New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Monday that he may be forced to declare a second lockdown after New York residents ventured out to bars and restaurants over the weekend in Manhattan and the Hamptons, even though Cuomo’s government largely ignored a massive protest that took place in Brooklyn.
Cuomo threatened New Yorkers with a second lockdown in a press conference, The New York Times reports, after, Cuomo said, the state was “deluged” with more than 25,000 complaints of people flouting social distancing regulations and crowding in businesses.
“Specifically, Mr. Cuomo said that bar patrons in Manhattan and in the Hamptons had been flouting the rules,” the NYT says. “He warned that if local officials did not crack down on such behavior, the state could be forced to suspend the reopening plan.”
“I am warning today, in a nice way, of the consequences of your actions,” Cuomo said, referring to bars and restaurants. “We are not kidding around with this. You are talking about jeopardizing people’s lives.”
State officials tried to water down Cuomo’s comments later Monday after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back on the possibility of another coronavirus-related lockdown and amid news that New York saw fewer new coronavirus deaths over the weekend than it had since March. Only 23 people succumbed to the novel coronavirus Sunday, down from a peak of nearly 800 the first week of April.
The same officials also said that law enforcement officers were working diligently over the weekend to break up large groups and enforce social distancing, though it’s not clear how either the state or city set its enforcement priorities. While bar patrons crowded together in the Hamptons, earning Cuomo’s ire, and Jewish schoolchildren took advantage of summer weather to play in city parks, earning the city’s attention, thousands upon thousands of marchers took the streets in Brooklyn, in a “Black Trans Lives Matter” protest that was not forced to meet social distancing or masking guidelines.
“Thousands of protesters — all dressed in white — gathered in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon to rally in support of the black transgender population,” the New York Post reported. “An enormous sea of people packed outside the Brooklyn Museum for the massive demonstration, according to footage posted to social media by @JibreelJalloh.”
The footage shows people crowded together in front of the Brooklyn Museum and standing shoulder-to-shoulder on public streets.
From the steps of the Brooklyn museum: everyone who’s showed up for Black trans lives today pic.twitter.com/htqjF5tWtn
— Shannon Keating (@skeatings) June 14, 2020
The protest was, of course, peaceful.
New York has been holding fast to a number of social distancing regulations, even issuing new bans as recently as last week, including a ban on summer sleepaway camps, despite the risk of transmitting the coronavirus in an environment of mostly children remains low. New York City remains in “Phase 1” of the state’s reopening plan, but other parts of the state are expected to enter “Phase 3,” where groups of up to 50 individuals are allowed to gather, as early as Wednesday.
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