No mask? No personal space?
You may face a new penalty: Social-distance shaming
Careful, “covidiots.” You’re being watched, you’re being judged, and there’s a decent chance that somewhere on social media, you’re being shamed. Venturing out in public these days without a face mask or with a less-than-perfect sense of personal space has never been more likely to get you identified, labeled and publicly ridiculed. “Covidiot” is the insult of choice on Twitter, a mashup that takes the first part of its name from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The “FloridaMorons” hashtag was also popular before beaches were closed, gaining popularity again when northern beaches reopened but pre-quarantine pictures went viral.
Sometimes the impulse to shame those who don’t seem to be taking social distancing seriously enough boils over. A bus driver was arrested near Key Largo on Wednesday for swinging a metal rod at a passenger who lowered his mask to use a cellphone, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Police are reminding the public to avoid such confrontations. “We don’t want the situation to escalate,” said Detective Argemis A.C.
Colome, spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department. “If you see somebody violating the rules, or emergency order, definitely call it in . ... At the end of the day the better we work together the faster we’ll get through it.”
The rules, repeated in executive orders at the state, county and city level, call for everyone in grocery stores and other open, essential businesses to wear face masks indoors and to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from other shoppers. People are discouraged from gathering in groups of more than 10.
Social media has given people an outlet to expose rule-breakers without getting in their faces.
Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen posted on his Facebook page this week that he was horrified when he went to a Domino’s pizzeria in Coral Springs and saw a worker wearing his mask around his neck, he said.
Bogen refused to take his cheese and vegetable pizzas home, demanding his money back. He called the city’s code enforcement the next day after he said he saw a second violation.
“Employees were walking in without masks,” Bogen said. “The person making the food had the mask below their nose; it should be covering their nose.”
Bogen took to Facebook to call attention to the matter. “Those few restaurants who don’t comply need to be cited and the public needs to know about it,” Bogen said. “I want my family to be safe and I want other families to be safe.”
Domino’s corporate spokeswoman Jenny Fouracre-Petko said the store, at 8038 Wiles Road, requires masks and will enforce that policy. “A complaint about a team member working alone in the store without a mask was filed with the police and health department,” she said. “Both entities came to store and left without any citations or violations issued.
The Wiles Road Domino’s passed two city code inspections last month, complying with the city’s coronavirus-related requirements, the city said. But at another inspection, police and code enforcers on May 1 saw “staff entering
the store not wearing the mask correctly and one employee attempting to enter without a mask,” said Jaci Foster, Coral Springs’ code compliance manager. The city gave the pizzeria a warning and the city planned to do a follow-up inspection, Foster said.
Coral Springs code enforcers have made more than 7,000 inspections citywide during the pandemic, ensuring that businesses are following the rules about wearing masks and more. If a business isn’t complying, “we have found they typically are confused by all of the orders” issued by the state, county and city, Foster said. In addition to calling police, residents also may call their city’s code enforcement
to report violations, said Leonard “Lenny” Vialpando, who oversees the Broward County’s code compliance. “I feel a polite reminder is a nice thing to do,” he said. “Perhaps the business doesn’t know.”
Others have taken to Twitter and Instagram to post pictures of people huddled in large groups without masks.
In Miami, Juan Patron, 48, found himself on the wrong end of an angry online mob after footage of a mid-April house party at his friend’s condo was posted online. Patron runs a Miami marketing firm and has been the subject of several glowing articles in the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and other online publications.
“It was the first time I got negative articles being written about me,” he said. “There were 23 other balconies where people were having parties, but everyone focused on me . ... They say it takes 20 years to build a reputation and 10 seconds to destroy it. I lived that.”
Patron ultimately apologized for the gathering, though he trusted the parties attendees, who he identified as close friends and co-workers. He also self-quarantined and got tested for the coronavirus. It was negative. “We’re becoming like World War II,” he said. “Everybody’s reporting what their neighbors are doing.”
While Patron apologized after getting shamed online, others have fought back.
Julian and Lisa Siegel, owners of the Riverside Market near downtown Fort Lauderdale, said they were falsely accused on the Next Door app of flouting social distancing rules. They posted a video on their own Facebook page showing the inside of their shop customer-free and a sign on the front door limiting occupancy to five customers.
Two customers were turned away Friday because they did not have masks.
“It reminds me of how the Nazis used to call on people to ‘turn in your neighbor,’” said Lisa Siegel. “It’s that bad.”
The criticism of Riverside Market began when someone posted a photo of customers waiting in line to place or pick up their orders. Even in that photo, it was clear the unmasked customers were not inside the business and were maintaining a respectable distance from one another. “I can’t be out there policing them,” Siegel said.
The problem with exposing wrongdoers online is that it can easily get out of hand, said internet safety expert Sue Scheff, author of “Shame Nation,” a book about online bullying.
“Occasionally, online shaming can be for a perceived ‘good cause,’ such as when Florida had to close their beaches after pictures quickly spread online of the spring breakers crowding the coast,” she said. “Do we really want to embrace a culture that tries and convicts our fellow citizens based on perceptions and slights? Neighbors becoming judge and jury of their fellow neighbors? I don’t think so.”