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Today my family and i made ice cream. Well it was more like a custard but that's besides the point. All stores are going a little crazy, and going inside them is a nightmare. It has been really hard for us (my sisters and i) to find things to do. May has gone by so fast. I hope we get to do something fun for graduation.

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So we are doing this project where we get to  make a podcast, and i am doing mine on a serial killer. I am really excited because i love serial killers, and it is giving me something to do.

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Who is the Zodiac Killer Podcast - Aviva Brody

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So today i read an article from the washington post that said if you cough on someone you could be charged with terrorism. What a world we live in! There has been lots of drama going on, and i'm not sure if it is because of the fact that everyone is bored or not. I dont know. I have been going on runs in the morning which is nice. I ran a 8:24 min mile a couple days ago.

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Joe Fasula restocks shelves at Gerrity's grocery store in Hanover Township, Pa. A woman allegedly coughed and spat intentionally on items at the supermarket, forcing employees to throw out $35,000 worth of food. (Aimee Dilger/Times Leader/AP)

One day in early March, a man named Cody Lee Pfister walked into a Missouri Walmart and filmed himself licking deodorant on one of the shelves.

According to the statement of probable cause Warrenton police later used to secure a warrant for his arrest, Pfister turned to a phone camera and asked, "Who's scared of coronavirus?" before sticking out his tongue and "dragging it across approximately ten (10) containers on the shelf and a portion of the shelf itself."

He and friends shared the video on social media, where it promptly went - well, viral - with 40,000 shares on Facebook and more on other platforms. Within days, the 26-year-old was charged with making a terrorist threat in the second degree, a felony.

"It was idiotic, moronic, all those things," said Pfister's attorney, Patrick J. Coyne. "But was it felonious? That's going to be the question."

Attorneys and law enforcement officials are suddenly grappling with questions like that one - if not precisely like that one - amid new regulations aimed at stopping the spread of covid-19. As governors and mayors issue stay-at-home orders and ban gatherings, law enforcement personnel are tasked with making sure citizens comply with unprecedented restrictions on their freedom of movement and, in some cases, their livelihoods, during a crisis unlike any most have ever experienced. And they are doing so in full knowledge that to enforce laws meant to keep people apart, they must come in close contact with would-be violators.

"Police are put in this unenviable position of trying to enforce that," said Chuck Wexler, head of the Police Executive Research Forum, a group of state and local police executives that researches ways to improve policing practices.

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"The challenge is finding a way to engage with the public when you don't want to arrest someone. That's the last thing you want to do. You want to educate the public - and not make people's lives worse than they already are."

While law enforcement officials around the country are spending more and more time breaking up gatherings and knocking on doors of nonessential businesses that flout closure orders, they are also encountering a less familiar offense: People are using the novel coronavirus itself as a threat by coughing on officers or one another, threatening to cough on those around them, or contaminating merchandise at stores.

In one instance, Gerrity's grocery store in Hanover Township, Pa., was forced to throw out $35,000 worth of food when a woman allegedly coughed and spat on it on purpose and claimed to be infected with the virus. She was charged with making terroristic threats, among other things. A man faces similar charges in Minnesota for allegedly coughing on a grocery store employee and making falseand racist comments about the cause of the virus.

In Manalapan, N.J., a Wegmans employee asked a 50-year-old man to move away from her and the display of prepared foods she was tending. Instead of backing up, the man allegedly moved closer, coughed and told her he was infected with the virus.

In another disturbing pattern, reports are mounting of Americans threatening law enforcement officers with the virus. In Alaska, a woman allegedly caught shoplifting told officers she was suffering from the virus, before retracting that story to avoid felony charges. In Martin County, Fla., a man pulled over on suspicion of reckless driving allegedly told officers he was suffering from the virus, removed a mask they gave him and began intentionally coughing toward the officer. He was charged with assault and threatening a public servant.

"We have zero tolerance for this despicable behavior, and anyone who threatens the health and lives of my deputies will face the maximum charges," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder wrote in a Facebook post about the incident.

The fact that many officers are becoming ill with covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has lowered the tolerance for such threats. The New York Police Department reported this week that a dozen police officers had died of the virus and 20 percent of its uniformed workforce was out sick. In New Jersey, 573 law enforcement officers, about 1 percent of that workforce, were infected across the state as of Wednesday afternoon.

So many New Jersey officers have faced verbal threats of infection that state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced plans to take overthe prosecution of a half-dozen such cases. Those include cases involving two men who allegedly spat or coughed on officers responding to reports of domestic violence, and a woman allegedly trying to fend off a DWI arrest. In one case, Grewal said, an officer who was spat on eventually contracted covid-19.

The reasons people make such threats, or follow through on them, fall into two categories, said Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist at the University of British Columbia who recently published a book entitled "The Psychology of Pandemics."

