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De Blasio Authorizes Fines Of $250 To $500 For New Yorkers Who Defy Authorities Telling Them To Properly Distance

   DailyWire.com
Democratic presidential candidate, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio addresses a crowd at The Galivants Ferry Stump on September 16, 2019 in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina.
Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images

On Sunday, during a press briefing regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that citizens can and will be fined if they fail to follow social distancing protocol.

De Blasio first spoke specifically about certain places where people might congregate.

I certainly do authorize the use of fines in parks and playgrounds if needed. Again, what we’re going to do to begin, as we’ve been doing is – and the weather has been such that there haven’t been too, too many people out – but all of our enforcement officers have been [giving] warnings, have been educating, there’s been loudspeakers telling people the update, all that.

The mayor then laid it out for anyone who might decide to flout social distance guidelines in New York City:

Now, it’s as simple as this. If someone is told by an officer [to] disperse, keep moving, you’re not distanced, and they don’t follow the direct instruction from our officer, or they say they’re doing it and then they come back right away, I’m comfortable at this point that they will be fined – my understanding is the fines are in the range of $250 to $500 – that’ll obviously be a … violation of summons that would be provided.

I don’t want to see that happen … I want to just let all New Yorkers know that what we’re trying to do is say, you’ve been warned and warned and warned again.

Now, if an officer comes up to you, if someone wearing official city uniform, official city identification, comes up and says, “Move along, disperse, etc,” if you ignore that order, they’re going to say, “If you ignore it, we’re gonna have to fine you.” They’re gonna give people every chance to listen, and if anyone doesn’t listen, then they deserve a fine at this point – and I don’t want to fine people when so many folks are going through economic distress, but if they haven’t gotten the message by now and they don’t get the message when an enforcement officer is staring them in the face, saying, “I don’t want to fine you, but if you don’t change what you’re doing, I’m gonna have to,” well, you know, that person then deserves the fine.

So, we are going to proceed with that as part of how we intensify our enforcement.

COVID-19, which originated in China’s Hubei province, has infected over 721,800 people worldwide, and led to more than 33,900 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) Global Cases map. 151,204 people have recovered.

In the United States, there have been more than 142,300 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 2,489 deaths. As of publication, 4,767 individuals have recovered from the virus.

According to the New York State website, there have been 59,513 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, and 965 deaths. In New York City alone, there have been over 33,760 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 776 deaths.

RELATED: Gov. Cuomo Says Tens Of Thousands Of ‘Health Care Workers’ Have Volunteered In New York; Gives Other Updates

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