Delaware Army National Guard Pfc. Kelly Buterbaugh gives instructions to a motorist during a drive-thru coronavirus testing mission at the University of Delaware's Science, Technology and Advanced Research Campus in Newark, Delaware, May 29, 2020. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. Brendan Mackie)
Imagine you've forgotten your mask and instead of merely getting cold glances and snide remarks, you're handcuffed, hauled before a judge and charged with ... murder.
Or maybe just attempted murder.
That's the proposal of Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Sharon Hurt, the Tennessee Star reported.
She said Wednesday during a virtual meeting of the Joint Public Safety and Health Committee that people who do not wear masks and should be charged with murder or attempted murder.
Hurt said that she works for an organization that stipulates a person who passes the virus should be "tried for murder or attempted murder."
She thinks the same standard should apply to the general public.
"This person who may very well pass this virus that's out in the air because they're not wearing a mask is basically doing the same thing to someone who contracts it and dies from it," she said.
Her comments, at about 1:01:40 of the video:
She had to be reminded by Mike Jameson, Metro Mashville's director of legislative affairs, the Tennessee Star said, that the council does not create its own "criminal legislation."
"In terms of creating a new code or class of criminal offenses, that is a creation of state law," he said.
"I was afraid that was going to be the answer," Hurt said.
But she said something needs to be done.
"It seems to me that we have been more reactive as opposed to proactive and a little too late, too little," she said.
Her idea came up just as the Nashville-Davidson County COVID-19 count indicated a recent decline in new daily cases and a fatality rate of 0.9%.
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