6 cops, $60K fine is virus overkill that promises to backfire

For weeks, Diane Rowe watched as shoppers flocked to big-box stores in Grants. She didn’t think it was fair they were still in operation while her small business had been shuttered because it wasn’t “essential.”

Fed up, Rowe and her husband reopened Papa’s Pawn and Gun in April in defiance of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Rowe allowed only two customers at a time into her store and lined the shop with tape to remind customers to keep their physical distance.

Rowe said she was expecting a $100 fine or a little jail time for defying the governor’s orders. Lujan Grisham had warned that businesses defying public health orders would first receive a cease-and-desist order from State Police. A second visit could result in a misdemeanor charge, a $100 fine and possible jail time, and a third visit could result in fines of $5,000 per day.

Rowe got that cease-and-desist order on April 14. And on April 27, she got a visit from a half dozen State Police officers who surrounded her business with their vehicles and taped a court citation to the shop’s door for operating in defiance of public health orders.

Rowe said she thought the next step would be the misdemeanor charge. Instead, the state dropped the hammer and went to DEFCON 1, imposing daily fines of $5,000 for the previous 12 days. Rowe said she later found out from the state that the cease-and-desist order was serving as her misdemeanor charge, which moved her up to the next step of punishment, $60,000 in fines.

The state’s action is obviously trying to make an example of Rowe. It’s also worth noting that it occurred within days of Rowe speaking to local news media.

But this administration’s heavy-handed approach — and singling Rowe out — could have an opposite effect than intended. Republican legislators in the state House have warned of growing civil unrest and “social chaos.” Grants, where Mayor Martin Hicks unsuccessfully tried to reopen businesses last week, has become a hot spot in the brewing revolt. Hicks was also met by State Police and a citation. Grants is the county seat of Cibola County, where Sheriff Tony Mace says deputies won’t enforce the public health orders.

The governor said during a news conference last week that “this notion that you don’t have to comply is wrong,” that the coronavirus is still spreading and dangerous, and areas near Grants have been hit hard. She’s not wrong. But how she is treating this scofflaw is. The state’s draconian response to Rowe couldn’t be clearer: “Defy us and we will crush you.”

Some will say Rowe had it coming for defying public health orders and potentially placing customers at risk. Others will say she had a constitutional right as a gun shop owner to conduct business and never should have been forced to close. But few people will say, especially given her limiting customers and social contact, that six cops and a $60,000 fine is in order.

That bullying technique is simply escalating a bitter divide between this administration and thousands of small-business owners who feel they are not being listened to and who deserve a seat at the table.

By insisting on the $60,000 fine, the governor runs the risk of turning Rowe, and any who emulate her, into Western folk heroes, Calamity Janes of the coronavirus age who fight power brokers for the rights of the little people. In this case, that’s small-business owners who fail to see any fairness in the fact they cannot open responsibly — with safety standards that surpass those being practiced by large “essential” businesses that often sell the same items.