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NY Mayor De Blasio wants New Yorkers to rat on each other.

"New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Twitter Saturday to urge his constituents to monitor, photograph and report each other if they aren’t strictly obeying his social distancing guidelines. Just fire off a photo to 3-1-1 of a few guys having a chat in a bodega and Hizzoner will send police officers, with guns and everything, to break it up. What could go wrong?"


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New Yorkers have done a great job flattening the curve of coronavirus. Now is not the time to start informing on each other.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Twitter Saturday to urge his constituents to monitor, photograph and report each other if they aren’t strictly obeying his social distancing guidelines. Just fire off a photo to 3-1-1 of a few guys having a chat in a bodega and Hizzoner will send police officers, with guns and everything, to break it up. What could go wrong?

Throughout the video de Blasio holds a creepy smile as he imagines millions of New Yorkers ratting each other out to help perfect his vision of government-constructed existence. We will be soldiers in his dream socialist army, pointing fingers and getting a nice pat on the back from the powers that be. It is a disturbing dystopia future to imagine.

When I was growing up in Northeast Philly, there was an old lady named Mrs. Ferry who lived in the row house next to my big Aunt Mary. Mrs. Ferry would sit on her porch all day listening to the police scanner and holding a little notebook. If she saw you smoking, or fighting, or if you broke a streetlight playing lightball, she’d write it down. And when you got home that night your parents knew all about it.

We do not want to live in a society of Mrs. Ferrys. We have recent evidence as to how horrifying it is to live in a country where everyone is potentially the police. Read a play by Vaclav Havel; listen to any story from communist dissidents about the fear of friends and neighbors. There is no terror any government can cause greater than turning citizens into each other’s jail keepers.

Listen, if the guy downstairs is running an illegal speakeasy and 50 people a night are pouring in, sure, yeah. Say to him, “Listen, this can’t happen we have to stop this.” If he won’t, call the landlord or the authorities. But if you see some kids playing basketball, or more than one person in the ATM kiosk, cool down your trigger finger. Let it be.

The irony of de Blasio’s sudden call for us to all start spying on each other is that New York has flattened the curve by more or less obeying the guidelines that have been laid out. The people understand the situation; they have reacted reasonably and will continue to do so. Introducing this radically anti-American idea that we should be informing on each other left and right when the fight against the virus is going well makes no sense.

In fact, the only way it really does make sense is if the goal is to use this emergency to further empower the government by making all of us its agents. But we have shown this is needless and have frankly done a remarkable job. Now is the time when Americans have to trust each other and each other’s good judgment– judgment that has thus far more than passed the test. Now is not the time to turn on each other regardless of what Mayor de Blasio says.

The American people are going through a lot of tests at once right now. The saving lives test. The trying to avoid total economic collapse test. And importantly the civil liberties test. In regard to this last one we have some choice. Under how harsh a watch from big brother do we want to spend our days? Do we want to become big brother ourselves? Isn’t that always the way? When we read “1984” we all imagine we are Winston, and in so doing entirely miss the point.

This thing, that de Blasio wants us to do is a thing we cannot do. We cannot live in fear of each other, we cannot live thinking of ourselves as the eyes and ears of the state, we cannot live in panic driven paranoia.

The bottom line is don’t listen to de Blasio. Use your best judgment, but don’t become a Storm Trooper in his clampdown brigade. We have enough to worry about without deputizing ourselves to be an annoyance to our neighbors. Let the mayor flex whatever muscle he thinks he has left after his shambolic handling of coronavirus. The people of New York will not become his secret police.

I believe that the correct French pronunciation is oh-bvwoss-ee-ya.

Talk about an easy way to go after gun owners or anyone you don't like. Just call in a name not doing the social distance stuff.

It has never been acceptable to be a “rat”.

It is for a dimoc-rat.

But, but...... Didn't DeBlasio himself and the NY City Public Health Commissioner initially say that Covid 19 initial reports were nothing more than "misinformation" and that everyone should continue life as normal ? Now those commies want to turn it into East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Complete with STASI ..... The East Berlin secret police that often operated on tips from citizens, who were encouraged to turn others in for various "infractions". Including having firearms or other things not allowed by the ruling class. Welcome to the great society, folks.

Snitches get stitches.

This episode really has brought out the totalitarians. If you aren't living like you just had a lung transplant, they are pissed.

Next he'll appoint Gautieters to organize a volksgestapo.

Hey, boys and girls, a little East German Stasi never hurt anything, right? It's not only "for the children," but for your own good. Just take your pill and you won't feel a thing.

L.W.

If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about.

Even if you're not doing anything wrong; you could still get "red flagged", in which case you will be guilty until proven innocent. But it's all necessary for public safety, right ? Along with "we have to do this for the common good", etc. etc.etc.........

lol, yeah, that's what they say.....

Sorry, but the definition of wrong is rather hard to pin down these days.

I thought that, too.

and liberals call conservatives Nazis.

Hey, it's for the children.

For me, the difference between right and wrong has never changed.

well the mich governor's exec orders are so crystal clear there are over 300 faq's to try and determine what is 'right and wrong'...

Thankfully I don't rely on her insanity for my definition of right and wrong. Or any other politician, for that matter.