Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 33
giving somebody basically the benefit of the doubt is important. And | think that absent that in the
Legislation it gives too much leeway in my opinion.
But my concern is we are going to attract an element downtown and to City Hall that if we just make this
have the warning and the $25.00 fine, they might not feel that it is worth giving us as much attention. And
what | mean by that is | can see as other States have witnessed and even New Hampshire to some degree
up at the State House. | can see Nashua becoming a target of right wing folks who want to demonstrate
that they believe that this unconstitutional and | can see them demonstrating with their firearms and things
like that outside of City Hall because we are going to make Nashua a target for them to stand up for their
beliefs and their causes.
Now that’s fine, they have the right to do that. But as we are trying to pass things that make Nashua a
friendly place to do business and a friendly place to come downtown to eat and dine, bring your family,
things like that. If we have people like that protesting outside of City Hall every day, it is not exactly the
place that | want to go with my family and | might think otherwise to come to Nashua. So | really feel that
wee are putting ourselves on the map as a target if we make this have a fine up to $1,000.00 and no
warning. Whether or not the Police give a warning to everybody, or whether or not you know they are a little
bit more lenient, the fact of the matter is, if we leave in that potential, we are going to make ourselves a
target of these folks. Mark my words.
President Wilshire
Alderman Lopez?
Alderman Lopez
| think if we as Legislators signal to the Community that we are not going to make policy based on what’s
best for our Community and what Public Health Professionals and Doctors recommend and if we signal that
that will all take a back seat to anybody from anywhere coming and inflicting their views on our Community,
then that makes us a target rather than us trying to focus on the pandemic that is happening and the risk is
inherent in spreading diseases that is a biological fact versus a subjective possibility. | don’t think that a
warning or a smaller fine that is characterized publicly as intentionally to avoid a conflict is going to do
anything of the kind. | think you just signaled if there is a certain amount of escalation then policy will back
down to that. One of the principals of any kind of de-escalation is if you set a ground rule at the beginning
for good reasons, you don’t back down in the middle of the escalation. You stay consistent and you
continue because that was the rule that was set, otherwise you are following the escalation. So | can’t
necessarily see us as enacting an Ordinance where the Police have the latitude to say, “Ok well this is a
misunderstanding you didn’t know, but you do now so as long as you are willing to follow along with it then
the response can be minimal” versus a bunch of people coming deliberately to provoke a response. | think
limiting or neutering that response is irresponsible.
President Wilshire
All set Alderman Lopez?
Alderman Lopez
Yes.
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd.
