"We Spotted a Mountain Bike, Landed, and Gave the Cyclist a Fine": French Gendarmes Deploy Helicopters to Detect Nature Lovers in the Vosges Mountains

Remember the fines and/or the arrests of the Malibu paddle boarder? And the Colorado father?

In France, it is worse!

In the Vosges mountains, gendarmes are using helicopters to surveil the mountain paths for hikers and nature lovers to see who is dastardly defying the stay-at-home orders ("Saturday, we spotted a mountain bike cyclist at Lac Blanc whom we proceeded to fine").

Speaking about France, law officers are so prevalent that newspapers recently noted that (what I believe is) the 100,000th fine against common citizens had been issued for no other reason than being outdoors.

Leading mucho mavericks to ponder why the authorities aren't using so much energy and spending so many euros to, y'know, do things like, uh, find a cure for the virus, for example… As a Facebook meme has it, "On vit dans un beau pays, où on préfère vous pister pour vous verbaliser que vous dépister pour vous soigner" (we live in a beautiful country where they would rather track you down to give you a fine than track your health to cure your disease).

Obviously, if the streets are empty, they must be perfectly safe for your health — and for everyone else's. (Indeed, there may even be fewer  people on the sidewalk than in… your home!) True, if everybody were to do what I am saying, you might counter, we are back at square one. But not everybody is doing it, not at present. And, even in normal times, there is nothing out of the ordinary about maintaining distance while walking in the city, in a park, or on the beach.

So, in any case, if you can safely go to the supermarket or the pharmacy while keeping social distance, then you can obviously go to the mountains, to the beach, to a clothing store, or on the streets of your city while keeping social distance. At least, you can do so, insofar as the authorities believe that the citizenry is composed of responsible grown-ups and not of irresponsible children…

• Main article: Is There 100% Irrefutable Proof that the Covid19 Pandemic Is Overstated?

A nationwide scandal erupted in France a few weeks ago when a Nice Matin journalist (video at link) interviewed a woman on the town's rocky beach. Christiane was tanning in a bikini, and declared that she wasn't about to give up the sun rays. The next day, the written press picked up the story. They would quote her remarks, only to mention with disgust to what extent she was irresponsible, to what extent she was selfish, and to what extent she was a shame to her community.

Truth to tell, Christiane may have come across as a bit snobbish and self-centered, but there was just one problem. Christiane was almost entirely alone on Nice's long rocky beach near la Promenade des Anglais. The beach was virtually empty of people. There were perhaps 3 or 4 sunbathers or sunbathing couples in the background, perhaps 50 to 100 meters away, but otherwise it was deserted. (Indeed, the only time that Christiane was in potential danger or that she was a danger to others was when… the Nice Matin journalist showed up!)

Across the ocean and almost across an entire continent, in that perspective, a father was arrested in Colorado for playing ball with his six-year-old daughter in an… empty park.

Matt Mooney … a former state patrol officer … said the interaction with the police was the only violation of the social distancing guidelines that he had been involved in. "During the contact, none of the officers had masks on, none of them had gloves on, and they’re in my face handcuffing me, they’re touching me"

Further West, a paddle boarder was arrested in in Malibu for flouting stay-at-home orders (thanks to Ed Driscoll). As Joel Engel puts it,

Genius. He was miles from another soul until confronted face-to-face by the deputies, then who knows how many others at the sheriff’s substation. “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”

Of course, stay away from evening get-togethers. Stay away from crowds. On the beach, stay away from Spring Break-type parties like those that infected young college students in Fort Lauderdale.

However, let me tell everyone of my friends: after reading this, you could open your front door, take a walk through your neighborhood or head for your local park and beach, and — as long as you keep your distance from the (rare) people you might meet — nothing will happen, health-wise, to anybody (including you), nothing at all.

• Related: Is There 100% Irrefutable Proof that the Covid19 Pandemic Is Overstated?