{"id":807409,"date":"2020-05-13T16:27:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=999222"},"modified":"2020-05-13T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:27:01","slug":"arkansas-governor-issues-cease-and-desist-threatens-police-action-over-pandemic-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/arkansas-governor-issues-cease-and-desist-threatens-police-action-over-pandemic-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas Governor Issues Cease-and-Desist, Threatens Police Action Over Pandemic Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson has ordered a Fort Smith music venue not to go ahead with a planned concert this week in what would be America\u2019s first show since stay-at-home guidelines<\/a> began for most of the country two months ago. The governor\u2019s department of health issued a cease-and-desist against TempleLive on Wednesday, though the venue has yet to respond to the order. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 1,100-person theater is set to host blues-rock singer Travis McCready under strict social-distancing protocols this Friday \u2014 three days before Arkansas is allowing indoor gatherings of 50 people or fewer to resume. Should the show sell out, TempleLive will host 229 attendees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy your proposed actions, you are in violation of the Arkansas public health code,\u201d The state\u2019s secretary of health, Nathaniel Smith, wrote to TempleLive organizers in the document, obtained by Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201c<\/span>Those rules authorize me, as secretary of health and director of the Arkansas department of health, to order you to cease and desist the conduct described above. Your failure to comply with this order and postpone your event to be in compliance with the health directives will result in a violation of the Arkansas public health code.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe issued the cease-and-desist order and we expect the law to be complied with,\u201d Hutchinson said Wednesday at a press conference, promising \u201csome consequences\u201d if the venue ignored the order. \u201cOur enforcement capacity can utilize local law enforcement, because this is an enforceable order that we have in place. And there could be other remedies as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hutchinson didn\u2019t elaborate on what efforts the state may take to enforce the cease-and-desist, instead emphasizing the common sense of the public. \u201cI would think that the patrons, when they know that the concert should not happen under Department of Health guidelines, that they\u2019d use good judgment and not attend,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would expect the concert promoter to cancel the event since it is in violation of the cease-and-desist order issued by our Department of Health,\u201d Hutchison said in a new statement to Rolling Stone<\/em> Wednesday afternoon. \u201cWe would welcome the concert under different circumstances, but the health and safety of music patrons is most important.  Arkansas is synonymous with music whether it is the Delta blues; Ozark folk music; or the sound of artists from Glen Campbell to Johnny Cash. We can\u2019t wait for the music to echo through the hills again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Last week], I was very optimistic that the Arkansas Department of Health and the governor were going to see that everything that we were doing should be admissible to happen,\u201d TempleLive owner Mike Brown tells<\/span> Rolling Stone<\/span><\/em>. \u201cToday, I\u2019m awaiting legal advice. The legal team is reading through the [cease-and-desist] to decipher exactly what our options are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While most indoor venues like TempleLive aren\u2019t allowed to reopen until May 18th under Arkansas\u2019 guidelines, churches and places of worship were free to hold services without any capacity restrictions as of May 4th. Smith said there is a distinct difference between the two.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we developed each of these directives, we had in mind the particular groups that are involved in those directives,\u201d he said during Wednesday\u2019s press conference. \u201cObviously, a place of worship is different than a concert hall. There are some similarities but also some significant differences, especially that with this event, they are expecting people from a number of different states \u2014 people who normally wouldn\u2019t come in contact with each other. So that increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat keeps coming back to me is Eric Stratton\u2019s speech in Animal House<\/em>:<\/span> Isn\u2019t this an indictment of our entire American society<\/span>? [<\/span>Laughs<\/span><\/em>] It\u2019s hard to believe there\u2019s such hypocrisy \u2014 regardless of what the directive is \u2014 that religious institutions can have all these people in place,\u201d Brown says. \u201c[The churches] aren\u2019t contact tracing and I can contact trace everybody that comes into this building through Ticketmaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do have a show and the governor does what he says, he\u2019s going to send armed state police here to stop us. And that\u2019s in America,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt really feels like our rights are being trampled on and we\u2019re just not being treated fairly. The government has the upper hand in their ability to enforce things through what is perceived law. It\u2019s just unfortunate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the venue operator and concert promoter laid out his safety precautions to Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>, which include disinfecting the venue with fog, limiting bathroom capacity, and, most visibly, cordoning off sections of seats to maintain social distancing.<\/span> \u201cWe went in and measured off every direction we can possibly see, and mapped it out so everybody is six feet from each other,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Hutchinson says TempleLive\u2019s safety precautions don\u2019t matter if the concert still falls outside of the state\u2019s timeline.<\/span> \u201cThat was based upon public health guidance,\u201d Hutchinson said. \u201cLike I said yesterday, if we gave direction, as we did for restaurants to serve inside dining on May 11th, you don\u2019t expect people to open up before that. I think you\u2019d be looking at us with, \u2018What\u2019s this about?\u2019 if you don\u2019t enforce it. The fundamental point is they knew in advance that this is the target date and they\u2019ve proceeded on with this in violation of the directive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A rep for the Arkansas Department of Health did not return a request for comment, but a spokesperson for Fort Smith Mayor George McGill said the city would follow any directive from state officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Governor Hutchinson said that he would be issuing the cease-and-desist order, we are completely in line with his plan and his thinking and we will move forward as we are directed from the governor\u2019s office,\u201d the mayor\u2019s spokesperson, Jurena Storm, tells<\/span> Rolling Stone<\/span><\/em>. \u201cOur stance has not changed \u2026. If the Arkansas Department of Health has said that this is the right way for us to maintain the safety and wellbeing of our residents, then that\u2019s what we will do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lauren Brown is a Tulsa, OK musician set to open for McCready at both Friday\u2019s show and a planned Saturday show at the Tall Pines Distillery in Noel, MO. \u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d she tells Rolling Stone. \u201c<\/em>I\u2019d like to see that we can get some people in this room that can realize it\u2019s not an end-all, be-all. We\u2019re not stuck in our homes forever. We can get out and see people from a distance and still be safe and hear some live music<\/a> and get some joy into our days.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mike Brown says he is still weighing his options, he laid out what police action may look like should it reach that point. \u201cI guess an episode of<\/span> Cops<\/span><\/em> or Tiananmen Square in China,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re a fine member of this community. We just spent a multi-million investment in a great market that needed it. It\u2019s such an opportunity for the state of Arkansas \u2014 with all of the light that has shined on this event \u2014 to really have a great showing and I think that politics is getting in the way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be neat to be a part of something bigger than myself, just putting the world back in motion and getting these jobs back that people are missing,\u201d Lauren Brown adds. \u201cI\u2019d love for this to set wheels in motion that we can start rolling again.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson has ordered a Fort Smith music venue not to go ahead with a planned concert this week in what would be America\u2019s first show since stay-at-home guidelines began for most of the country two months ago. The governor\u2019s department of health issued a cease-and-desist against TempleLive on Wednesday, though the venue has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 05:05:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}