Mayor de Blasio slammed for breaking up rabbi's funeral
NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio oversaw the dispersal of a large, tightly packed Hasidic Jewish funeral Tuesday night and lashed out at the mourners who had gathered in defiance of social distancing rules intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Video from the scene Tuesday night showed hundreds of members of the Hasidic community ignoring social distancing guidelines while paying their respects. Some of the mourners were wearing masks, but all were seemingly jam-packed together in the streets of Williamsburg.
De Blasio took to Twitter to slam the gathering for Rabbi Chaim Mertz.
"Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic. When I heard, I went there myself to ensure the crowd was dispersed. And what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus."
My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.
We have lost so many these last two months + I understand the instinct to gather to mourn. But large gatherings will only lead to more deaths + more families in mourning. We will not allow this. I have instructed the NYPD to have one standard for this whole city: zero tolerance."
Hasidic groups and others have fired back saying that crowds gathered only hours earlier to watch a flyover by military jets. De Blasio was also seen over the weekend walking in a park in Brooklyn with a security detail.
New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch and even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to Twitter to fire back saying the mayor has singled out the Jewish community.
"What??? This has to be a joke. Did the Mayor of NYC really just single out one specific ethnic community (a community that has been the target of increasing hate crimes in HIS city) as being noncompliant?? Has he been to a park lately? (What am I saying - of course he has!)
"Would DeBlasio have sent this identical tweet with the word “Jewish” replaced by any other religious minority? If not, why not? Laws should be enforced neutrally w/o targeting religious faith. #ProtectFreeExercise
No one was arrested or issued a summons for attending the funeral, reported the New York Daily News.