Advice from a law professor: don't talk to the police. Ever. Ever. Never.
(millions of poor people could tell you this)
Great Plague of London 1665-1666 (image 1827)
“Plague doctors were not qualified physicians but merely people who assessed whether or not someone was suffering from the plague. Although plague hospitals were set up in Europe, English ‘plague orders’ dictated that victims be shut in houses, red crosses painted on doors, and victims left to die (although nurses were permitted to visit)…
The doctor wears a bird mask, the beak of which would have been filled with aromatic herbs or flowers as one theory for the cause of plague was inhaling miasmas, or clouds, of noxious air. Other theories were that plague was spread through livestock and that it was God’s punishment for sin. As well as carrying poesies to sniff, people tried to prevent infection by fasting and praying, there was a cull of cats and dogs and inns and lodging houses were closed.”
