Julia Marcus

State and local officials across the country are unleashing a new weapon in America’s war against the coronavirus: the cops. Citing parties as the cause of recent clusters of infections in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker recently authorized state and local police to crack down on public and private gatherings that violate social-distancing guidelines. The sheriff’s office in New York City took on new coronavirus duties, including the enforcement of party bans.

The past two weeks have seen no shortage of enraging events—from the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer to the continued police brutality during the ensuing protests across the country. But some have directed their outrage elsewhere: at public-health experts, whose choice to support the anti-racism demonstrations has been called the latest example of liberal hypocrisy.