Daniel McAdams has written about police on two occasions backing down in their efforts to stop children of a group of families from using playgrounds in Texas that had been designated off limits in the coronavirus crackdown. In those instances, parents discussed the restriction with police, and once with a vice mayor as well, with the police ultimately assenting to the use of the playgrounds. In the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the effort to ensure kids can use the Middleton Playground has played out differently. Catarina Moura and John Annese report at the New York Daily News that people have at least 26 times — the latest on Monday — cut off locks and chains that, in the name of countering coronavirus, have been used to prevent people from accessing a playground.
The unfairness of the playground closure, especially in light of giant protests occurring throughout the city in defiance or coronavirus restrictions yet with the approval of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, was expressed well by one person quoted in the Daily News story:
Moshi Blum, 32, said the neighborhood’s residents were enraged that their children couldn’t use the playground while thousands of George Floyd protesters could pack together on city streets.
“Most of us have large families,” he said, “We see thousands gather, why should this be a problem?”
Watch here an ABC 7 New York City television report regarding neighborhood residents’ efforts to keep the playground open:
