A memo issued by Thomas Manger, chief of the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP), ordered officers on the House of Representatives side of the Capitol Building to arrest staff and visitors who refuse to wear a mask in defiance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) new rule reinstating mandatory masking in the chamber.
“Any person who fails to either comply or to leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for Unlawful Entry,” the memo reads.
Per the memo, officers are not to arrest members of Congress, but they are to report the noncompliance of lawmakers to the House’s sergeant-at-arms.
News of the policy came from Representative Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), who said she received a copy of the memo from an unnamed officer at Thursday morning’s roll call. Cammack claims police she’s spoken to about the matter are “very uncomfortable” with the order.
The congresswoman herself called the directive “tyrannical.”
“This is such an overstep of Speaker Pelosi’s authority to basically make our Capitol Police arrest staff members and report on members [of Congress],” Cammack told Fox News. “It’s absolutely unconscionable that this is where we’re at.”
“Although this applies to the Members of Congress, officers should not arrest any Member for failure to wear a mask or to comply with the mask mandate,” the guidance states. “Any Member who fails to comply with a request to wear a mask should be reported to the House Sergeant at Arm’s office.”
Lawmakers’ exemption from the arrest order over masks may be due to the protection given them under Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution.
“[Senators and Representatives] shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same,” the Constitution reads.
The new mask policy in the House comes on the heels of recently updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which, in light of the COVID-19 Delta variant, says that even those who have been vaccinated should now return to wearing face masks.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky put the blame on the unvaccinated. “The most important thing that we need to say right now is we have a lot of this country that has a lot of viral burden that’s driven by a lot by people who — and mostly — by people who are unvaccinated. Those are the people driving the new infections,” she said.
Republican members of the House have voiced their opposition to the new policy, which also advises that police officers must wear a mask at all times while indoors.
“If you are a Capitol police officer you got orders … if a vaccinated staffer comes across in the House side without a mask you’re ordered to arrest them, but not on the Senate side,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said. “This is not the America we know.”
Kammack declared that “This is the people’s house, not Nancy Pelosi’s house.”
Representative Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote on Twitter: “Pelosi is directing police to ARREST vaccinated people who aren’t wearing masks. This isn’t about science — it’s about power and control.”
But Pelosi’s office claimed it was not the Speaker who ordered the arrest of the non-compliant, stating that it’s outside her power.
“The speaker of the House does not control the U.S. Capitol Police,” Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said to Fox News. “We were unaware of the memo until it was reported in the press.”
Manger, the new police chief, stepped into leadership at a time when Capitol Police are in the spotlight amid the House’s investigation into January 6 — which Democrats claim was an insurrection orchestrated by President Trump and his allies.
Fears about a COVID-19 surge fanned by the media has led governments around the world to crack down on their populations and aggressively push for widespread vaccination.
In various countries, such as France and Italy, governments have restricted entry to public venues such as swimming pools, shopping malls, restaurants, and movie theaters to the unvaccinated. Israel has taken it a step further, banning people from worshipping in synagogues unless they have either a certificate of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.
