Yet another politician was caught violating her own mask mandate. This time it’s San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who partied maskless at a jazz club on Wednesday despite the city’s requirements.
Breed was spotted at the Black Cat nightclub by Mariecar Mendoza, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. It was an exciting evening: According to Mendoza, “Oakland’s Raphael Saadiq and D’Wayne Wiggins—two of the three original members of the chart-topping group Tony! Toni! Toné!—did an impromptu late-night performance of ‘Let’s Get Down,’ the hit single from the East Bay trio’s platinum-selling fourth studio album, 1996’s ‘House of Music.'” Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, was also in attendance.
I chose to go to @sfblackcat last night for my first indoor concert since the pandemic … and this happened ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/x68lRya0Wh
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) September 16, 2021
The video makes it look like a really hopping time. But notice that there isn’t a mask in sight, even though Breed’s own COVID-19 orders require bar, restaurant, and club customers to wear masks when not actively eating or drinking. A local news channel asked Breed about this, and here’s what she said:
No, I’m not going to sip and put my mask on, sip and put my mask on, sip and put my mask on, eat and put my mask on. While I’m eating, and I’m drinking, I’m going to keep my mask off,” Breed said.
In response to getting up and dancing without the mask on while at the Black Cat, she said she was sitting at her table with her drink but got up to dance because she was “feeling the spirit” and she “wasn’t thinking about a mask, I was thinking about having a good time, and in the process, I was following the health order.”
Breed is right: It is ridiculous to require vaccinated people to mask up under such circumstances. But the obvious solution here would be to rescind the mandate. Breed shouldn’t have to follow it, because no one should have to follow it.
I’m glad @LondonBreed is modeling how people should live in a city with a 79% vaccination rate (at least one dose), but the optics are painful given the city’s draconian school quarantine and mask rules, which include toddlers. pic.twitter.com/Mo2C36OpYx
— Anthony LaMesa (@ajlamesa) September 17, 2021
Breed is in good company of course: Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has repeatedly attended events while unmasked—including a birthday party and a wedding—despite her own orders forcing masks on citizens in a variety of unnecessary circumstances. When D.C. gyms asked if they could require vaccination instead of masks, the city said no.
As Monday’s Met Gala made abundantly clear, mask mandates are for the commoners. The ruling class is doing whatever they want.
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