STATE, COUNTY RESPONSE TO COV ID-19 DISMAL AT BEST; CASES RISING, SHERIFF DEPUTIES OVERKILL ON CITATIONS

By Juan Montoya

The scorecard isn't even in yet, buth with a daily tally of 20 or more new positive cass of COVID-19 being reported across Cameron County daily, it's obvious that the response to the disease has been unsatisfactory and has resulted in increasingly high numbers locally.

This morning, another 21 new cases were reported by Cameron County - 11 in Brownsville - and Hidalgo County next door reported even worse with 45 new cases.

That brought Cameron's tally to 841 and Hidalgo's to 679, a far cry from the start of the infection when one or two positive cases caused a general alarm across South Texas.

Now, with hundreds recorded, we're slowly, but surely, inching our way to the 1,000 mark in Cameron.

And the various departments across Cameron County - from the County Clerk's Office, the Tax Assessor-Collector's, even within the Health Dept. and Sheriff's Dept. and Public Works - has been one of trying to cover up the infection of its employees, a fallacy when dealing with a contagious disease.

In other words, instead of putting out the alarm so that the public can take precautions and avoid contagion hotspots, let's just make believe we're not aware that some of our employees dealing with the public have been infected.

This was not made easier by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott grandstanding and using the states' public relations spin machine to convince everyone that the worst was over. The numbers locally and across the state don't lie. We're not out of these woods yet.

The die was set when Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino sought to curry the favor of the Rancho Viejo crowd by providing personal cover for the infections (the first in the county) caused by their relatives bringing it back from Ireland and Spain and then hiding out in South Padre Island at the height of Spring Break congratulating themselves saying they were in self-quarantine.

Why did Pct. 4 Commissioner Gus Ruiz deny that one of his road crew had been infected and the entire crew sent home to quarantine to prevent spreading the disease instead of broadcasting it high and low to the crews' families and potential contacts in the community instead? The usually garrulous Ruiz, who cannot pass up a photo-op opportunity suddenly disappeared when sought by the news media.

The same - we now learn - applies to the county clerk and tax office. Sources who wish to remain anonymous for fear of their jobs say positive cases at their workplace were told to go home and not say a word to anyone. They were told to seek medical care on their own if they got worse and not to seek assistance from their employer.

And when testing had to be done, the city's snail-pace results from the test site at the Sportspark often took a whole week.

In contrast the UTRGV test site at the TSC campus provided results overnight. Why? No one has been able to give us an answer. And if you want to get a test at the city's site at the Sportspark you have to get into the waiting line which can take days. What good is that if you are sick and can pass it on to family and friends, including the most susceptible like the elderly?

And one the stay-at-home and shelter-in-place order was given and requirements for only one occupant in a car and the required wearing of a face ask or covering was issued, the often heavy-handed enforcement of overzealous law enforcement generated ill will between the residents and the cops.

This is noting to sneeze at. The fines could range from $1,000 to imprisonment.

The law enforcement by constables from the beginning has been measured. During the first days, Pct. 2 Constable Abel Gomez said he personally stopped dozens of vehicles on the road and when they were able to produce written excuses or reasons for being on the road, were told to be on their way.

But on the county side, the complaints against the heavy-handed tactics used by deputies with the sheriff's department gathered during the early days of enforcement and showed up at the justice of the peace courts where the citations were often dismised, downgraded and small fines imposed, if any at all.

But the overkill there generated ill feelings against Omar Lucio's minions.

Take, for example, some of the cases that showed up at some JP offices.

*On April 5, a 20-year old woman who works at Texas Southmost College and her boyfriend had to use her ATV to go to the corner store in San Pedro to get some groceries after his truck developed problems.

They were stopped by a  Border Patrol truck, the sheriff deputies called in, and even after they told Deputy Mitchell Reyes they needed groceries - an essential function - she was cited for violation of the stay-in-shelter order by county judge Trevino. The citation was downgraded, but the unnecessary inconvenience caused bad blood toward the department.

*On April 15, a 52-year-old driver and his 23-year-old passenger were stopped on Military Highway and JoAnn LAne and cited for wearing no mask. Both took off their mask to talk to the deputy (L. Garcia) and cited. Garcia was not wearing a mask.

* On April 9th, at 4 a.m. a 34-year-old Brownsville man was getting home on Angel Lane when he was stopped and cited for a violation of the shelter-in-place order despite the fact that he was finishing his shift as a welder at the SpaceX space site on Boca Chica Beach.

* Similar incidents turned up at JP offices all through April and May until the order was lifted. In many cases the JPs dismissed some and downgraded the others when they were provided with a credible excuse. But the fact remains, heavy-handedness and overkill by deputies just made matters worse for county residents.