Street protests complicate COVID-19 recovery efforts. Can Pierce County adapt?

First came the pandemic. Then came the street violence fueled by another deplorable act of American police brutality.

It’s a good thing we don’t believe the superstition that bad things come in threes, or we’d be crouched under a table waiting for the megathrust Puget Sound earthquake long predicted by experts.

Pierce County is already being severely tested by a nine-week COVID-19 shutdown with no clear end in sight. Now Tacoma and other cities are doubly challenged by a tsunami of street activism, unleashed by last week’s unconscionable killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The local protests have been admirably peaceful compared to Seattle and other places around the country. But tension is palpable, Tacoma has imposed a curfew and law enforcement agencies are on high alert.

Combining these two extraordinary public safety emergencies could be a dangerous mix, like dynamite and an open flame. Watching unmasked protesters come together in a shouting, singing, chanting crowd would certainly be an epidemiologist’s nightmare, no matter how just the motive.

Make no mistake: Unrest in the streets could set back our state’s coronavirus recovery efforts.

Fortunately, Pierce County is showing flexibility and resilience. Case in point: this week’s massive giveaway of personal protective equipment (PPE) to local businesses and nonprofits.

After being temporarily derailed, the distribution of 2 million disposable face masks and 20,000 forehead thermometers is back on track to be completed by next Monday.

That’s a big deal for the 4,400 businesses that signed up for “starter kits” to help them partially reopen under Phase 2 of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s recovery plan.

County economic development officials had canceled two days of PPE handouts this week, at the request of law enforcement and emergency management officials.

The reason? Protests have stretched police staffing to the limit, making it difficult for them to provide security and crowd control at distribution sites.

“The safety of our residents and employees must be our highest priority,” the economic development department said in a Monday email to affected businesses. Tuesday and Wednesday distribution events were postponed “out of an abundance of caution,” it said.

But without adequate PPE, local businesses won’t be able to safely reopen. This would put their hoped-for economic rebound on hold and leave customers in the lurch.

Pierce County applied to the state this week to enter Phase 2, which would allow restaurants, hair salons, gyms and other personal and professional services to reopen on a limited basis. County leaders don’t know when they’ll get the go-ahead, but they’ve circled June 8 on the calendar; that’s when Washington’s new mask directive for public-facing businesses goes into effect.

Despite the scheduling setback, the county will be able to meet all business PPE requests by next Monday, economic development director Betty Capestany told us Tuesday.

Early this week, PPE distribution went off as planned in Puyallup, Bonney Lake and Eatonville. Next up: giveaways in Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place, Gig Harbor/Key Peninsula, Parkland/Spanaway and Fife/Milton/Edgewood.

Starter-kit signups were so popular, the county expanded the number of distribution sites from seven to 10.

The program accounts for a little more than $2 million of the $158 million that Pierce County received in federal CARES Act funding, approved by Congress earlier this spring.

We say it’s money well spent. Local businesses have had to absorb crippling losses during this pandemic; now the uncertainty is magnified by a large eruption of civil protests, and a much smaller eruption of vandalism, outside their front doors

A handful of small businesses have seen shattered glass. Far too many are facing shattered dreams.

The least that our government can do is provide them with a head start, and a modicum of hope, for the next phase of a precarious recovery.