OC's Mask Ordinance Remains, County Health Officer Threatened

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Three more people have died as a result of coronavirus in Orange County as supervisors go toe to toe on the importance of wearing masks. Meanwhile, a group pushed freedom of speech limits at the recent supervisor's meeting, has left dissension in the ranks of the supervisors and the community at large.

Since the pandemic began, 145 Orange County residents have died as a result of coronavirus.
Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do says that Supervisor Don Wagner's rhetoric is fuel for threats against the county's health officer, who has required facial masks as part of the strategy to combat COVID-19.

Dozens of opponents of the face mask order railed against it, with a group later going to Dr. Nichole Quick's home to continue objecting to her order, which was issued last weekend.

Orange County Sheriff's Department officers are working with Dr. Quick to ensure her safety and are looking into the threats, according to a department spokesperson.

Overt threats took supervisors aback during Tuesday's board meeting.

A Costa Mesa woman, Nicole Monteilh Brown, spoke out, saying:

"You have seen how the people have been forced to exercise their First Amendment. Be wise and do not force the residents of this county into feeling they have no other choice but to exercise their Second Amendment."

The comment concerned county officials as the reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms was viewed as a threat.

Mask wearing is not unique to Orange County, and mask ordinances during a pandemic are not rare.

Supervisor Do decried the comment, and that Wagner's attitude toward the statement encouraged angry protesters to take things to another level.

"We can disagree with (the mask ordinance) and have a conversation about it and hopefully try to persuade our health officer to see the perspective we want her to see," Do said. "Which is fair, but to incite and invite people to harass and intimidate county employees... is irresponsible."

Do added, "There's also a question of liability. If something were to happen and you have a county supervisor basically inviting people to go to our employees' homes to harass and intimate them, then where does that leave the county?"

With residents fearing an economic collapse as well as a deadly novel virus, it's not the right time to defend the constitutional rights of protesters to rally around someone's residence, according to Do.

Wagner condemned the threats at Tuesday's board meeting, but Do said it was too little too late.
During the meeting, Wagner stated the conduct of the protesters was improper and that he condemned the threatening behavior.

"Then, he went on in an angry tone, asserting people's constitutional rights" of the public speaker who gave out Dr. Quick's home address during the meeting.

Wagner fired back that Do's "understanding of the law is challenged, his recitation of the acts is false and his comments are ignorant."

Wagner said he was "surprised" that he and Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel were the only ones to condemn the threats against Quick.

At a news conference on Thursday, Steel repeated her condemnation of the threats against Quick.

Wagner opposed a suggestion to take down the Facebook Live video of Tuesday's board meeting to remove the reference to Quick's address.

The video drew about 2,000 comments.

(Patch decided to not share the video.)

Wagner said, "We should not censor all of those people when the address was already out there... My position is you can't unring the bell.

Taking it down would only disenfranchise the people or silence the people who commented and it wouldn't do any good because the information was already out there."

Wagner had no objection to censoring the comment revealing the address on the county's website.

UC Irvine associate professor of political science Sara B. Goodman, said the debate over masks has become politicized, but most Americans support wearing them.

Democrats by a much wider margin support it than Republicans, Goodman said.

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