“Some of the complexity in the enforcement here, especially with members of the ultra Orthodox community. They have never complied with the rules,” Governor Cuomo.
This statement by the Governor of one of the leading states in the United States should shock the conscience.
Labeling an entire community with broad stereotypes is the essence of the discrimination and racism that the democratic party supposedly stands against.
As an ultra orthodox member of the Brooklyn community, I can personally attest to the utter falsity of these remarks. On Passover, a holiday traditionally celebrated together with family and friends, I walked around Boro Park and Flatbush singing outside to people who were all alone for the Passover Seder. Everyone was locked in their homes and all synagogues were closed. This state of affairs lasted for approximately 6 weeks, before synagogues began to contemplate reopening.
The stated objective of the lockdown was to flatten the curve. Yet when the curve was flattened did Cuomo open things up? No he did not. And that was the first clue that the lockdowns were not motivated by concern for public health and safety. Then came the BLM protests, which shattered any notion that the Government was concerned with public health and safety.
Rather than condemning the protests, which brought thousands of people together in total disregard of social distancing, Mayor De Blasio encouraged and participated in the protests, explicitly stating that the protests had more value than religious practices. A clear constitutional violation of the First amendment, as recognized by a federal judge. While Cuomo paid lip service to the idea that people should social distance, he took no action to do so and to ensure that the safety of the population was not compromised by the protestors.
We waited anxiously to see whether this lack of social distancing would cause a spike in Covid cases. Thankfully, it did not. And that is when it became crystal clear to me and my friends that the lockdown, totally contrary to human nature as a social animal, destructive of people’s livelihoods and enormously harmful to the population’s mental, emotional and physical health was unjustified as implemented in it’s draconian, arbitrary amd capricious manner. Notably the WHO has recently expresses similar reservations on the judiciousness of extended lockdowns.
Furthermore Cuomo’s own words demonstrated his utter hypocrisy on the subject of the lockdown, further eroding the public’s faith that he was acting other than by fiat.
A couple of striking examples:
1. A constant refrain from Cuomo at his daily press conferences was that he couldn’t force the people of New York to do anything. It was his job to give the facts and that would give “New York Tough” people the ability to make their own decisions.
Yet, when Governor Cuomo was slow to open things up and people began to defy his orders and gather in restaurants and bars, King Cuomo threatened to come down himself and shut things down and began sending his lackeys to fine and punish any establishment that didn’t comply with his kindergarten like granular and arbitrary regulations. You can serve alcohol but only with food , and the food can’t be just $1.00
The paternalistic, patronizing and arbitrary nature of the regulations was laughable and truly reminiscent of the types of rules typical of elementary school. As a small example, that has impacted my personal life. I have a passion for ice hockey. It provides me with a much needed emotional outlet and is my primary source of exercise. Yet, the rinks in New York are still closed. According to the rules you can have a practice but not play a game. The rink nearby has been open for kids but closed for adults.
I have had to travel to New Jersey to play hockey, which brings me to example number 2 of Cuomo’s hypocrisy.
2. Cuomo maintained that the Tristate area must have a coordinated response to the opening of the lockdowns. According to Cuomo no other approach made sense. Cuomo was fond of citing the couple from Queens who drove out to Albany for some Chinese food. According to the Governor it made no sense to lockdown one place while having others within driving distance open, since people would just flock there.
Has this ever been the case? Absolutely not. I traveled to New Jersey to play hockey and go shopping at its Malls. Every county in New York has different regulations, and the state of New Jersey is wide open compared to New York. Now, Cuomo is going even further and taking a zip code by zip code approach. What happened to the couple from Albany logic??
It is not my habit to point fingers at others, and as such I will not post videos of the egregious lack of social distancing going on in other neighborhoods and communities but video evidence of these violations is ubiquitous and readily available to anyone who is interested in truth.
What it comes down to, is a Governor who is displaying animus both in his words and actions toward a particular religion and creed. Such behavior is above all morally reprehensible and additionally is the antithesis of our Constitution and the vision of the founding fathers, for whom equality and liberty were the purpose of the founding of our country and have been formalized in the 5th and 14th amendments of the Constitution.
To quote Justice Samuel Chase in Calder v. Bull “There are acts which the federal or state legislature cannot do without exceeding their authority. There are certain vital principles in our free republican governments which will determine and overrule an apparent and flagrant abuse of legislative power, as to authorize manifest injustice by positive law or to take away that security for personal liberty or private property for the protection whereof of the government was established. An act of the legislature (for I cannot call it a law) contrary to the great first principles of the social compact cannot be considered a rightful exercise of legislative authority. The obligation of a law in governments established on express compact and on republican principles must be determined by the nature of the power on which it is founded.”
Governor Cuomo’s arbitrary, contradictory, and discriminatory actions (for I cannot call them laws) are an abuse of power, and people should not be demonized solely for refusing to submit to his tyranny.
