We Can’t Lose the Right to Protest in the Age of Coronavirus
Concerns about the spread of coronavirus are legitimate, but the right to public protest must be upheld through the crisis. Unfortunately, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has done the opposite, eroding our rights to assembly during the pandemic.
Forty Second Street stands mostly empty as much of the city is void of cars and pedestrians over fears of spreading the coronavirus on March 22, 2020 in New York City. Spencer Platt / Getty
From Emma Goldman’s fiery speeches at Union Square during the Gilded Age through Occupy Wall Street in the Bloomberg era, the New York City left’s fight for social justice has often encompassed a simultaneous battle on behalf of the First Amendment right to protest.
Yet amid the current pandemic, the city’s progressive mayor, Democrat Bill de Blasio, has deemed public protests “non-essential” gatherings, and NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea (a registered Republican) is enforcing the ban.
Last week cops dispersed a gathering of LGBTQ activists speaking out against the alliance between Mt. Sinai Hospital and Samaritan’s Purse, an anti-gay, Islamophobic evangelical organization. The event’s participants adhered to the city’s social-distancing guidelines.
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