $1,000 per day, and if you do not track customers, Austin Public Health can “publicly release, without limitation and at its discretion,” the name of your business if they deem it a place of coronavirus infection—a blacklist of disobedient businesses, essentially.

Furthermore, the City of Austin tweeted on Tuesday that noncompliant citizens could be criminally punished as well, encouraging businesses to call the police on those not wearing cloth masks.

“If a business has a customer who is unwilling to wear a face covering, the business can ask the individual to leave,” the city wrote. “If they refuse to leave, the business can call 9-1-1.”

Violating Adler’s mask order could thus lead to a criminal trespassing offense, which could throw citizens in jail.

The order imposes a “civil or criminal penalty” and says violations “may be punishable through criminal enforcement.” It also says that “if there is not widespread compliance with this Order, the City will increase enforcement efforts as allowed by law.”

Adler’s order comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week allowed local officials to impose mask orders and fines on businesses. Originally, local officials across the state, including Adler, tried to fine and jail individual citizens who didn’t wear masks in public, but though Abbott blocked that, he is now giving his blessing for officials to punish businesses.

On top of that, given city hall’s comments, Adler may have still instituted a back-door way for the city to jail unmasked citizens.

Ironically, Adler’s order that he claims relates to public health comes as he and the all-Democrat Austin City Council continue to spend taxpayer money toward killing babies; the council recently funneled $150,000 to an organization that specifically assists underage girls in killing their children.

Additionally, Adler is asking police to enforce his mask mandate right after he and the city council unanimously voted to partially defund the local police department amid nationwide riots and protest violence.

Numerous citizens reacted to the city’s 911 tweet.

“Ok so we like authoritarian stuff and cops again? Hard to keep up!” one individual replied.

“So the businesses can call 9-1-1 and a social worker will be sent? Or a police officer with a gun?” another wrote.

“Just a week ago the City of Austin secured an abortion services contract – do they get a fine for risking the health & safety of innocent babies?” another said.

Meanwhile, amid Democrat officials focusing on fining businesses, wanting to jail unmasked citizens, and killing children, here is the current reality of the coronavirus in the Austin-Travis County area: As of Tuesday evening, there are over 6,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus out of 1.27 million people—a little over 0.5 percent of the population. Tragically, 114 have died.

In comparison, from 2017 to 2018, 49 Travis County citizens died from the flu.

Of the state’s 29 million Texans, there have currently been 2,192 coronavirus-related deaths. This flu season, 6,737 Texans died from influenza and pneumonia.

Some argue Adler’s orders, fines, and jail threats are completely needless and harmful.

“Austin is not and has never been close to seeing our health care system overburdened, and the people here are not in any danger of lacking access to hospitals, treatment, or personal protective equipment,” wrote conservative think-tank Texas Public Policy Foundation in a press release. “The new restrictions on businesses only serve to scare the public into thinking they are highly susceptible to grave harm and even death if they don’t comply. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Jacob Asmussen

Jacob Asmussen is a Senior Journalist for Texas Scorecard. He attended the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and in 2017 earned a double major in public relations and piano performance.

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