Some are young adults engaging in "stress-induced antisocial behavior," he said. "They wish this was all over, and they have a personal sense of invincibility anyway."

Another group, he said, has "more sinister" motivations, including a desire to be "agents of chaos."

The huge stress many people feel as a result of the pandemic is a factor, he said. "It's protracted. It's drawn out. You don't know when it will end. You don't know if the people around you are safe or infected," Taylor said. "And, of course, this is the first pandemic that we've ever seen in the era of social media and Internet connectivity, which is accelerating the spread of fear."

The charges levied against those who allegedly intentionally spread or threaten to spread the virus varies by state and local jurisdiction. But many people involved in these cases have been charged with some form of making "terroristic threats" against others, in addition to more familiar charges such as assault.

In late March, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen issued a memorandum to federal law enforcement officials around the country suggesting they might apply terrorism laws to those who threaten others with the spread of covid-19.

"Because coronavirus appears to meet the statutory definition of a 'biological agent' " under federal law, Rosen wrote, "such acts potentially could implicate the Nation's terrorism-related statutes." He pointed to laws regarding the handling or production of biological agents for use as a weapon and hoaxes involving biological weapons.

Grewal believes the use of "terroristic" in these kinds of charges means something different from what many Americans might understand - and even what Rosen, himself, might have meant.

"It's really taking steps or taking measures to threaten the well-being of others," Grewal said. "It's not akin to, like, terrorism. It's more focused on an individual."

Most jurisdictions agree that those offenses warrant arrest and some form of criminal charge.

But unlike others, Grewal also defends an aggressive approach to policing infringements of social distancing and other restrictions.

"Initially, we were in a posture of starting from a warning point of view. . . . But last week, we quickly shifted from warning into enforcement and into a zero-tolerance posture," he said. "That's really born out of guidance from our health department and messaging from our governor that the only tool that we have right now is social distancing and the stay-at-home order."

But Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson took a different tack in a news conference last week, advising local jurisdictions against arrests whenever possible.

"Our goal is 100 percent voluntary compliance," Ferguson said. "I want to be very clear: I don't want to have to use the powers of my office to hold accountable those who intentionally violate the governor's emergency orders."

Meanwhile, Coyne, the Missouri lawyer, said the coronavirus prosecutions are not that different from other public nuisance cases. He said he had just wrapped up one in which a man was charged under the same statute as Pfister was. He had pulled a fire alarm in a hospital.

"Which is obviously ridiculous," Coyne said. "That then caused a danger to life. You've got to knowingly do it. That's where I've seen this charge a couple times."

For Pfister's case, Coyne is arguing his client did not commit a felony because he didn't knowingly do harm. The incident took place in early March, long before major alerts and stay-at-home orders occurred in Missouri, even before the World Health Organization officially called the spread of coronavirus a pandemic.

"My argument is pretty clear that on March 10, everything was kind of normal, you know?" Coyne said. "None of us could wrap our head around this pandemic thing."

Coronavirus: What you need to read

The Washington Post is providing some coronavirus coverage free, including:
Updated May 14, 2020 Show More Show Less

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Coughing 'attacks' may be prosecuted as terrorism in war on coronavirus

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One day in early March, a man named Cody Lee Pfister walked into a Missouri Walmart and filmed himself licking deodorant on one of the shelves. According to the statement of probable cause Warrenton police later used to secure a warrant for his arrest, Pfister turned to a phone camera and asked, "Who's scared of coronavirus?"

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it almost feels like teachers during quarantine are giving us more and more homework, because we, "have more time to do it" What north carolina is doing, is that they are only having class for 3 hours, and the teachers just give you small assignments and you try to finish them by the end if the week, but the assignments dont take up your whole day, and you are allowed to leave your house. I wish i lived in north carolina.

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The library is holding a contest to see who can make the best food inspired by a book. I chose the book divergent, and in the book there are 5 faction, so i am doing each faction a different type of cupcake. I am glad that there is something to do, because i am on a screen all day. I even have dance on a screen! I really can't wait until quarantine is over and we can go outside again. I saw this family online, and they were doing a quarantine olympics and i thought that would be a good idea.

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Today is Torin and Ms. D'ambrosio's birthday today. My family is starting to get sick of eachother and everyone just wants to get some space from each other, but that can't happen, because we are not supposed to leave our house.

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Today is my birthday. Gina Raimondo said to keep the circle of people that you are in contact with small, so my neighbors and my family had a little party sort of thing. During this quarantine we felt the need to smash something so we got a pinata and had lots of fun. A present that i got was i am going to fly by myself to michigan to visit my friend niveen. I am worried that my flight will get canceled because of the pandemic.

