The ever-worsening pandemic continues to strengthen communities across the land as we realize that we all need to pull together to make it through these dark days.
But with most people electing to stay put in and around their homes amidst increasing restrictions on interstate travel, a deepening of local identities can also lead to strained relations with perceived interlopers.
Certainly, neighborly decorum evaporated on the Maine island of Vinalhaven on Friday afternoon, as a group of armed local men tried to imprison two residents in their home by cutting down a tree and placing it across their driveway.
The group’s actions are thought to be an attempt to force the residents into quarantine over fears about the spread of coronavirus, The Bangor Daily News reports.
The trapped residents used a VHF radio system to call the U.S. Coast Guard for help at around 3.35 p.m. A person receiving the transmission also made sure that Knox County police were alerted.
Deputies, members of the Maine Marine Patrol, and a U.S. Coast Guard boarding party all arrived to find a felled tree blocking the entrance to the property. By then, the group of men allegedly responsible for cutting down the tree had already left.
State Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who represents Vinalhaven Island, suggested on her Facebook page that the victims were targeted for being from a different state.
“There are two guys from N[ew J[ersey], on Vinalhaven who have been renting a house since September while working on a construction job,” she posted Saturday. “They went to the mainland and were targeted because of their license plate when they arrived back on Vinalhaven.”
“There were some words between them and some locals and the conversation apparently didn’t go very well,” McDonald continued. “A group of local vigilantes decided to take matters into their own hands and barricaded these guys into their rental property.”
She also warned that “now is not the time to develop or encourage an ‘us vs. them’ mentality.”
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is yet to corroborate McDonald’s version of events.