Crowds estimated to be in the thousands protested on Saturday against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “passport” mandates he issued earlier this month. When he rolled out what he called “The Key to NYC,” he said his executive order “is going to motivate a lot of people to get vaccinated. It’s going to be a reason for people to get vaccinated.”
What his new mandate has done is motivate people to protest against it. On Monday, September 13, the day of the announcement, hundreds of current and former teachers — Teachers for Choice — gathered in Foley Square to condemn the mandate.
Said one retired teacher, Amy Carroll: “I have lived and worked in this city as a civil servant for 28 years of my life. I should be able to make my own health decisions and make a decision that doesn’t affect my employment, that doesn’t affect my right to go to a restaurant, or a Broadway play … or a museum.”
The Key to NYC requires the following establishments to confirm that their customers and visitors are vaccinated, or face fines starting at $1,000 and increasing to $5,000 for repeat offenders:
• Movie theaters
• Live music and concert venues
• Museums and galleries
• Aquariums and zoos
• Professional sports stadiums and arenas
• Convention centers
• Exhibition halls
• Performing arts theaters
• Bowling alleys
• Recreational game center, arcades, and pool and billiard halls
• Casinos and adult entertainment venues
• Restaurants and bars
• Catering halls and event spaces
• Hotel banquet rooms
• Cabarets and nightclubs
• Cafeterias
• Grocery stores with indoor dining
• Bakeries and coffee shops
• Fast food and quick service eateries with indoor dining
• Gyms and fitness centers, and fitness class venues
• Pools
• Dance studios and sports classes
In other words, “The Key to NYC” locks up tight virtually every conceivable business open to the public to anyone who isn’t vaccinated.
On Wednesday, another protest took place at the mayor’s mansion, which was followed up by another one on Saturday, organized by the New York City Freedom Rally. It’s a chapter of the Worldwide Demonstration campaign and was organized by Eric Grassi.
Said Grassi:
We’re banding together to stop this. This movement is growing rapidly because the fire departments, the teachers’ unions, our troops, the hospital workers — none of these people want this injection.
They know what’s in it. It’s causing tremendous death and devastation across the world.
The injection of children is an absolute criminal act — a capital crime.
Plus, the vaccination programs are driving new forms … driving and developing new forms of the disease.
Vaccine mandates are violating medical ethics and individual rights, said Grassi:
We must stop and end all vaccine mandates. They are overthrowing medical ethics, which allows the individual to decide if they want medical treatment.
This is an absolute violation of our fundamental rights.
And the impact on businesses in New York has been massive:
They shut down and devastated New York for no reason. They just wrecked the city. They drove thousands of businesses out of business … they just ruined hundreds of thousands of jobs.
They closed whole sectors of the city’s economy permanently. They close half the bars and restaurants in New York permanently. The economy of New York is a shadow of its former self.
So far, these protests are directed at de Blasio’s “The Key to NYC” mandate and have involved a few thousand people. But from such beginnings large movements often grow. The Worldwide Demonstration website claims there were protests in India and France and elsewhere, all protesting vaccine mandates.
As de Blasio’s “The Key to NYC” mandate is enforced, the pushback against it is likely to grow. Finally, it appears people are getting tired of being pushed around and dictated to.