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It has been more and more dreadful to go outside. If you want to go to the grocery store, you have to wait till less than 25 people are in the store. Then one at a time, you can go in. There are markers on the ground so that everybody stands 6 feet apart.

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Today is Monday. Quarantine has started to get very boring and sad. Global warming is getting to an extreme. Yesterday it snowed, and today is 60 degrees outside and i am starting to get worried that soon the damages we are making are going to become irreversible.

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With all this quarantine stuff happening, i think that this is actually just what the world needed. I dont mean having the economy become messed up, and millions of people losing their jobs, but we are giving the environment a break. With less and less people leaving their homes, their is more fresh air to circulate, and animals are able to walk around more without the fear of humans messing something up.

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Today i made some bandanas that we (my family) might use for masks and it took a while. i am starting to get desperate for activities to do.

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Happy Passover! or translated in hebrew:  חג פסח שמח. Passover was interesting, considering we couldn't go to someone's house, so we ended up going on zoom and we had a zoom seder. It really got me worried because my 89 year old grandmother is in a nursing home and she isn't allowed to leave her room, and it scares me because she could die because she is very weak.

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It has been harder and harder to go outside. with school, i used to walk there and back, so i always go some fresh air, but now i can do everything without moving a muscle. it has made everyone here super tired.

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What if the corona virus already hit america? In around february lots of people were getting sick and at my sisters school, hundreds of people were out, so when we thought we either had a cold because it was flu season, we actually had corona.

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Today is friday. I went on a run down the boulevard, and i saw lots of people with masks. I'm getting worries that people are using masks when they dont need them, and then that will cause hospitals to run out.

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Today Gina Raimondo Went on TV and answered some of kids questions. I am very worried for the people who dont have internet access. An email went out to all students and families at the begining of the quarantine and it listed all of the places where you could get free wifi, but now since everything is closed i am concerned about what is going to happen now.

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Today we had our first online ballet class. i realized that this was not just like a one time thing. I started to think, and i got scared because culmination might be canceled. Culmination is one of the most important performances at festival besides nutcracker. if culmination got canceled, than we would probably not be able to go back to the studio again, until SDI, but that might also be canceled!

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I am very worried about what is going to happen in april. In January, Australia was on fire. February; we were about to start WW3; and march, a global pandemic took over the world and killed hundreds. so whats next?

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Happy April! My mom got an email from my aunt who works at a hospital. She told my mom that they are running low on face masks. we spent the day making face masks to send to my aunt for the workers at the hospital.

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I have noticed that the pace of life has started to slow down. What i mean by this is that when you go outside, there are 2 or 3 people on the street where as normally there would be around 50 people. Also people are becoming a lot more isocolated.

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Today has been a stressful day! We had a bunch of work assigned to us today. i almost finished the first harry potter book. I had my first online ballet class. i didn't like it too much. I just heard that we are not going back to school for the rest of april. i am actually starting to miss school.

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Today has been very underwhelming. As i prepare myself for a new week of distance learning, i can't stop thinking about how long this is going to go on for. i have been reading a lot and baking.

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Today has not been very eventful. i made some brownies and cooked dinner. I have been washing my hands all the time, and i have ordered facemasks to relax, and lots more stuff to protect me from the virus.

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Today i had to babysit. This whole social distancing was working for a while, but i ended up taking a break from social distancing to help one of my dads co workers, so a babysat this little girl. she told me that we had to be extra careful "because there was a virus going around."

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What if this is the government trying to control and scare everybody, and all along they have a cure and they just like watching us suffer! it's like the hunger games.
THE CORONA GAMES!

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I have a lot of school work today. My mom is saying that i am on a screen to much, but it's not my fault. school is taking so much time, and since everything is online i am on the computer for like 7 hours straight. it is getting very exhausting.

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I have noticed that my sisters and i have been getting into less and less arguments since this whole social distancing / quarantine thing started happening. Maybe it is because we are all a little scared.

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Today has been somewhat lonely. it is starting to worry me because of how many precautions people are taking that this could go on for a while before ending. Today i went grocery shopping with my family and only 25 people were allowed in trader joes at a time. it made me think that small business owners are going to go out of business, or any businesses that dont deliver. it's like the world just shut itself down. it's scary.

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The first time i really started to get scared about what is happening in the world was when i went i was walking on hope st. and the stores were closed, and on their windows, there were signs saying that they were going to be closed. it really scared me, because i had never seen hope st. so empty before and i knew that closing down your store is very risky, because you are losing money every day. i realized that this wasn't going to be just a fun little vacation, but this might last for a couple months.

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Today is the second day of distance learning. It is starting to feel lonely, and everything would be so much more fun if there wasn't a deadly disease that is causing the world to go into quarantine outside. I have found that going on runs, watching movies, baking, and taking long naps helps cure boredom.