Emergency proclamation: Abridging our rights for what a bureaucrat thinks is our own good. Bless us and save us. | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Jerry Langley, Chairman of the Beaufort County Commissioners has issued a Proclamation of a State of Emergency in the county as a result of Hurricane Arthur. You can read the proclamation by clicking here to download the Proclamation (order) as received from the County Manager.

    In a brief telephone interview with John Pack, Beaufort County Emergency Management Director (and the actual author of this order) at about 4:00 p.m. he said the order does not mean what a plain meaning reading of the wording would mean to the average person.

    The document orders a "mandatory evacuation" of the "low lying areas in the Richlands Township." The order then goes on to say what routes residents should and should not use in evacuating and goes on to order law enforcement to enforce those routes.

    Mr. Pack indicated that the evacuation order is only advisory and voluntary, even in the Richlands townships (where it says a mandatory evacuation shall be in effect). "Nobody is going to be arrested for not evacuating," he said, much to the relief of one Richland's township resident who interpreted what she heard on TV to mean she must leave her home, or suffer the consequences. Mr. Pack assured us that the evacuation order for all other parts of the county was "advisory" and voluntary.

    The order also prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages while the "travel restrictions" are in effect. Mr. Pack explained that this was intended to suppress drunk driving during the "peak hours" of the emergency. He agreed that this restriction would not even attempt to prohibit a person from getting drunk on their own premises and then being inebriated during the "peak emergency." We wondered "if you're drunk, what difference does it make where you got drunk?"

    Section 7 of the order is the most troublesome to us. It establishes a travel ban, except for emergency situations, between 10:00 p.m. Thursday and 6:00 a.m. on Friday morning. As was published during the last similar emergency the travel ban did not prevent hundreds of cars being observed during these hours in just a cursory review of travel. In fact, as we noted last time, we saw no reduction in the amount of travel typical for those hours. Nonetheless, as noted before, some people spent the night in motels in Greenville because they could not make it home by 10:00 p.m. Mr. Pack indicated that returning home from outside Beaufort County would not be considered a violation (see Section 8) of the ordinance. So by the time we finished discussing how the travel ban would be enforced it was obvious that there actually will be no travel ban except for the conscientious people who try to do what the government orders them to do, regardless of how little practical sense it makes.

    Our problem will all of this is that it is just another example of bureaucratic abuse of government power. Even our Governor took to the podium yesterday and admonished all his subjects to "not put on their "Stupid Hat" and not comply with officials' orders.

    We take offense with that. To imply that a person who needs to get to or from work between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. is stupid is, in fact a stupid assumption. No, what's really going on here is the typical bureaucratic arrogance that they and they alone know better how to protect our safety than we know ourselves. We strongly resent such attitudes.

    We fully recognize that some people do stupid things. And if in doing so they do harm or injury to others then they should be subject to penalties. But we just don't think "one-size fits all" emergency management is very effective emergency management. A much better approach is to adequately inform the public, advise us of what services we cannot count on if we assume a risk and then leave the decisions up to us, not an authoritarian government official.

    And every citizen of this state should note the "fine print" in this proclamation. It is contained in Section 3. We suggest you learn what is in the National Incident Management System. (The reference to Hurricane Irene is an obvious error).

    What you have here in this proclamation of restricted travel from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. is a suspension of the fundamental natural right for an American citizen to make his own decision unless it harms someone else. These emergency management people need, in our opinion, to be just as concerned about protecting our rights as they are about protecting our physical safety. Emergencies do not justify violating the natural law rights of citizens. And the right to travel from one place to another is one of the most fundamental of our natural rights. To be compelled to evacuate our property ("mandatory") is simply unconscionable in a free society.

    But the really sad part about all this is the complacent way in which most of us will comply with this violation of our rights. Similarly, we question the judgment of any government official who issues an order and then explains that "we're really not going to enforce it" as it is written. Likewise, to issue extreme orders when the actual dangers do not warrant doing so obliterates the validity of system. It carries the hallmarks of crying wolf too often and then when the wolf actually comes nobody pays attention.

    The people of Beaufort County deserve more respect from our government officials and a greater commitment to protecting our rights as much as protecting our physical safety.

    So who put on their Stupid Hat Mr. Governor?