Apr 27, 2021
[Editor’s note: This article contains strong language that readers might find offensive or disturbing.]
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. Dr. Gail Newel looks back on the past year and struggles to articulate exactly when the public bellows of frustration around her covid-related health orders morphed into something darker and more menacing.
Certainly, there was that Sunday afternoon in May, when protesters broke through the gates to her private hillside neighborhood, took up positions around her home, and sang “Gail to Jail,” a ritual they would repeat every Sunday for weeks.
Or the county Board of Supervisors meeting not long after, where a visibly agitated man waiting for his turn at the microphone suddenly lunged at her over a small partition, staring her down even as sheriff’s deputies flanked him and authorities cleared the room.
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Over the course of a year, Newel and her boss, Santa Cruz County’s health services director, Mimi Hall, have seen their lives upended for reasons well beyond the exhausting workload that comes with battling a devastating pandemic. Their daily routines now incorporate security patrols, surveillance cameras and, in some cases, personal firearms.
They are public servants who no longer feel safe in public.
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“When I do have days off, I don’t want to be out in the community. I’m intimidated to be out in the community,” Newel said. “I’m looking to see who might be close to me or to my car, who might be following me looking to see if there’s any kind of situation that I might not be able to get out of or that might be dangerous to me in some way.”
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A group of maskless people stormed the Trader Joe's in downtown Santa Cruz, California flouting the county's mask mandate on Valentine's Day. The anti-mask group calls it a "Cash Drop," and posted a video of it to YouTube.