De blasio insists he has the right to end religious practices!

[D2D]

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio drew fierce criticism late Tuesday after he singled out “the Jewish community” in a trio of tweets announcing that he had instructed his police department to fine or even arrest social distancing violators. De Blasio addressed the controversy during a press conference on Wednesday morning. He said that he has a "long and deep connection" to the Orthodox community.
"If you saw anger and frustration, you're right. I spoke out of real distress. People's lives were in danger before my eyes," de Blasio noted. "I regret if the way I said it in any way gave people a feeling of being treated the wrong way, that was not my intention," the Mayor added. "It was said with love, but it was tough love."


De Blasio was responding to a funeral that had drawn hundreds of Orthodox Jews to the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to mourn a rabbi who died of the coronavirus.
Pictures of the funeral procession, first shared by Reuven Blau, a reporter for The CITY, showed streets densely packed with mourners who were later dispersed by city police officers. The synagogue of the rabbi who died,
Chaim Mertz, later released a statement saying it had expected mourners to follow social distancing rules and regretted that they had not.


“Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic,” de Blasio tweeted. “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.”

A second tweet followed immediately afterward: “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.”

The second message drew swift criticism from Jews and others who said de Blasio had unfairly targeted New York Jews, the majority of whom are following distancing rules. Critics said de Blasio ran the risk of inflaming antisemitism just months after a spate of violent attacks on Jews in the city and at a time when the Orthodox community is mourning many of its own losses from the coronavirus pandemic.


“Mr. Mayor, your words are unacceptable,” tweeted Kalman Yeger, an Orthodox Jewish member of the New York City Council. “To condemn our entire community over one group of people is something you would not do to any other ethnic group, and I know you long enough to know that you know this.”

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/mass-jewish-gathering-in-ny-leads-de-blasio-to-attack-jews-on-twitter-626292