Council Member Vickie Paladino (L) slammed a group of progressive city council members who posed maskless for a photograph inside a Brooklyn restaurant over the weekend (Photos: Vickie Paladino for NYC and Twitter via @OsseChi)
Jan. 24, 2022 By Michael Dorgan
A Queens lawmaker who has come under fire for her opposition to vaccine mandates has slammed a group of progressive city council members who posed maskless for a photograph inside a Brooklyn restaurant over the weekend.
Republican Council Member Vickie Paladino, who earlier this year was denied entry to the Council Chambers for not showing proof of vaccination, said the progressive lawmakers–including Queens council members Julie Won and Tiffany Cabán–were hypocrites, saying that they are telling their constituents that the city is in the midst of a COVID-19 health emergency yet they are maskless after their meal.
The photo shows Won, Cabán, and a number of other council members close together inside Miti Miti restaurant, located at 138 5th Ave. The photo of the group smiling was posted to Twitter Saturday afternoon by Brooklyn Council Member Chi Ossé, who is also in the photo.
Won, Cabán and Brooklyn lawmaker Shahana Hanif are standing to the rear of the group. The other people in the photo — who are seated — are Brooklyn Council Members Sandy Nurse, Lincoln Restler and Alexa Avilés as well as Bronx Council Member Amanda Farías. There is food and drinks on the table.
The photo is captioned: “Up to no good.”
The post went viral on Twitter generating nearly 600 retweets and quoted retweets.
Paladino, who is an outspoken critic of mask requirements and vaccine mandates, took exception to the photo and used it as an opportunity to criticize city COVID-19 policies.
She said the photo exposes the group of lawmakers for not fearing the virus despite telling their constituents that the city is undergoing a health emergency — which necessitates drastic restrictions on people including school children.
“They keep school children masked for eight hours a day, and force them to eat lunch outside, six feet apart, with no talking,” Paladino wrote as part of a lengthy Twitter thread in a retweet of the photo Sunday.
“And yet here they are indoors and maskless at a NYC restaurant having a grand old time. And they don’t even care — they put this photo up themselves.”
Paladino slammed the “far-left” group of lawmakers for supporting ongoing restrictions and wrote that such policies affect children the most.
“This is not how people act who are legitimately scared of a ‘virus,’” she wrote.
“Because they’re not scared at all, they just want you to believe they are. It’s all a charade, to justify neverending power over your lives. The emergency ended a long time ago, and they know it.”
She also blasted a mask requirement in place for lawmakers to gain entry to the Council Chamber. Up until last week, Paladino had been denied entry to the chamber for refusing to show proof of vaccination under a council policy. She has since received a waiver.
Council Member Vickie Paladino, pictured wearing a mask inside the Council Chamber last week. Lawmakers are required to wear masks to gain entry to the Council Chamber. (Photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)
Paladino, who represents District 19 in northeast Queens, said she has no issue with people gathering for meals but said the group of progressives seen in the photo were not practicing what they preach.
“What I have a problem with are hypocrites who perpetuate an endless health ’emergency’ and keep people terrified of daily life for no reason whatsoever. Especially when it hurts children the most,” Paladino wrote.
She used the photo as justification for the city to do away with all of its COVID-19 related restrictions.
Some of the COVID-19 restrictions currently in place include mask-wearing when indoors and in a public setting — regardless of vaccination status or past COVID-19 infection. It does not apply to cases where individuals are eating, drinking or performing.
Furthermore, unvaccinated individuals are not allowed to eat or drink at bars and restaurants under an emergency executive order issued by former Mayor Bill De Blasio that is still in place.
She said it was time for the city to lift all restrictions, much like the U.K. has done recently.
“End this charade once and for all,” Paladino wrote.
My far-left Council colleagues are so deeply, deeply concerned about ‘public health’ that we must be masked at all times in City Hall (unless there’s a NY Mag photo shoot happening), and preach the need for endless public sacrifice, especially among children. And here they are. https://t.co/vLF5smmll4
— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) January 23, 2022
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25 Comments
They were eating!!! Even leftists can’t eat with a mask on. They should have been checked for vaccination status by someone at the restaurant, so leave them alone
If it’s safe enough for a bunch of people to huddle together maskless for a photo in a restaurant, then it’s safe enough to go maskless elsewhere. I doubt the coronavirus knows or cares whether people are eating and drinking or not.
What a pile of crap from Paladino. My kids are in public school, and they are absolutely NOT eating lunch outside, 6 feet apart. Nor are these council members breaking any rules. More wannabe victim/grievance nonsense from the party of Trump.
Their body, their choice. It’s a shame Paladino would prefer they be mandated to wear a mask.
Hey libs: the State Supreme Court threw out the mask mandate. But you probbably wear masks when you shower to show how “virtuous” you are.
The Nassau county judge was Overruled by higher appeals court, and doesn’t apply to NYC anyway. Catch up.
Hey Stop- Stop screaming at people from on top of bandwagon. What’s with the constant banner waving?
I’m not sure why she’s outraged in this case. You are allowed to take off your mask in restaurants if you have proof of vaccination.
The tweets were deleted..SSP should delete this article and lets pretend like it never happened.
Vicki had a big party and she her party never had any masks on either – so who is she to talk about these people – shame on her
No, shame on you, for giving in to liberal fascism and hypcrisy!
Add them to a long list of hypocrites
Please support minority owned business.
Let’s stop white hate.
Let’s stop White Genocide- look at the plays & movies replacing white female characters with black or Latinos
Let’s stop “random
attacks” we all know it’s code for black on white crime & black on Asian crime.
People need to understand that their supporters are doing the same thing and do not care. I did not vote for any of them but her above tweet is ridiculous. Does she work for fox news?
So what. They were dining indoors helping the struggling restaurant community. I am sure they all showed vaccination proof to eat indoors. She should be more concerned with Sarah Palin eating at a NYC restaurants and not being vaccinated.
Look at those progressives so happy to be in their own vacuum of ideology…even if it’s absolutely wrong ideology. Soap Box warriors…they are the loudest but literally do nothing. lol
New York Court has stricken down hochul mask mandate
Enough is enough
Yet liberals love the power of controlling people
NYC’s Mask mandate is a local rule. It has not been stricken down.
That’s the issue with white conservative media and the misinformation they spread. Julie and Caban are democrats, not progressives. Stop lumping them all together.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/nyregion/tiffany-caban-future-queens-da.html. tell that to the New York Times
okay Karen- you are wrong about both. here is one link of many many links I could post. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-councilwoman-tiffany-caban-endorses-rana-abdelhamid-for-congress-20211220-hrt5eazk2vfrrdcltb62xiapze-story.html
Both sides are full of it. Paladino is right that mandates should end, but we have to give it a few weeks till we do that. I don’t agree with most of her positions, but at least she’s not a hypocrite. The crew in the Twitter pic are total hypocrites for many reasons beyond masking or not masking.
Rules for thee, not for me.