Morning Wire - Monday | August 2, 2021

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

Governments across the globe crack down on protests over renewed lockdowns and vaccine mandates, school districts and lawmakers clash over mask mandates, and police sound the alarm over police reform. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Protests erupt abroad amid vaccine mandates and increased lockdown measures. In Australia, authorities are now taking drastic steps to stop the spread of the Delta variant, including bringing in troops to ensure compliance. What do these lockdown measures mean for civil liberties abroad? I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Monday, August 2nd, and this is Morning Wire. Clashes between school districts and lawmakers have already begun after the CDC updated its guidance last week to recommend universal indoor masking in schools.

How are schools responding to the call for mass mandates and how are lawmakers handling the contentious issue? As police reform rolls out in big cities across the country, we'll look at new reforms in Washington State that have police concerned about the safety of their officers and their communities. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by WyoTech. America is built on the trades. Like the nation's truck drivers, WIOTEC never let COVID stop hands-on learning.

WioTech is one of the nation's leading automotive and diesel training schools and is paving the way in keeping the front lines of America running. WioTech is shaping young men and women and veterans to build careers and businesses in the trades. Visit wyotech.edu to subscribe and donate to future technicians that keep America's industries and you moving. WioTech.edu. As Australia attempts to shut down the spread of the Delta variant, more than half the country has been placed under strict lockdown.

Despite experiencing low case and death numbers when compared to other countries, authorities in Australia are looking to the military as they take drastic measures to try to stop the virus from spreading at all. Here to explain is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth. Good morning, John. Hey, Ian. So tell us what's the latest in Australia. Well, the last time we chatted about this, Australian authorities had announced

a return to widespread lockdowns in reaction to a few hundred cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Right. However, these lockdowns haven't achieved their goal of completely preventing the spread of the virus with 3,000 new COVID cases since the outbreak began in June. Australian politicians reacted to this data by extending the lockdown by a month to at least August 28th and by deploying hundreds of soldiers in Sydney to enforce the lockdown. Hundreds of soldiers. Yeah.

Hmm. Now, while they are unarmed, many have criticized the use of military and military. intervention as a necessary and heavy-handed, while New South Wales's police minister said that military support would help ensure compliance. And it provides us with an extra capability when it comes to ensuring compliance, which is what 99% of the Australian population are so sick of seeing wrecked. A total of 300 soldiers will patrol Sydney, a city of 6 million, to make sure that people are following the latest lockdown restrictions.

It's even been reported that soldiers will be going door to door to check the residents the following stay-at-home measures. checks. Wow. The phrase lockdown doesn't mean the same thing everywhere. What do the rules look like in Australia? They're pretty severe. People aren't able to leave their home except for certain special activities, such as essential exercise, shopping or caregiving. You're also not allowed to travel more than 10 kilometers from your home in these COVID hotspots. That's just over six miles. So quite strict. Yeah. When the lockdown was initially announced, there were some major protests. Are we expecting more of that? It's likely that the introduction of the military will only

make those who oppose lockdowns even more frustrated, especially when it comes to accusations of government overreach. And on the subject of potential future protests, the state's police minister said that the support of the military made the message quite clear, don't go out and don't attend so-called illegal protests. Instead, he encouraged people to protest by email. You can do your protest any other way. Email your local MP, get on Talkback Radio, you can write letters to the editor, you can run a social media campaign. Australia's handling of this is among the most extreme, but this is obviously a broader issue. Other countries are taking similar actions, right? Yeah, and in the same way as Australia, they're also highlighting a really fundamental debate

when it comes to true free speech and the right to protest. In Germany, for example, a Berlin court banned all anti-lockdown protests. Thousands of police in riot gear, were deployed to suppress any unrest as people protested regardless. Meanwhile, police in France clashed with anti-vaccine protesters, even using tear gas, with tension reaching new heights over the country's controversial vaccine health pass. And these are all countries that claim to protect rights like free speech. So not only are we seeing an ongoing debate over whether lockdowns are effective, we are seeing an even deeper debate over the implications of lockdown on rights such as free speech and freedom of assembly. Yeah. And this is all happening as concern grows

here in the U.S. that lockdowns may be reapplied to COVID hotspots, and how the government would enforce lockdowns if they were returned. So there are definitely a lot of moving parts here to keep an eye on. There definitely are. Ian, thanks for the update. My pleasure. Daily Wires, Ian Howarth. Watch Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas tell his story in Created Equal, a documentary that follows his journey from the segregated south to the highest court in the land, and the contentious confirmation battle he fought to get there. Streaming now, for DailyWire members at DailyWire.com. In a move that has sparked controversy across the country,

the CDC updated its guidance on masking in schools last week. The agency now recommends universal indoor masking for all students and staff in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. The updated guidance has already prompted changes from both school officials and political leaders in some states. Here to explain the latest developments is DailyWire's Charlotte Pence-Bond. Charlotte, welcome.

Hi, Georgia. So the CDC wants universal indoor masking at schools, even for the vaccinated. How are schools reacting? Yeah, so some schools and districts are starting to say that masks will be required for the coming school year, and some parents and lawmakers are pushing back. The most high-profile example is in Florida. After a school district in Florida voted to resume indoor mask mandates in the fall, Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order on Friday aimed at allowing parents to make decisions for their child's health. be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida. Floridians have been, are, and will remain free to choose what's best for themselves and their families. The order also includes provisions for children with disabilities or health conditions who would be harmed by mask requirements. More broadly, DeSantis says this is about protecting constitutional freedoms. So parental rights is his main focus here. Right. This has been a cornerstone issue for him.

