Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.

Californians appear to have had enough of the lockdowns and closures, flocking to beaches despite warnings and local bans trying to keep them away.

This pent-up demand for fresh air and sunshine has irritated Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is threatening to close the beaches entirely:

Newsom on Monday criticized Californians who defied the statewide stay-at-home order and flocked to beaches over the weekend, saying that ignoring restrictions could prolong the spread of the coronavirus in the state.

Newsom’s comments came after thousands of beachgoers descended on the coasts in Orange and Ventura counties despite his pleas last week to avoid doing so during the warm weekend.

“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off,” Newsom said during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Sacramento. “The only thing that will set us back is people stopping to practice physical distancing and appropriate social distancing. That’s the only thing that’s going to slow down our ability to reopen this economy.”

While berating citizens isn’t likely to gain their support. But it’s actually an improvement from the high seas pursuit and arrest of a lone paddleboarder in Malibu who decided to ignore the stay-home order to get some exercise.

That amazing display of authoritarian overreach was captured on video.

Image Credit: By Henri Sivonen from Helsinki, Finland (flickr: California State Capitol) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons