Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) is encouraging residents in his city to tattletale on their neighbors who defy his stay-at-home order. Specifically, he's targeting businesses that continue to remain open despite not being considered "essential" (at least by government standards).
“If any non-essential businesses continue to operate in violation of the stay at home order, we’re going to act to enforce the safer at home order and ensure their compliance,” Garcetti said. “You know the old expression about snitches. Well, in this case, snitches get rewards.”
“We want to thank you for turning folks in and making sure we are all safe,” the mayor said during a press conference “Your decision to stay home may mean that there’s one less person who needs a ventilator we do not have.”
Garcetti’s office has already sent the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to 144 of the more than 500 non-essential businesses that failed to follow his order. Of those, four have been sent to the city attorney’s office for misdemeanor charges.
The mayor’s team encouraged residents to submit business violations here, on the city website. It’s unclear what the so-called “rewards” will be (if anything).
The announcement comes after Garcetti formed his "Safer at Home" Business Ambassadors program last month. The program "deploys city workers and volunteers with the mayor's Crisis Response Team to businesses that appear to be out of compliance with the emergency order with a goal of securing voluntary compliance. If voluntary compliance is not achieved, the ambassadors will share information with the city attorney and LAPD for follow-up."