NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio told Wolf Blitzer that he would be banning all large gatherings through the end of September with one notable exception. BLM protests and riots. They can get together every day between now and the end of September because de Blasio says they are the only essential thing in the city.
.@NYCMayor Bill de Blasio tells Wolf Blitzer that he is banning all large gatherings in New York City except for Black Lives Matter protests.
Wolf Blitzer follows up by asking about the U.S. Open. pic.twitter.com/KGsnAdXDhK
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 9, 2020
You can’t have a parade or go to a concert but if you want to loot or burn down a building you have the mayor’s blessing. You can’t go to church but you can go block a highway. Even the big parades have been shut down including the West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn on Labor Day weekend, the Dominican Day Parade in Midtown Manhattan and the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy.
de Blasio told host Wolf Blitzer:
“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.”
A late-June study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found no evidence that coronavirus cases jumped in 315 cities in the weeks after the first protests. Researchers determined that protests may have been offset by an increase in social distancing among those who decided not to march.
The de Blasio administration will also deny all permits for events in parks that it believes will “unreasonably diminish public use” as well as street fairs and events stretching larger than one block or for gatherings that require a sound system.