Mayor Bill de Blasio, tyrant
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed this week that he will allow Black Lives Matter protests to continue to congregate amid the pandemic while all other gatherings will be canceled until at least September.
The demonstrations, de Blasio argued during an appearance Thursday on CNN, are just too important to stop.
“I take it that you're canceling all large events in New York City through the end of September,” said host Wolf Blitzer. “So, what went into this important decision?”
“Wolf, it's all about health and safety first," de Blasio responded. "And this is obviously the thing that President Trump doesn't understand, we don't just decree that we want things to happen regardless of the human impact. We actually look at the science. We look at the data. The data is telling us it is not time for large gatherings. ... We've had a lot of success making New York City healthier. We’ve got to really stick to that plan.”
Blitzer then asked about the Black Lives Matter protests, asking, “If people want to march down Fifth Avenue, are they going to be allowed to do so?”
“If you're just talking about health," the mayor responded, "we would always say, hey, folks, you know, stay home if you can. But we understand that this moment in history, people are talking about the need for historic changes.”
So then, in other words, it is not "all about health and safety first," is it? De Blasio continued, missing not even a beat.
“I mean, today, in New York City, you know, recognizing the power and the meaning of the message Black Lives Matter," he said, "this is a historic moment of change. We have to respect that but also say to people the kinds of gatherings we're used to, the parades, the fairs, we just can't have that while we're focusing on health right now.”
The virus, which is the reason for canceling all other events, apparently discriminates depending on the declared righteousness of specific gatherings, according to the mayor. I see de Blasio has looked very closely at the "science" and "data."
There is no ambiguity that can rescue the mayor from his comments. He has made his meaning abundantly clear. Indeed, de Blasio's remarks this week on CNN are not even his first attempted explanation for why Black Lives Matter protests are allowed to thrive in New York City while other gatherings, including in-person worship and prayer services, are banned.
It is “apples and oranges," de Blasio said earlier this month on CNN, to say New York City is engaging in a double standard by granting anti-police activists the right to assembly while places of worship remain shuttered.
“The protests were an entirely different reality,” the mayor said. “A national phenomenon that was not something that the government could just say, you know, go away, something that really came from the grassroots. And, obviously, it had profound meaning, and we're all acting on the meaning of those protests. But it's really apples and oranges.”
Evidently, according to de Blasio, the practice of your faith is not a national phenomenon, it is not something believed by "the grassroots" of your church, and it does not have profound meaning.
Earlier, when a reporter for Hamodia, an Orthodox Jewish news outlet, asked de Blasio whether there is “one set of rules for protesters and another for everyone else,” the mayor scoffed.
“When you see a nation, an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism,” he said, “I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or devout religious person who wants to go back to services.”
So, to be perfectly clear, de Blasio believes there should be one set of rules for protesters and another for everyone else.
What was it the mayor said about taking a science-based, data-driven approach to fighting the virus? Something about putting “health and safety first"?
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