New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is — rightly — under fire for singling out the city’s Jewish community in a series of tweets threatening police action against those who gather in large groups. Like for Chasidic Jewish funerals.
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.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) April 29, 2020
After having more time to carefully consider his remarks, Bill de Blasio has realized that what he said was awful, and he’s very sorry.
We kid, of course:
NYC Mayor de Blasio: Remarks were 'tough love' https://t.co/mXDCBLzDL1
— Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) April 29, 2020
More:
“I spoke last night out of passion,” the mayor said of his Twitter comments about the incident. “I could not believe my eyes, it was deeply deeply distressing.”
“I regret if the way I said it in any way gave people the feeling that they were being treated the wrong way.
“It was said with love, but it was tough love,” de Blasio said, asserting that “Members of the Jewish community were putting each other in danger and putting our police officers in danger.”
Watch (starts around the 1:20 mark):
Mayor de Blasio on his tweet singling out the Jewish community for large gatherings: “If in my passion and in my emotion I said something that was hurtful, I'm sorry" but he has "no regrets calling out this danger" and says the city will "deal with it very, very aggressively” pic.twitter.com/9poDjhgZR5
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 29, 2020
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But let him be clear: New York City’s Jewish community has no more faithful ally than Bill de Blasio. He just needs them to stop doing their Jewy things.
.@BilldeBlasio says the funeral in Brooklyn last night was thousands of people – it hasn't happened anywhere else. "If you saw anger and frustration, you were right," he says. Says he regrets it if anyone saw it as singling out Jewish community.
— Erin Durkin (@erinmdurkin) April 29, 2020
"Sorry if my singling out of the Jewish community made the Jewish community feel singled out." https://t.co/VS8ySuBC1c
— David Edward ? (@_David_Edward) April 29, 2020
This effing guy.
His city has the worst record of anti-Semitism in America, and has for years. You know who doesn't need tough love? Jews in NYC from this ridiculous absurdity of a human being. https://t.co/x6H8y3Oyss
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 29, 2020
"Tough love" could also be read, in this case, singling out a particular community for criticism because it is politically convenient to do so.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 29, 2020
Jews have been the preferred scapegoats for millennia … why stop now?
— Jay Zario (@JayZario) April 29, 2020
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