NEW YORK (VINnews) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are all allegedly employing a “blatant double standard” by way of coronavirus restrictions to discriminate against people of faith, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
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3 Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, Elchanan Perr, Daniel Schonborn, and Mayer Mayerfeld, along with 2 catholic priests filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of New York, following the widespread riots and looting in the wake of the death of George Floyd. They are being represented by the Thomas More Society.
“Why is a large worship gathering deemed more dangerous than a mass protest, full of shouting, arm-waving people in close proximity to one another?” Christopher Ferrara, Thomas More Society special counsel, said in a statement to Fox News.
“These orders, both the emergency stay-home and reopening plan declarations, clearly discriminate against houses of worship,” Ferrara added. “They are illegally content-based, elaborate, arbitrary and pseudo-scientific.”
Mayor de Blasio was singled out in the lawsuit for his own personal hypocrisy, when he ignored his own social distancing and 10-person limit guidelines when he attended the George Floyd memorial event in Cadman Plaza without wearing a mask. This was especially ironic when just a few days later, jewish children were kicked out of a Williamsburg park for violating these very same guidelines.
In April, de Blasio personally issued strong warnings to the jewish community, threatening them with arrests and prosecution, for “illegal” mass religious gatherings after the NYPD dispersed the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Mertz in Williamsburg.
“My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed,” de Blasio wrote in a tweet. “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.”
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
The mayor eventually was forced to apologize for those words, but the apology proved to be insincere when he doubled down on his message, calling it “tough love.”
Additionally, New York has recently allowed theaters to open their doors to accommodate George Floyd protestors for rest, wi-fi use, bathrooms, and water and snacks, even instructing police to remain off premises. This despite the fact that theaters are supposed to remain closed until phase 4 of Cuomo’s plan. Yet, neither de Blasio nor Cuomo have stepped in to stop that.
“It is time to end New York’s experiment in absolute monarchy,” said Ferrara. “We are asking the court to put an end to these unconstitutional executive orders and grant a temporary restraining order against their prejudicial enforcement.”
You can’t fight city hall it’s a hopeless cause they will never win against the liberal dems it’s a waste of time
they should add the opening of camps to the lawsuit………………
when is someone gonna sue them and the hospitals for the patients that died for no reason…………
That’s right…. what about sleepaway camps, school, and cuomo’s go ahead to kill patients in hospital??? We need much more than 3 people to sue… we need all of the Jewish people in brooklyn to sue
We have to daven and hope they win, BUT, I’m worried they’ll get a liberal judge who will repeat Deblasio dumb statement that somehow the protests are allowed because they’re correcting some injustice.
So what’s going to happen? Maybe they’ll win, maybe they won’t? However, what will probably happen i inzireh sheeple yiddalach will keep voting Democrat over and over and over and over and over again. They’ll come up with excuses that it’s a one party system in the state and there isn’t the choice. But the bottom line is that they failed to realize, a Democrat is a Democrat is a Democrat is a Democrat is a Democrat.
Hopeless Cause.
Tell that to BLM.
Even common sense ideas are accepted when the pressure is strong.
We should be protesting. In large groups. Especially regarding camps
The city will respond that they had to allow the riots because it was civil unrest and they were afraid of inciting further violence. They know that Jews are more civilized and won’t riot so they enforce the rules. It’s not fair but the city is helpless.
Letitia James didn’t care when innocent Orthodox Jews were having bricks thrown at their head by her kind, so why would she care now?! She is still extremely busy combing thru President Trumps tax returns, going back 50 years. She might of found some discrepancy on his 1978 return. Apparently he put down a container of coffee as a business expense when he really bought it for his personal use at home. They finally nabbed him. Expect big press conferences this weekend. Schiff, Nadler, & Pelosi are preparing their statements. Impeachment hearings begin by the end of the week.
good luck finding a judge with right straight mind in N.Y.
Only good will result out of this suit.
We just made two new friends:
DeBlasio & Coumo.
Now they’ll just do everything and anything for us and Far gantz klal yisroel on the snap of a finger.
Way to go. It IS a double standard and a very offensive one
Since we are decent human beings (in contrast to others) we will not riot. But definitely should use the legal system. Worth the try. Minimum it should increase the pressure
I do agree that we should have organized peaceful protest
And I also agree that it’s time for all to recognize that if we don’t vote out these Democraps, kiss NY goodbye
Time to go on aliyah my friends.
