Hundreds at funeral spark NYPD response and mayor warning

Hundreds of people gathered in Brooklyn Tuesday evening for a rabbi’s funeral, sparking a stern warning for New York City’s mayor and a response from the NYPD. CBS New York reported many could be seen wearing face masks, but they were standing close together.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says “the time for warnings has passed” after a large crowd was found gathering for a funeral in Brooklyn during the coronavirus pandemic. Police officers were on the scene to help with crowd control.

In a tweet, the mayor wrote: “We have lost so many these last two months and I understand the instinct to gather to mourn. But large gatherings will only lead to more deaths and more families in mourning. We will not allow this. I have instructed the NYPD to have one standard for this whole city: zero tolerance.”

De Blasio added: “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.”

No arrests have been made, CBS New York reported.

Freddi Goldstein, the mayor’s press secretary, called the large gathering “absolutely unacceptable.”

“I empathisize [sic] with the desire to mourn those we’ve lost, but this is absolutely unacceptable,” she tweeted.

De Blasio’s tweets sparked outrage from City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who accused the mayor of singling out a single ethnic community, stereotyping and inviting anti-Semitism.