Jared Evan
Leo Goldman was walking past Middleton Park Monday morning when he saw workers closing the two entrances to a playground in Williamsburg, a heavily Orthodox neighborhood of Brooklyn, JTA reports
They we were not just closing it, but literally welding the gates shut. Goldman contacted the long running Jewish Telegraphic Agency about what he had seen.
In a WhatsApp message, Goldman told the JTA he tried to open the gate himself. “It was welded shut. 100%,” he wrote.
Yes. This is actually happening now!
Bill de Blasio is Welding the gates at the biggest park in the Jewish community, (Borough Park, Brooklyn) So your child shouldn't try to break in. While Hundreds of thousands of people gathered yesterday at Brooklyn Museum.#deBlasioMustGo pic.twitter.com/Q02ew5O5nZ
— Joel Fischer (@JFNYC1) June 15, 2020
Later, it was unwelded but locked shut to keep families out.
Many in the Jewish community are calling out what they see as a double standard with regards to enforcing social distancing laws.
While NYC was busy keeping parks closed in Jewish areas, a huge rally for Transgender black lives matter was held in Brooklyn, only a few miles away.
Breitbart reported: Aerial views posted on social media show people packed like sardines at the Brooklyn protest.
“Live from the Brooklyn Museum,” the tweet accompanying a video of the crowd said. “Massive protest. Seen Boomers, Millennials, Gen X, Gen Z, etc. Seen Black, White, Asian, Native — you name it.”
“Every type of New Yorker. Gathered to say #BlackTransLivesMatter,” the tweet said. “Power to the people.”
Social media accounts show a giant crowd, packed in near the Brooklyn Museum. CNN reported the event was about violence against TG women. There was literally no social distancing enforced at the event, as protesters who almost seemed hypnotized repeated ‘black trans lives matter, black trans lives power”, in a robotic like fashion. Thousands stood on top of each other, screaming the mantras on the top of their lungs.
Meanwhile the de Blasio administration is enforcing a strict lock down on most public parks, for what seems like an illogical reason since science has shown next to no children are coming down with coronavirus, and cases continue to plunge in NY. Children playing in a park, overall would pose much less of a risk than thousands of adults standing next to each other, screaming at a protest.
JTA reported: Orthodox elected officials say the rules are being enforced differently in various parts of the city. In a tweet last week Kalman Yeger, an Orthodox city councilman from Brooklyn, pointed to playgrounds in other parts of Brooklyn that remained open as proof of unequal enforcement.
The community is seeing a double standard, especially when it comes to protests. Several weeks ago, as protestors were attacking police in the streets of Atlantic Ave, other cops were cruising up and down 13th Ave enforcing social distancing laws and clamping down on small Jewish shops.
Yossi Gestetner, an Orthodox Jewish political commentator pointed out the favoritism the city holds for activists and their protests over Jewish families.
He Tweeted: “Mayor marches with protesters and orders Contact Tracers not to ask people if they were at protests, the City is welding shut a park that is largely used by Hasidim in Williamsburg, Brooklyn”
Contact tracers who will be prying into individuals’ private lives, while trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19, apparently do not need to know if you went to a protest.
“Apparently NYC officials feel the only safe place in the city is at a black lives mater rally. It’s literally the only event you can attend, no concerts, no baseball games., no sitting in a diner, no church, no synagogue, no weddings, no funerals, locking down the parks, but when it comes to a BLM rally, the contact tracers don’t even need to know you attended. BLM rallies are a no corona zone?”, political analyst Justin credible told TJV.