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LA Mayor Shuts Off Power at Hollywood Hills House That Hosted Large Parties

45 points| stx | 5 years ago |npr.org

81 comments

order

kstenerud|5 years ago

A simple fine or some other existing punishment would have sufficed. The legal system has had the tools to deal with rule breakers for centuries already.

Cutting off water and electricity for order violations sets a very bad precedent, and is highly irresponsible. I'm shocked that it's even legal to do so.

DoreenMichele|5 years ago

They got multiple warnings.

This is kind of like that Bruce Willis movie scene where his wife tries to say her affair with his best friend was "an accident" and he says something like "Whoops! I fell down and my dick accidentally ended up in your wife."

If you don't want your water cut off, don't invite your 200 closest friends over during a pandemic, two weeks after they announced this was a potential consequence and after the police have previously visited your house and warned you in specific. Duh.

m463|5 years ago

Hollywood hills. Would fines have worked? This might just be creative enforcement.

(To be honest I wonder if shutting off power will work... can they just get a generator or set up tiki torches?)

oh and new business idea: powerbnb

Fragoel2|5 years ago

For people who glaringly have too much money to even care about it is a fine really a punishment?

oliwarner|5 years ago

Simple fines and even protracted legal disputes mean very little to the rich, who can largely do whatever the hell they like if they can pay for it.

Direct action against a property makes it much harder for them to continue.

Pungsnigel|5 years ago

Is it even legal?

DoreenMichele|5 years ago

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that he had authorized the city to disconnect utility service at a Hollywood Hills house after it hosted several large parties in "flagrant violation" of COVID-19 public health orders.

The announcement comes two weeks after Garcetti first warned that properties hosting "un-permitted large gatherings" could have their water and power service shut off as a consequence.

Seems completely reasonable to me. I find it bizarre that the internet has an issue with it, the same internet that talks like the Gestapo about trying to force every last person to wear a mask at gun point.

true_religion|5 years ago

It’s because heat stroke and dehydration can kill during the summer.

Punishments granted for health violations shouldn’t make the situation even more dangerous. This won’t stop parties.

showdeadtest|5 years ago

I’m sure the notoriety that comes from hosting a party so epic the mayor holds a news conference about it will lead to a dramatic uptick in rule-following.

sudhirj|5 years ago

No, but it will lead to a dramatic up tick in property owners telling party hosts to take their money and get lost, which is the point.

hotz|5 years ago

For their next party trick, they'll take away your water and electricity for wrongthink or not voting for the "correct" party. Shocking that some people think this is acceptable. If freedom falls in the US, the rest of the world suffers too.

rsa25519|5 years ago

Hmm, I think cancelling parties (that have no political affiliation) is different from policing thought. I'm a free speech absolutist, but I support governments limiting non-speech freedoms for the sake of public health

ianleeclark|5 years ago

> Shocking that some people think this is acceptable. If freedom falls in the US, the rest of the world suffers too.

This is incredibly melodramatic. To think that restricting a party during a global pandemic risks freedom more than, say, backing coups in Honduras is a ridiculous position.

JamesBarney|5 years ago

There is a very wide gap between turning off someones electricity for routinely hosting parties against regulations during a pandemic that is killing more people per day than most wars and thought policing.

Also your comment could be made about literally any enforcement action ever taken.

hluska|5 years ago

I don’t recall reading anything about freedom to make unbelievably stupid, selfish decisions in the US constitution.

dmode|5 years ago

Why people would voluntarily go to large crowded gatherings at this time is beyond me

Keverw|5 years ago

Probably because they don't know anyone who had COVID personally and think the media is hyping it up. Plus the numbers are low compared to population. If you were an accountant, this would be a rounding error in the large picture. Then some areas of the country they aren't as serious about locking things down like in Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota or Wyoming. Heard a radio ad promoting road trips to Wyoming, they even mention they have freedom "ready to be free again". I guess that makes sense though if the rest of the country is locked down, other places can take advantage of it and profit. Supply and Demand. I'm curious how the results after Sturgis will be in 2 weeks, other places being closed and people from all over the country flocked there. Well they attract a bunch of people every year from all over anyways, but I figured this year be more so since less opportunities for entertainment right now.

Then our own president said some people didn't even know they had it comparing it to a cold. Then reports that some doctors have been threatened to lose their job if they don't sign off on COVID because the hospital gets extra money even if someone died from Cancer. Then another doctor thought the ventilators were doing more harm than good so if the doctors kill people with ventilators that's a extra 50 grand. Some people are worth more dead than alive. I think there's a virus just like other things but we're being played in a way to influence the election. Just like how with Obama they were scaring everyone about Swine Flu, working on a new vaccine for that too but that just kinda fizzled out. I know I'm skeptical personally and it is very concerning all the big sites are censoring this stuff. I think because the big drug companies run advertising on these sites, I know in other countries they banned advertising drugs but in the USA that's big business.

lostlogin|5 years ago

Going to a 200 person party at this time seems unwise, but to then get shot.

me_me_me|5 years ago

Google 'secret gyms LA'.

Covid will never go away till we develop a vaccine.

argggg|5 years ago

Regardless of the rigthness/wrongness of the situation as a whole, how is shutting off someone's power in the summer not cruel and unusual punishment?

sushshshsh|5 years ago

Time for solar panels, batteries, maybe a generator, and some other electrical knowhow to make the system efficient and failure resistant

swarnie_|5 years ago

Can we get a recap of the Corona figures broken down by country just for a laugh?

I get the impression some countries aren't taking this as seriously as others.

threeseed|5 years ago

The leading countries are Australia, NZ, South Korea etc:

https://covid19.healthdata.org

The estimate is that the US will be at 300,000 deaths by end of year. Whilst NZ will be at 22. US is 65x more populous so if they adopted similar policies would have been at 1430 deaths. And it could even be a million deaths by the time a vaccine is readily available.

And people like to bring up the island nonsense but fact is that the borders are largely closed with Canada and Mexico so the problem is purely to do with domestic policies and behaviours.

brendawalsh|5 years ago

Flagged? Come on.

This is about electricity and the law and COVID-19.

gorgoiler|5 years ago

When working with children, losing ones temper is a great way to show them that they have “won”.

DangitBobby|5 years ago

Do you think the people who had the power shut down on their party house feel like they have won?