A New Yorker gave Mayor Bill de Blasio, his wife, and accompanying aides an earful for traveling 11-miles to Brooklyn for a leisurely stroll in Prospect Park despite the shutdown order, which tells people to stay in their homes and only venture out into their own neighborhood. Take a look:
DeBlasio is a national disgrace. New Yorkers have every right to be furious at his blatant disregard for breaking HIS OWN RULES. How can our mayor "lead as I say, not as I do". What an utter joke. https://t.co/409gFXK6b9
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) April 27, 2020
“Seriously, you guys have a park. You live in the middle of a park. You don’t need to non-essentially travel to Brooklyn,” the man says in the video. “C’mon, you won’t even open roads for people of all backgrounds.”
“This is selfish behavior,” he continued. “This is so terribly selfish. You call yourself a progressive, but you chauffeur yourself to Brooklyn. You force people to drive you. This is ridiculous. This is the epitome of non-essential travel.”
When an aide accompanying de Blasio tried to block the heckler, he said, “You are too close to me to be socially distant.”
As noted by the New York Post, de Blasio and his wife were spotted previously in Prospect Park when the pandemic started.
“Before non-essential businesses like gyms were ordered closed amid the coronavirus crisis, de Blasio regularly made the journey in an SUV motorcade to the nearby Park Slope YMCA from Gracie Mansion,” reported the outlet.
Last week, the New York Mayor took his lockdown order to a whole new level of control when he asked city residents to snitch on people in violation of the stay-at-home order.
“How do you report places that aren’t enforcing social distancing? It’s simple: just snap a photo and text it to 311-692,” de Blasio wrote on Twitter.
“Now it is easier than ever,” the mayor said in a short video advertising the hotline. “When you see a crowd, when you see a line that’s not distanced, when you see a supermarket that’s too crowded — anything — you can report it right away so we can get help there to fix the problem.”
“We will make sure that enforcement comes right away. Text the photo to 311-692 and action will ensue. Enforcement will come to get the help we need,” he continued. “Look, this is important. I want to keep reminding people: This is about saving lives. Sending that photo in is going to help make sure that people are kept apart and that’s going to stop the disease from spreading and that’s going to save lives.”
The mayor’s order sparked a massive backlash, as people flooded his tipline with obscene photos and expletive-laden insults. “Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the Staten Island groundhog and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted on Twitter,” the New York Post reported at the time.
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