The LA County Department of Public Health responded to criticism of the maskless Emmys by claiming the rules didn’t apply because it was a television production event – despite the fact that workers were still made to wear masks.
There was uproar on Sunday as celebrities packed themselves into the Event Deck at LA Live without a mask amongst them as they kissed and hugged all night long.
Irate respondents on Twitter asked why celebrities were exempt from the rules yet their 4-year-old kids had to wear masks in class.
Under Los Angeles County’s Department of Health guidelines, everyone aged two years and older must wear a face covering in “all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and public and private businesses.”
However, after it was asserted that the rules don’t appear to apply to the rich and famous, the department was forced to respond.
New: LA County Department of Public Health tells me that the mask-less Emmys were not in violation of the county's mask mandate because "exceptions are made for film, television, and music productions” since “additional safety modifications” are made for such events. pic.twitter.com/6S105zYjbJ
“LA County Department of Public Health tells me that the mask-less Emmys were not in violation of the county’s mask mandate because “exceptions are made for film, television, and music productions” since “additional safety modifications” are made for such events,” tweeted CNN’s Oliver Darcy.
So apparently, so long as you’re making a television production, COVID-19 recognizes that fact and doesn’t show up for the night, much like it disappears as soon as people sit down to eat at a restaurant, but not while they walk to the table.
Health authorities went further, insisting that the event organizers “exceeded the baseline requirements for television and film productions,” before asserting that the full vaccination of all those present was “one of the most powerful ways to achieve a safe environment” (despite the fully vaccinated being able to pass on the virus).
“The Emmy Award Show is a television production and persons appearing on the show are considered performers,” they added.
So apparently, if you’re a “performer,” or in other words rich and famous, you don’t have to wear a mask.
But if you’re merely a lowly worker drone, you still have to wear a mask, as dozens of staffers were seen doing at the event.
Makes perfect sense.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Mayor London Breed responded to criticism of her not wearing a mask inside a club by saying the “fun police” were making a story out of nothing.
The Metropolitan Police in London is recruiting officers who are illiterate, can barely write English, and may have a criminal record in order to meet diversity quotas, it has been revealed.
Yes, really.
A 2014 promise to have 40% of the force be represented by ethnic minorities by 2023 has fallen well short, with just 17% of officers being from ‘diverse’ backgrounds.
Matt Parr, the head of the organization responsible for inspecting British police forces, told the Telegraph that London, “which will likely be a minority white city in the next decade or so, should not be policed by an overwhelmingly white police force.”
In addition to the optics of a largely white police force being wrong, Parr said it was also, “operationally wrong, because it means that the Met does not get insight into some of the communities it polices and that has caused problems in the past. So we completely support the drive to make the Met much more representative of the community it serves than it is at the moment.”
That drive has however led to officers being hired who struggle to even write up basic crime reports.
"Applicants to the police who can barely write in English are being accepted by the Met in an attempt to improve diversity, one of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has warned."https://t.co/5RJETVG7nh
“They are taking in significant numbers of people who are, on paper at least, functionally illiterate in English,” said Parr, adding that the Met was “recruiting the wrong people” and that the diversity push had “lowered standards.”
However, Parr also noted that it was a good thing that the Met was “taking a risk” by hiring young black men who may have criminal records.
David Spencer, the head of the think tank Policy Exchange and a former Metropolitan Police officer, said that the diversity drive had lowered standards.
“There is a tension between volume, quality and diversity and something has to give,” Spencer explained. “Someone has to ask what is the most important of those three things and you have to be really careful because once you have recruited someone they are possibly going to be there for the next 30 years.”
As we previously highlighted, police resources in London are so stretched that major department stores have given up on calling them to catch shoplifters.
Car theft in London has effectively been decriminalized, with just 277 out of 55,000 offences being solved by Scotland Yard, a 0.5% success rate.
However, there still appears to be plenty of resources available to interrogate people for posting offensive social media posts.