Earlier this year, he signed into law the parents bill of law. rights that prohibits the state in any other institutions from infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing education, health care, and mental health of their minor child in most circumstances. He cited that law in his executive order. So the order then essentially made this apply to masking in schools. Right. DeSantis's feeling is that the masking decision should be left up to the parents. The governor's office told me earlier this week that they had hoped that all school boards would follow the science and decide to have a normal mask optional school year. His office added that many kids, especially those with special needs

like hearing loss, autism, and sensory issues, struggle to learn and engage in a classroom setting with masks. They also shared what they said was empirical evidence from schools last year that shows the existence of a mask mandate is not correlated with a school's COVID-19 rate. DeSantis made this point at the press conference Friday. We clearly know, based off last year, that those mask mandates in schools had virtually no impact on the overall shape of the viral curves that happen on a seasonal basis. But the CDC says the Delta variant may have changed the equation. That's right. I'm sure there are also some parents and teachers who are concerned about the lack of masks.

Has there been pushback against DeSantis on this? Yes, there has. The Florida Education Association put out a statement saying that DeSantis should let low. local officials make these kinds of health decisions. But this also becomes a little complicated because you may remember, the CDC actually made some recommendations in consultation with the nation's largest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association specifically. Right. This means that those unions themselves appear to be influencing the guidance that some members are reportedly pushing for. So that's what's going on with masks in

Florida. How is this playing out in other states? Well, California is a number of another interesting case. Before the CDC changed course on masking guidance for vaccinated people, two California-based advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against Governor Gavin Newsom and the state's top health officials over COVID-19 protocols in K-12 schools. They're specifically challenging the state stance on facial coverings, asymptomatic testing, and close contact quarantine guidance, as well as what they're calling erroneous school closures and arbitrary operating protocols. So it looks like we've got some pretty tense battles between school districts and states over mask mandates. And it's not just in Florida, for sure.

A lot of parents are going to be watching this very closely. Thanks for reporting, Charlotte. Thanks for having me. Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence Bond. A slew of new police reforms in Washington State are limiting cops' ability to detain violent criminals, even murder suspects. Police say they're extremely concerned about how the new reforms will impact their communities, and their own safety. Daily Wire investigative reporter,

Marade McCartle, has taken a deeper look at what's going on. Marade, thanks for joining. Thanks for having me. So Washington State has implemented new police reforms. Tell us what's changed.

Sure. So these reforms are the result of a dozen bills that were passed by the Washington State Legislature. Democratic Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed the bills back in May,

and some of them went into effect last week. One of the new rules prohibits police from detaining individuals they suspect of committing a violent crime unless the officer has probable cause to make an arrest or the person poses an imminent threat,

which is a very subjective term. So they need probable cause or the suspect must be an imminent threat. How's this different? Right. So the old standard only required cops to have reasonable suspicion to detain a person. Now an officer can't detain a suspect fleeing a scene if the officer does not have enough evidence to make an arrest yet.

The officer can ask the fleeing suspect, to stop and be detained, but he can't use any force to prevent someone from escaping. Even if the person is suspected of an extremely violent crime-like murder, the cop can't forcibly detain him on that suspicion alone. So even in the case of suspected murder. That's right. And there are some other changes. There are.

There are quite a few, actually. One of the bills drastically restricts when officers are allowed to engage in police car chases. Another reform cracks down on so-called military equipment. Police departments in Washington were required to surrender things like fully automatic guns and armed helicopters, as well as firearms and ammunition of 50 caliber or greater. One apparently unintended effect of this is that police had to turn in some of the less lethal weapons available to them that happened to be 50 caliber or greater. This includes beanbag launching shotguns and foam round launchers. So the law effectively forced Washington police to get rid of some of their less lethal options for fending off violent criminals. Were the lawmakers who wrote the reforms just not aware of this?

It appears so. Plus, the new rules restrict cops further by requiring them to use the least amount of force possible, rather than the previous standard of using reasonable force. Least amount of force possible, that sounds pretty subjective. It does. Can we expect more charges against cops because of all this? We'll have to see. One of these bills actually creates a new agency to investigate and charge law enforcement officers statewide.

In the past, that type of investigation would have been left to local prosecutors. So the biggest changes went into effect last week. Have they had any effect so far? Well, it's still early, but one of the effects has been plummeting morale at police departments. Some police in Washington worry that crime is about to spike dramatically thanks to these reforms. Washington State already has one of the lowest numbers of law enforcement officers per capita in the country. Right. Police have also expressed a lot of confusion about how to interpret these laws,

which are just the latest in a string of police reforms in the state. We're definitely bound to see more changes across the country. We'll see how this impacts crime. Mairead, thanks so much. Great to be here, guys. Investigative reporter Marade McCartle. Those are the top stories this morning, but there's more in the news to keep an eye on. Other developments that we're tracking this week,

according to CDC data, less than 0.001% of fully vaccinated people have died from a breakthrough COVID case, and 74% of those cases occurred among adults 65 or older. As of July 26th, less than 7,000 breakthrough cases have occurred, resulting in 1,263 deaths. More than 163 million people in America have been fully vaccinated. And a federal eviction moratorium expired over the weekend after the Biden administration and Congress opted not to extend it further. The order had protected those who have been unable to afford rent or mortgage payments due to COVID lockdowns. Now, for the first time since September of 2020, tenants will be eligible for eviction.

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