‘Not Interfering With People’s Thanksgiving Dinners’: New Jersey Police Chief Vows To Limit Enforcement Of Governor’s COVID-19 Orders

A New Jersey police chief vowed not to limit enforcement of a recent string of coronavirus orders from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy ahead of Thanksgiving.

Howell Township Police Chief Andrew Kudrick Jr. said he would rely primarily on community judgment rather than law enforcement intervention in response to Murphy’s regulations, according to a statement. The governor’s order limited indoor gatherings to ten people, shuttered restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. and capped the number of attendees at funerals and weddings, among other gathers, NBC Philadelphia reported.

“Howell Township Police will rely on the community to be responsible for their own actions without enforcement intervention as they have done in the past,” the chief wrote. “Of course they will respond to egregious violations such as packed house parties, so please think as you plan any gatherings.”

“We are not going to be interfering with people’s Thanksgiving dinners or their holiday dinners or their social gatherings, unless it’s something egregious,” Kudrick said, according to NBC News.

The New Jersey police boss also criticized Murphy for allegedly exempting those engaged in political activities from the order.

“When you exempt certain peoples, especially those who are attending political activities, from the executive orders, I think that same courtesy should apply to people who are having friends and family over at their houses,” he said, according to NBC.

Murphy; however, maintained that his mandates are life-saving.

“This is not about some minor infraction,” he said, according to NBC. “These executive orders are about saving people’s lives.”

New Jersey’s COVID-19 daily case numbers have experienced a resurgence and have surpassed a previous peak in April, according to a New York Times tracking map. Approximately 4,670 cases were reported on Nov. 21, the highest on record for the Northeast state, the map revealed.