Shapiro Was Wolf's Enforcer - Time For Him To Be Held Accountable
Josh Shapiro is the Attorney-General of the state of Pennsylvania. Now he wants to be Governor. Apparently, he believes that Pennsylvanians suffer from some rare form of collective amnesia and cannot remember what he has done while in office.
Pennsylvania’s current Governor Wolf imposed some of the most draconian and unconstitutional COVID lockdown measures in the nation. Shapiro, as the chief law enforcement officer of the state, was the muscle for that totalitarian assault on the civil liberties of Pennsylvanians.
Wolf crushed small businesses. Wolf mandated that schoolchildren be masked. Wolf shoved COVID patients into nursing homes and killed thousands of Pennsylvania’s seniors. Shapiro used the full power of his office every step along the way to beat Pennsylvanians into submission and strip them of their rights.
On March 19, 2020, Gov. Tom Wolf and his top public health officials drew up an arbitrary list of "non-life-sustaining" businesses that would be forced to close until further notice. Only Michigan and Puerto Rico saw a greater number of business closures due to government mandates.
Shapiro did not watch this from afar. One week after the production of Wolf’s list of businesses that he had decided to destroy, Shapiro was already in court arguing that Wolf “had legal authority” to shut down Pennsylvania businesses and saying that Wolf’s order was “necessary to attempt to protect the lives of millions of at-risk Pennsylvanians.” Shapiro responded to the objections of those who were having their lives destroyed by saying they lived in a “fantasy world” and were putting their “private pecuniary interests” ahead of public health. “Private pecuniary interests” like feeding their families and paying their mortgages.
Later in the year, in response to a lawsuit challenging the Wolf administration’s continued school closures, Shapiro argued, apparently with a straight face, that public schools were actually technically still open. This was at a time when students were legally barred from going to school.
And, of course, when schools were opened Shapiro fought tooth and nail to make sure that your children were forced to wear masks for hours a day. Even as every parent in the state screamed about the obvious negative psychological impacts of masking and raised fully legitimate concerns about the actual threat COVID posed to children, Shapiro continued to use your taxpayer dollars to crush dissent and compel obedience.
In May 2020, when roughly one-third of all Pennsylvania businesses were still closed Shapiro decided what we needed was for Pennsylvanians to start ratting out their neighbors who were breaking Wolf’s unconstitutional rules.
"See a #COVID19 health and safety violation? Report it!" Josh Shapiro tweeted, along with instructions for exactly how informers could report such information to local law enforcement, the state Department of Health, and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Even that was not enough for Shapiro however. Despite his best efforts, Pennsylvanians continued to resist and speak their minds. So, Josh brought in the big guns. He appealed to Twitter and Facebook.
In March 2021, Shapiro wrote to both Twitter and Facebook demanding that they remove any posts from their platforms that spread “disinformation” about COVID and vaccines. The letter also proposed that the accounts of any offenders be deleted to prevent future transgressions. Shapiro’s definition of “disinformation” was in effect anything that questioned the edicts emanating from Harrisburg.
You thought you had a First Amendment right to free speech? In March 2021 Pennsylvania’s chief law enforcement officer, the man theoretically charged with defending your civil liberties, decided he suddenly had the authority to take that right away and muzzle you.
"A small group of individuals use your platforms to downplay the dangers of COVID-19 and spread misinformation about the safety of vaccines."
"Facebook has failed to consistently apply misinformation labels and popups on Facebook pages and groups that discuss vaccines or COVID-19."
"Facebook has allowed anti-vaxxers to skirt its policy of removing misinformation that health experts have debunked, by failing to prevent them from using video and streaming tools like Facebook Live and sites like Bitchute, Rumble, and Brighteon to evade detection."
"We call on you to take immediate steps to fully enforce your companies’ guidelines against vaccine misinformation."
While Shapiro was crushing small businesses, destroying our schools, and shredding the Constitution, of course, he turned a complete blind eye to the carnage in Pennsylvania nursing homes. Health Secretary Levine shoved COVID positive patients into elder care facilities in contradiction of all medical practice and all common sense. Thousands of elderly Pennsylvanians died, most without even being allowed to see their families. Shapiro stood by, watched, and did nothing.
Shapiro has demonstrated repeatedly his complete disdain for the citizens of the state he now wants to govern. His vision of democracy is one in which he makes the rules, and you shut up, sit down, and do as you are told. His contempt for the citizens of Pennsylvania is once again on full display as he campaigns around the state now pretending none of this ever happened and demanding you play along with his fantasy view of the past.
Sorry, Josh. Pennsylvanians remember every sordid detail of your time as Wolf’s enforcer. You crushed small businesses. You abetted the murder of the elderly. You traumatized young children. Time to be held accountable.
But...will Pennsylvanians remember? And take action?