Полиция в Нью-Йорке игнорирует приказы штата и города носить маски

Many law enforcement officials are flouting explain orders by no longer carrying face masks at mass demonstrations across Original York Metropolis, frustrating metropolis leaders and protesters who bellow the choice is deliberate and disrespectful.

Despite Original York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mutter for all Original Yorkers to position on a face conserving in public to discontinue the unfold of COVID-19—and NYPD protocol that officers need to comply—law enforcement officials be pleased been seen and photographed this week no longer carrying masks when interacting with protesters at crowded rallies for George Floyd, a sunless man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes.

“It’s symbolic,” says Cynthia Godsoe, 49, who has participated in three protests since Sunday. “They’re blatantly snubbing us.”

For higher than two months, Original York Metropolis modified into the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, and simplest in the past two to three weeks has the explain’s on daily basis loss of life toll dropped under 100. The metropolis’s on daily basis loss of life roll remains in the double-digits. The explainDepartment of Healthnet attach warns that the virus continues to unfold and that people are required to position on masks and to find a 6-foot distance from others in public areas.

But at two sunlight hours demonstrations in Brooklyn and at a massive sigh at Foley Sq. in Manhattan, Godsoe says quite loads of the law enforcement officials she saw had their faces uncovered. On Thursday, she saw one police officer in Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, where Floyd’s brother modified into attending a memorial, passing out face masks to protesters. Most of his colleagues around him were no longer carrying them, she acknowledged.

“It’s unsafe and disrespectful to the general public,” says Godsoe, a legislation professor who lives in Brooklyn. “Right here is a rule all of us need to apply, and so that they’re sending a abominable message.”

Jack Marth, 56, also attended the Foley Sq. sigh and seen that the majority officers failed to be pleased their faces covered. “To me, it signifies an boastful push apart for the wellbeing of the communities they are purported to be serving and conserving,” says Marth, a Bronx legal skilled.

Under inner protocol, Original York Metropolis law enforcement officials are mandated to position on masks all the procedure thru the pandemic, per NYPD Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Lawful Matters Oleg Chernyavsky.

“If they’re interacting with the general public, they’re obligated to position on masks,” Chernyavsky acknowledged at a digital Would possibly perchance perchance 22public security committeelistening to, which modified into video-recorded. “We apply the course from the Department of Health.”

Metropolis law enforcement officials aren’t the finest ones no longer carrying masks. Officers caught on video in an incident in Buffalo, N.Y., whereby a 75-year-feeble man modified intopushed by a policemanonto the sidewalk, also were no longer masked. All of the helmeted officers had plastic shields on their headgear, however no longer all of them had their shields pulled down to cowl their faces. The person that modified into shoved modified into carrying a veil.

President Donald Trump also has failed to position on a veil, regardless of U.S. health officials urging the general public to intention so.

The NYPD has beforehand acknowledged it modified into “hit laborious” by the pandemic, losing at the least 43 contributors in the division to the coronavirus, which compelled hundreds more to call out in dejected health.

It’s unclear whether protocols be pleased shifted since protests erupted in the metropolis following Floyd’s loss of life. In a instant and vague assertion to TIME, the NYPD simplest acknowledged it modified into “working as swiftly and safely as we can to process arrests all the procedure thru this extra special time.” The metropolis’s police unions failed to answer to requests for explain.

During a Friday interview with journalist Brian Lehrer, Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged he modified into “frustrated” that law enforcement officials were no longer donning masks and that they’re “purported to position on face coverings in public, period.”

“There would possibly perchance be a double standard,” the mayor acknowledged, “and that’s no longer factual.”

Pointers by the U.S. Centers for Illness Abet a watch on and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Group,issued as of Friday, bellow folks must aloof place on fabric face masks to discontinue the unfold of COVID-19 even in the event that they are wholesome. Since early April, the CDC has instant carrying masks, which would perchance be purported to cowl both the nostril and the mouth.

By no longer carrying face masks, law enforcement officials who are asymptomatic lengthen the risk of spreading the virus, per Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior pupil at the Johns Hopkins Middle For Health Security, who focuses on infectious ailments.

“If law enforcement officials, who are contaminated with the virus, are shouting and yelling within 6 ft. of a form of oldsters, they are emanating a host of particles out of their mouth on story of they are talking very forcefully,” he says. “That would facilitate asymptomatic transmission.”

Adalja says he believes it’s doubtlessly a lower risk of transmission, since most asymptomatic transmissions are going on in properties where there’s closer contact.Face shields—which some law enforcement officials are carrying—are more wise for of us who are no longer exhibiting symptoms, Adalja says, however officers wants to be carrying masks at a minimal to discontinue extra unfold.

“If a explain, if a county, if a metropolis is telling the strange public to position on masks,” he says, “then the law enforcement officials need to apply that very same legislation.”

Metropolis Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), who chairs the council’s public security committee, hounded police leaders final month to make clear on the NYPD’s protocols for carrying face masks on responsibility after witnessing police interactions in his neighborhood. He acknowledged it’s hypocritical that officers who were imposing social distancing guidelines weeks in the past for the time being are the ones no longer carrying masks at mass gatherings.

“There wants to be no person above the legislation, and here’s why issues be pleased bubbled up,” he says. “The hypocrisy, it performs factual into why this powder keg has ignited.”

Contact usateditors@time.com.