TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey’s hyper-partisan Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued new “guidance” on Thursday warning state residents and employers against discriminative practices during the ongoing COVID-19 state of emergency.
One example cited in Grewal’s directive was a direct attack aimed at his favorite target: Donald Trump…
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“Among the guidance’s keynotes are that employers may be in violation of the LAD’s prohibition on disability discrimination if they fire an employee for exhibiting possible COVID-19 symptoms,” Grewal’s press release explains. “The guidance also states that employers must take reasonable action to stop harassment of one employee by another employee if the employer knows or should have known about it: for example, if one employee has east-Asian heritage and a coworker repeatedly harasses her by claiming that Asian people caused COVID-19 or calling this “the Chinese virus.”
Grewal believes this sort of behavior is violative of New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD).
“COVID-19 is no excuse for racism, xenophobia, or hate,” said Grewal. “Discrimination and harassment in violation of New Jersey law remains illegal even if it occurs against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Now, more than ever, we should recognize that we’re all in this together. Words and actions that divide us won’t make any of us safer or stronger.”
Hate is contagious, too. Help us stop the spread.
To report a bias incident, call 800-277-BIAS. To read our guidance on #COVID19-related civil rights issues, visit: https://t.co/oO7bTK378E pic.twitter.com/yoIIbR3Lmj
— Attorney General Matt Platkin (@NewJerseyOAG) March 19, 2020
President Trump has earned the renewed ire of the Left in recent days for referring to coronavirus as “the Chinese” or China virus owing to the virus having surfaced in Central China’s Hubei Province. “Wuhan virus” (pointing to the province’s capital) is also popular on social media:
Fine with it. https://t.co/j7gPSQZvaK
— Jitney Guy (@JitneyGuy) March 19, 2020
It’s not at all unusual for viruses or diseases to be named after the place where they’re first identified. A small Connecticut town named Lyme, for example, gave its name to Lyme Disease.
Trump’s naming decision is also strategic.
China has become a threat to the West on both the military and economic fronts; the President is seizing upon China’s inability to contain the outbreak – and its initial deceit and cover-up concerning the scope of the problem – to undermine the communist giant’s ability to geopolitically threaten American and its allies.
Grewal is a regular Trump antagonist; his office’s late 2018 sanctuary statehood memorandum resulted in newly-initiated federal litigation between the state and resisting counties backed by the Trump Administration.
The Garden State’s coronavirus Chinese virus caseload stood at 742 confirmed positive tests and 9 deaths.
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