The NYC neighborhood of Williamsburg — where I currently reside, and renowned as arguably one of the most hipster ‘hoods in the nation — was tarnished yesterday when a local barber was paid off by out-of-town Trump supporters to host an anti-lockdown rally at his shop (emphasis mine):
They want no more Nama-stay-at-home!
A handful of mostly out-of-state protesters held a small rally outside a Lorimer Street barbershop in Williamsburg on Tuesday, calling on the city and state to end the coronavirus shutdown — so that they can go to yoga and get their nails done!
No, the last part isn’t hyperbole. It’s what a Mississippi woman who came into town representing the pro-Trump group Liberate America actually said (emphasis again mine):
“My fingernails are breaking, I’ve got hangnails, I’ve been getting my nails done for 14 years … I’m very much into yoga, I can’t go to my Bikram yoga studios, I can’t go get my eyelashes done, I can’t go and socialize with the people that are my friends,” said Mississippian Hillary Angel Barq. “It’s led me to depression, it’s made me not feel sexual — I mean it’s awful.”
<snip>
The gathering of roughly half a dozen people — outnumbered even by the amount of media covering the event — was organized by the pro-Trump group Liberate America together with the owners of Beard Barberia Cut and Shave at the corner of Grand Street.
The organization describes itself on its website as a “pro-Trump, pro-business, pro-individual rights, and anti-government overreach group.”
<snip>
His group reportedly paid the Williamsburg business $500 to open for a day and let Scurlock cut Barq’s hair as a publicity stunt, but police closed down the antics shortly afterwards without citing either Scurlock nor the owner of the shop, according to the New York Post.
Keep in mind that this is occurring in New York City — “one of the global epicenters of the pandemic with more than 20,000 deaths due to the virus, and almost 200,000 people infected, according to the city’s health department data on May 18, ” writes Kevin Duggan, author of the article that appeared in the May 19 edition of The Brooklyn Paper.
And just as a reminder, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo..
…ordered barbershops, tattoo parlors, and nail salons close on March 21, just ahead of his statewide shelter-in-place directive Policies Assure Uniform Safety Everyone (PAUSE) which went into effect the following day.
When questioned about “whether it was worth risking hundreds of further deaths by allowing businesses to reopen,” Frank Scurlock, the founder of Liberate America who traveled from New Orleans to lead the protest, had these words of wisdom to share:
“Absolutely, absolutely. But there’s a difference, it’s what they didn’t tell you is what is the mortality rate that’s already been in place…..”
Yes, it’s “absolutely” worth the risk of people dying so that Mississippi Mary can go to her “Bikram yoga studios” and “feel sexual”.
Believe it or not, the story gets even weirder — at which point I needed to make sure I hadn’t mistakenly navigated to The Onion’s landing page:
Scurlock, a former candidate for mayor in New Orleans and heir to an inflatable bounce house fortune, was arrested in 2017 for allegedly masturbating in the backseat of an Uber in California, for which he pled no contest in 2018, according to a report in the Times-Picayune.
Oooooh….kaaaay?
Thankfully, New York being New York, my fellow Brooklynites came to the rescue with some true words of wisdom:
One local passer-by slammed protesters like Barq for putting their privilege above the lives of others and told them to take their protests elsewhere.
“I don’t know her, but it looks like her position about what liberation is comes from a lot of privilege and from someone who really has no business talking about using the word ‘liberation’ in general I think,” said Alissa Vladimir as she watched the gathering. “Is she [Barq] from Williamsburg? Get the f— out of here!”
Amen, sister.