Washington Post – As customers enjoyed their Saturday afternoon at Staten Island Mall and prepared to enjoy their meals, a raucous, maskless crowd of dozens opposing New York City’s indoor vaccination mandate stormed into the mall while chanting, “U-S-A!”
Their goal: to eat at the food court without showing proof of vaccination.
“Everybody go get food and eat. That is what we’re here to do!” one woman said to the group, according to a video from freelance journalist Oliya Scootercaster.
“We’re going to meet over there and go into the food court area and sit our butts down and stay as long as we like!”
Videos posted to social media show the protesters marching into Staten Island Mall in defiance of the city’s indoor dining vaccination mandate.
Although people are not required to show proof of vaccination or wear masks inside the mall, they do need to show proof of immunization to eat at the food court.
Some chanted, “My body, my choice,” while others recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
“We shouldn’t be carrying papers or showing papers because we live in America and we are the land of the free,” one demonstrator said to the group, according to video.
Brookfield Properties, the operator of the Staten Island Mall, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
The anti-mandate demonstration at the mall food court is the latest public instance of resistance from those opposing vaccine and mask mandates, even as the country is averaging more than 119,000 new coronavirus cases a day.
Vaccine mandates are a hot-button topic across the country as government officials and public health experts continue to grapple with hesitancy among the millions who remain unvaccinated … READ MORE.
