While droves of protesters continue to march through the streets of New York City — and around the world — businesses remain shuttered, churches closed, and Hasidic Jewish children apparently banned from playing in a neighborhood park.
The incident unfolded Monday afternoon, when New York Police Department officers booted a bunch of kids and their parents from a park in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
But the rules don’t apply to everyone.
Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), the same politician who targeted and reprimanded Jewish people for holding a funeral amid the coronavirus lockdowns, participated in a Black Lives Matter protest that drew tens of thousands of people to the city’s streets.
De Blasio was not wearing a mask, nor did he reprimand the countless Black Lives Matter demonstrators packed in like sardines following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a white man.
As for the violence, the NYC mayor acted as if the rioting was a natural disaster — a hurricane or tropical storm New Yorkers just had to hunker down to get through. “We’re going to have a tough few days,” he said. “We’re going to beat it back.”
Some estimates are predicting the property damage in New York City will cost tens of millions of dollars to repair.
Not that long ago, de Blasio scolded Jewish people for gathering peacefully, calling the mourners coming together “absolutely unacceptable.”
Once again, this has been NYC for a week and a half:
Alas, de Blasio has made it very clear he has no issue ignoring the social distancing rules for one group while using the guidelines to restrict the freedoms of others.
“When you see a nation, an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism,” he said last week, “I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services.”
So the protests and riots aren’t “absolutely unacceptable,” according to de Blasio. But grieving the loss of a loved one, opening up your business, attending a church service, or even playing in a neighborhood park is.