Where are Schumer, Nadler, Engel, and the rest of the Democrats who take out
” Leshana Tova ” ads in our publications ?? A kosher Passover , you Jewish nerds.
Enjoy your gebrochts ! Happy Purim, you of the Jewish faith.
Where are they ??
Where are ACLU, ADL , ??
NOWHERE.
Why isn’t aguda filing this kind of lawsuit? Why are they asleep at the wheel? They are trying to be all PC and dipolmatic. Tell gov Couom enough is enough. Either you allow your yeshivas and camps to open or we will sue your pants off and place pressure with President Trump for your double standards? Rabbi Frankel was so in target when he said aguda would have endorsed achverosh party
We need to fight now for our schools in the fall. Do not fall asleep at the wheel.
Where are they? Busy torturing our president and us who voted for him.
These are freaks, Lucifers , the likes our country never produced before.
The Dems have gone absolutely nuts.lf you keep voting Democrat,it’s only get to get worse!
Schumer,Nadler,Engel.. are Jewish. They are Machmir on Seconeh . They are saving Jewish lives (I wish they would have started it earlier in Jan-Feb) Let the Gentiles Demonstrate without facemask etc. who cares?
Books will yet be written, doctorates earned, documentaries produced, on how a good portion of American society has gone totally berserk. These psychotic episodes have occurred throught history as well.
When will the camp narrative stop you’ve all been programmed that everyone needs camp bh its been proven around the world that children can grow up to be ehrliche yidden without it besides the whole idea of vacation for 2 months is crazy and definitely not all pi torah I hope and pray that the chadarim will continue for at least the first half and klal yisroel will wake up and realize that’s the Torah way
Happy they are doing this , no one else is.
Schumer where are you? Protector of you Jews ?
Vote against these Democrats in the NY June primary and vote against them in the November election.
A guten Shabbos from Ca.
Every one needs to move out of nys
Wake up
boooong religious rights vs public safety is a classic clash between balance of power between safety vs speech/religion. .. so American in nature to carry it to extremes…
the right to suicide by virus should be available to all who seek it..
.e.. but if this is true then also those exercising their rights need to be held accountable if they infect someone else ! reckless disregard for human life = murder by virus ? I wonder if those jews expiding themsrlves accept responsibility for harming others ?
If as many people in the frum community were wearing masks as you saw during the protests, this lawsuit might have validity. Instead, the heimishe world picks and chooses which parts of the pandemic they want to participate in – they’ll line up with carriages to takes the free breakfast, but deny the CDC’s recommendations on social distancing. This lawsuit is a joke.
time to leave ny
A lawsuit should be filed that they only care for white people’s health. They only care about white people by making sure their camps and parks are closed, while black people health doesn’t concern them by allowing them to protest.
Orthodox Jew Yaakov Avinu, Sues Lavan Haarami and his Shepards for discriminating against his famiy and the Jews and accusing him of of criminal activity.
Ohhhh Noooooooooo
Thats not what happened, Yaakov got the message from Hashem through Beis Lavan (the white house) , that the shekinah wants to move on, so he got out of there right away and returned to the land of Israel.
Learn from the forefathers!
Not the Miraglim or 6,000,000 Jews that remained complacent in Europe ignored this message from the rise in anti-semitism, and followed their Rabbis to the gas Chambers!!!
We protest We SUE WE PREVAIL . City hall WILL FAIL !!!!!!!!!!!!
city hall should be renamed ” DOUBLE STANDARD HALL GEORGE FLOYD HALL “
city hall for rent !!!
wow. looks like we found another sad affect of covid-19. insanity. ive never read so much drivel is so short a time on this website, as the 5 minutes i spent reading the ridiculous op-ed and the even more ridiculous comments. at least there are plenty of frum therapists.
Well deblasio shmegazio needs a couple THOUSAND therapists to straighten out his FREAKING CROOKED BRAIN !!!!!!!! . Not even sure if he has any BRAINS !!!!!!
DEFUND DEBLASIO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! …… DOUBLE DEFUND HIM !!!!!!!!!!!!! ON THE DOUBLE !!!!!!!!!!
Deblasio is gematriyah : double standard