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Mayor LaToya Cantrell was pictured partying maskless during an indoor Mardi Gras event Friday night, this after reinstating the COVID-19 mask mandate in New Orleans for schools and indoor public spaces just weeks before.
Approximately 100 short videos of the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Ball at Gallier Hall were posted online before someone ostensibly alerted the mayor that she might not want to broadcast that she and her contemporaries don’t have to abide by the rules they make for the unwashed masses. The videos were shot using a 360-degree camera booth and showed Cantrell singing karaoke maskless with two other women, also not masked. The posts were removed following inquiries from Fox News on Monday.
In a statement to Fox News, Cantrell spokesman Beau Tidwell admitted that there was not a “perfect adoption of the guidelines in every instance” in reference to the weekend festivities.
“The mask guidelines and the vaccination requirement will remain in effect thru Mardi Gras,” he said. “That has not changed and it will not change. Under the current guidelines, masks may be removed indoors while eating and drinking. While we did not see perfect adoption of the guidelines in every instance over the weekend, we were encouraged overall by the level of masking and vigilance we saw on the parade route and at ball events.”
The Louisiana Supreme Court recently denied a request for a temporary restraining order after a lawsuit challenging Cantrell’s mask mandate and the vaccine mandate was filed on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs. Among the city’s requirements are that everyone older than the age of five show proof of vaccination in order to enter most businesses. The defendants named are the mayor, the New Orleans Health Department, and the agency’s leader Dr. Jennifer Avegno.
“We are happy to see the people of New Orleans finally able to return to normal and enjoy the Mardi Gras season,” Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue, a partner at the New Orleans-based firm Rodrigue & Arcuri, said in a statement to Fox News. “That is exactly what we have been advocating for. We are furious to see our so-called city leaders violating their own mask mandate all through the carnival season while demanding that ordinary citizens and children remain masked. The hypocrisy and privilege will no longer be tolerated. The silence from our state legislature is deafening. We see you, and we are coming for you.”
The lawsuit filed by Rodrigue & Arcuri and attorney Jimmy Faircloth of Faircloth, Melton, Sobel & Bash LLC accuses the government officials of causing “social, economic and cultural harm” through “authoritarian actions under the pretext of an emergency without end.” Cantrell spokesman Tidwell has not commented on the lawsuit, but he said on Feb. 1 that “the guidelines we put in place save lives.”
Removal of the photos online was merely a formality, as it is understood by all that the internet is forever.
Jan 11, 2022: City of New Orleans Announces Reinstatement of Indoor Mask Mandate
Mayor’s Ball 2022: https://t.co/YA5owyP7yn pic.twitter.com/ZOA6AGCH1S
— Sam (@SamSullivan) February 21, 2022
Cantrell spokesman Beau Tidwell said last week the mandates “save lives” and that the city would vigorously defend the mandates, which Avegno has said suppress illness and death in New Orleans by reducing the spread of coronavirus and COVID-19 disease.https://t.co/t8t5j6svp6
— Sam (@SamSullivan) February 21, 2022
Photos include: New Orleans Mayor, city council members, and the Orleans Parish School Board president. pic.twitter.com/uKyI7x7jc8
— Sam (@SamSullivan) February 21, 2022
— Sam (@SamSullivan) February 21, 2022
Add to the list of hypocrisy NOPD department email yesterday’s states: if anyone with NOPD is seen without a mask on the parade route they will be written up and subsequently suspended without pay.
— TinFoil Hat Wearer Rocket (@RachelRocket81) February 21, 2022
Further proof that neither privilege nor hypocrisy have a color. All while small businesses owned by Americans of all backgrounds are smothering under the oppressive, unscientific, caste-system of mandates.
— Nate Rangel (@TORN8OH) February 21, 2022
The Covid avoids sophisticated folks.
— BigBlueBeach (@BigBlueBeach) February 21, 2022
Meanwhile my child has been forced to wear a mask all day every day since school began in august. 😡
— K-Sev (@PrplHaze8) February 22, 2022
Lemme guess. They were holding their breath during the photos?
— Ron Mexico (@_G14Klassified) February 22, 2022
— Coach Pete Bell (@CoachPeteBellWU) February 21, 2022
It’s okay for these people to do whatever they want. They are our overlords and we are only here to please them.
— Larry Byrd (@LarryBy40973526) February 21, 2022
I used to go to NOLA for long weekends and always the Mardi Gras. No more what a joke it has become. Restrictions for no reason. I am vaccinated but will not go anywhere I have to prove it. Now my friends and I go to Florida land of the free
— Joe Spice (@JoeSpice3) February 21, 2022
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Frank (Chip) Webster is a musician and composer, former teacher of percussion and U.S. Army Infantry veteran. He holds a degree in English from Arizona State University.
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