NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday vowed to crack down on big social events in Brooklyn, and by Brooklyn he meant Borough Park.
On Tuesday, the NY Post reported that three halls in Borough Park were hosting Chassidic weddings, disregarding Mayor Bill de Blasio’s warning that these crowded gatherings have led to an “uptick” in coronavirus cases.
Cuomo also criticized de Blasio for his failure to control crowded bars and restaurants, and noted that the State Liquor Authority has already revoked the liquor licenses of 150 NY City establishments for violations of the social distancing guidelines.
“In the case of New York City, if there’s any evidence, or plans of weddings that would violate the law, they should forward those complaints to the NYPD or the mayor,” Cumo stated in a call with reporters on Wednesday. “If the mayor is not doing any enforcement actions, then the state will,” Cuomo said.
“We’ve had super spreader events in New Rochelle with the Jewish community, we’ve had them in the Catholic community. The virus does not discriminate by religious or racial lines, right? This is an equal-opportunity situation. So we police it in every circumstance,” Cuomo said.
“We don’t have any evidence that it’s worse in the Chassidic community, we haven’t gotten those complaints. If we do, we will follow up,” the governor said.
“Whether it’s young people at a bar or religious people at a wedding, it’s the same thing to me. It’s ignorant, it’s disrespectful and it violates the law,” Cumo said.
A spokesperson for City Hall told the NY Post that the city “is conducting extensive outreach and doing proactive inspections of event spaces.”