Texas mayor slams state's face mask requirement: 'Authority needs to be checked

[Graybeard]

https://www.foxnews.com/media/midand-mayor-patrick-payton-face-mask-requirement

Midland Mayor Patrick Payton says his criticism is 'anti-overreach,' not 'anti-face mask'

Talia Kaplan By Talia Kaplan | Fox News

A Texas mayor has criticized the state's face mask requirement, telling Fox News Tuesday that elected officials should call on people’s “higher nature instead of trying to exercise the authority we don’t have that is remaining unchecked in many municipalities and states.”

“People are trying to do the right thing, and the fact of the matter is, whether we have a law in place or not, people are going to continue to do what they are trying to do,” Midland Mayor Patrick Payton told “America’s Newsroom."

Payton added that“authority needs to be checked before it runs rampant and we become comfortable in being overrun in our civil liberties.”


Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott mandated the wearing of face coverings in public in all Texas counties with 20 or more confirmed COVID-19 cases, following record increases in infections in the state.

“It's really not a message of no face mask," Payton told Sandra Smith Tuesday. "It’s a message of how you communicate that and how you enforce that quite simply.

“Throughout Midland we have been encouraging people and encouraging businesses and people all over the city to wear face masks, to do the things that we are being asked to do to protect public health,” he continued. “When we have a breakdown is when we mandate things and we are called upon to enforce things.”
 

“We’re asking our people to do exactly what they did in March, which is do the right things to flatten the curve and they did exactly that," Payton went on.

“We’re asking them to do that now, but we’re not going to send our police department out when they have a job to do already and we’re already understaffed as a police department in this region."

In that vein, Payton said, police officers “will not be answering 911 calls because someone saw someone walking five feet apart instead of six feet apart without a face mask or they saw someone at the grocery store without a face mask.”

Miami mayor calls for changed behavior to combat coronavirusVideo
“It's not an anti-face mask message," he emphasized. "It's an anti-overreach message is what it is."

The mayor told Smith that he "absolutely" wears a face mask in response to an inquiry by Smith.


“A free people who are self-governing can do these best practices and protect themselves and the people around them without a mandate being handed down," he added, "and that's what we are doing here in Midland, Texas."

Texas has reported more than 200,000 coronavirus cases and 2,655 deaths as of Monday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

[Argent 88]

The city of Midland is an upper scale community. There is a saying over there. Live in Midland and party
in Odessa.

[wtxbadger]

Born and raised in Midland and raised our kiddos there. The demographics there have changed considerably over the years from what it used to be.
The saying was "Raise your kids in Midland and raise your H*** in Odessa", amazingly enough Midland has still managed to keep all adult entertainment venues out of the county and Odessa has really cracked down on that in Ector county the past couple of decades.
We moved from Midland to the Texas Hill Country a few years back but still keep up with things there. I had some doubts about Midland's new mayor but so far he seems to be doing a good job.

[ironglows]

.
  Totally correct GB, It isn't exactly the face mask !  What it is guys, is a "punch back" by people who do not have the big platform to shout from, that their political antagonists have the great advantage of possessing.


  I see young men here in the north, flying the confederate battle flag, and the Gadsden, (don't tread on me) flag.


  I know many of these young, conservative men, and the battle flag represents the desire to throw of the shackles that elitist politicians are trying to buckle onto them.  Slavery doesn't even enter their minds.


  So far as the Gadsden flag..the "don't tread on me" pretty well explains itself !


   I remind us of an old proverb...  "If you rub a galled horse, he will kick!" 


  These people are tired of having their 'sore spot' scrubbed with political sandpaper, and they are shouting back in just about the only way they will be heard !
.

[Dee]

Worked for a couple a years in the Midland-Odessa-Pecos area, and met a lotta good folks there.
Also I saw a lotta wet-backs in the Pecos-Carsbad area, where life seemed to be a disaster waiting to happen.

[ironglows]

Personally, I think the demonrats are in cahoots with the Chinese commies, trying to take down the US !  They are not even concealing their hatred for America and it's culture & values.
  I don't doubt that in their Trump derangement syndrome and crazy desperation, they welcomed the Chinese communists biological attack upon the US.


  Keep in mind, President Trump was roundly criticized for halting flights from China..while Pelosi recommended that people in san Fran go to China town and have a ball...  While Di Blasio told New York City dwellers, to go down town and mix with the crowds !


  Does that give us a clue ?