Mask madness: At Maine businesses, public health rules draw support but also push-back

crowd seated at bar watching soccer on TV

Courtesy / Common Loon Shown in pre-COVID days, the Common Loon Public House in Orono attracts a mix of customers, many of whom come to watch televised soccer matches.

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By William Hall

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An altercation Sunday at an Orono pub over the use of protective face masks has led to a police investigation and a social media frenzy, in perhaps another sign of Mainers’ divisive opinions about the COVID coverings.

The Common Loon Public House, at 36 Main St., requires employees to wear protective face masks, and customers must too — except when they’re sitting at a table. That policy is in accordance with public health restrictions ordered by Gov. Janet Mills, and is posted at the front door.

But on Sunday afternoon a group of four people entered the eatery without heeding the sign, pub co-owner Cory Gardner told Mainebiz. A server informed them they’d have to wear masks, which the individuals were carrying.

One of them began arguing, according to Gardner, and asked “inane” questions such as “How does the virus know if you’re at your table?” Gardner stepped in, explained the no exceptions-policy, and the group agreed to comply.

But they again resisted the requirement after they’d been seated. Another server asked the party to leave, and at that point one of the patrons allegedly began to argue more aggressively. As the group finally left, Gardner said, the woman threw the table’s menus and silverware to the floor and spit at the server.

“You read that right,” Gardner wrote in a Facebook post Monday afternoon. “She spit at him.”

And this mask-rule incident was "not even close" to the only one the Common Loon has experienced since reopening under state rules on June 1, he added.

After Sunday's confrontation, the unidentified employee went home, showered, changed his clothes and called police, according to Gardner. Orono Police Chief Josh Ewing confirmed to Mainebiz that his department received a complaint Sunday in connection with the incident, and has begun investigating.

Public reaction — and counter-reaction

By late Tuesday, Gardner’s post had drawn 1,500 reactions on Facebook, including over 300 comments, and had been shared more than 650 times.

The vast majority of responses expressed support for the employee and the pub, which Gardner launched with two partners in 2018.

Courtesy / Common Loon

The Common Loon, at 36 Main St. in Orono, has had to deal with customers who refuse to comply with the pub's requirement to wear protective face masks.

“This is awful that your staff and your place of business had to deal with ignorant customers,” wrote one Facebook user. “Thank you for sharing what happened and standing behind your employees.”

Another post read: “So unbelievably sorry for what happened with this employee. As someone who has been working through all of this as an essential employee I completely sympathize. My coworkers and I have dealt with abuse, vile words, arguments, and even trespassing. It has taken quite a toll on us.”

But not everyone seemed understanding. Several commenters criticized the pub or defended the customer.

“The customer’s behavior was childish, but the pub's attitude is just as bad if not worse. Forcing your employees to wear a mask for an entire shift is endangering their lives more than this virus ever will,” read a post. “You folks at the pub should be ashamed of yourselves!”

Maine opposition to face masks also played out recently on another social media platform. Earlier this month, an analysis of 150,000 geotagged Twitter posts nationwide ranked the state as the No. 5 hotspot for anti-mask tweeting.

The study, by emergency preparedness website Survival at Home, looked at hashtags such as “#nomasks" and "#burnyourmask," which residents of Maine used more than those of any state but Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Idaho. Residents of other states in the Northeast didn’t even come close.

Anti-mask sentiment may also be on display at other Maine businesses. In June, just days after outdoor bars were allowed to resume operation, customers of several drinking establishments in Portland openly flouted requirements for social distancing and mask wearing, prompting a police crackdown.

Similar incidents recently inspired a business-led ad campaign asking customers to be courteous toward employees and to comply with mask requirements and other public health measures.

In addition, a statewide survey of 3,000 Mainers found that while most of them weighed factors such as the use of masks in deciding whether to patronize a business, residents aren't always keen on having to comply themselves. In fact, 21% of the respondents agreed with the statement “If they force me to wear a mask I will go somewhere else.”

But another survey, conducted earlier this month by Mainebiz, found that over 200 businesspeople and others responding favored the state's mask requirement by a 4-to-1 ratio.

'Ridiculous' behavior

Back at the Common Loon, Gardner called Sunday’s incident “shaking,” and said his employees handled the situation appropriately. He described his support of their response as “solid.”

“They’re enabled to make decisions like this,” he said. “We’ve always said, ‘We’ll have your back.’ To ask employees to put up with this type of behavior is ridiculous.”

The pub is working with police to identify the unruly patron and to help if criminal charges are pressed. And Gardner said the Common Loon will continue to enforce the mask requirement.

“We’re going to just keep going as we have been,” he said.

In his Facebook post, Gardner wrote, "We’re a small business struggling to survive in an unprecedented global health and economic emergency, but we’re not willing to compromise the well-being of our customers, staff and community in order to make a buck."

Ninety-five percent of his customers comply with the mask requirement, he added, and expressed gratitude for their cooperation as well as for the public response. On Tuesday, several Facebook users said they’ve never visited the Common Loon but now plan to.

“We never expected any of this,” Gardner told Mainebiz. “To receive this outpouring of support, for simply following the rules and being spit on, is kind of bizarre.”

The Maine mask mandate

Under an April executive order by Gov. Janet Mills, Mainers are required to wear face coverings in public places where physical distancing is difficult to maintain, as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a May executive order, businesses were required to post readily visible signs notifying customers of the face covering rule and were permitted to deny entry or service to any person not wearing a covering.

On July 8, Mills issued an executive order mandating that businesses require face coverings in retail stores with more than 50,000 square feet of shopping space, as well as restaurants, outdoor bars or tasting rooms, and lodging establishments. The order applies to businesses in the counties of Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Waldo and York, as well as in the cities of Auburn, Augusta, Bangor, Brewer and Lewiston.

The Maine Department of Economic & Community Development has issued a checklist of requirements and guidelines for businesses to follow in order to be permitted to operate under the state's economic reopening plan. For restaurants and bars, the checklist includes requirements that employees wear cloth face coverings and that customers do so when not seated at a table — for example, when entering, exiting or walking to a restroom. Other checklists and general information can be found here.

Mask rules and the Constitution

While Maine and more than 30 other states now require the use of protective face masks as a public health measure, some critics claim such rules violate the U.S. Constitution. However, most legal scholars disagree.

For example, Dmitry Bam, a constitutional law professor at the University of Maine School of Law, said in a July 9 television interview: "While we think of these [Constitutional] rights as absolute ... they are all subject to a kind of a balancing analysis where you compare the strength of the liberty interest with the strength of the government's justification, and I think in this case, when you do that balancing as to the mask, the justification will probably outweigh the interest in not wearing masks."

On Monday, in Palm Beach County, Fla., a judge turned down a lawsuit seeking an injunction against a similar mask mandate there, saying it violated no constitutional rights. “The right to be ‘free from governmental intrusion’ does not automatically or completely shield an individual’s conduct from regulation,” Judge John Kastrenakes wrote in his decision.

“More to the point, constitutional rights and the ideals of limited government do not absolve a citizen from the real world consequences of their individual choices, or otherwise allow them to wholly shirk their social obligation to their fellow Americans or to society as a whole."