'Enough is enough': Judge Napolitano reacts to calls for NYC lockdown to end
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It's high time for New York -- and America -- to return to "normal society" with COVID-19 health and safety measures in place to help mitigate the spread of the virus, Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Thursday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Ainsley Earhardt, Napolitano said that "enough is enough" and raised doubts about governmental guidance on coronavirus mandates.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What if they have the medicine wrong? What if the masks that we're all wearing don't stop COVID-19? What if by staying home week after week and now into our second month we’re actually weakening our immunity rather than strengthening it?" he asked.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: WHAT IF THE GOVERNMENT HAS IT WRONG?
In a new Fox News op-ed, Napolitano questioned state and local response to the pandemic, aiming to "prod the government" and "prod people into realizing enough is enough."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What if we’d be happier if we took care of ourselves rather than the government taking care of us? What if, to a barber or a sales clerk, a barbershop or a retail store is essential? What if the government has no business deciding what's essential and what isn't essential? What if we made those decisions ourselves?" Napolitano asked the "Friends" hosts.
Thursday's cover of the New York Post seemed to echo Napolitano's sentiments. "The Big Apple is dying...It needs to end now," the headline read.
Napolitano said he "could not agree more."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's time for all of us to come back to our normal society with concerns for the spread of the contagion. We can live with social distancing and operate our businesses and go to restaurants and go to work and ride mass transit and liven up those streets again," he said.
"But, we have a mayor in New York that loves asserting power and controlling people. Even to the point of sending police to disrupt religious organizations in the middle of the ceremony," Napolitano noted.
"This is not right and it's got to end," he concluded. "Enough is enough."
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In April, Mayor Bill de Blasio oversaw the dispersal of hundreds of Hasidic mourners who had gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who had died from coronavirus.
New York is still very much the epicenter of the virus. The Empire State alone accounts for about a quarter of the national death toll and confirmed tri-state area deaths now exceed 37,000 people. Deaths across the United States now total more than 93,000.