San Francisco’s Democrat mayor parties with BLM founder at jazz club, shrugs off violating her own mask mandate

San Francisco Mayor London Breed cheerfully gave interviews while partying alongside Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza at a just-reopened jazz club. Apparently, her own strict mask mandate did not apply in this instance.

Breed was spotted at the Black Cat Nightclub on Thursday evening by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Mariecar Mendoza, who cheerfully posted a minute-long video showing the mayor, Garza, and singer Raphael Saadiq – and no face masks in sight.

A photo of them was also posted on the Black Cat’s official Instagram page, but it has since been deleted.

Mendoza thought nothing of it, however; “What a fun night!” she tweeted, along with a link to her interview with the mayor, in which Breed called the night’s festivities “history in the making,” with clubs and venues reopening for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Breed “spent the night dancing, singing along, and posing for photographs without a face covering,” Mendoza wrote, adding that she “had a table of drinks in front of her and was often holding one.” 

Asked about the mask, Breed said she got tested for Covid-19 often and that “at the end of the day, everyone who comes in here has to show proof of vaccination. That gives me a lot of reassurance.”

Her own ‘Safer Return Together’ health order, last updated September 10, doesn’t make exceptions for vaccinations or testing, however. It requires that “everyone wear a well-fitted mask in indoor public buildings even if they are fully vaccinated against [Covid]-19, except while actively eating or drinking.”

The obvious hypocrisy was quickly pointed out by the Chronicle’s sister newspaper, SFGate, with a headline on Friday: “Mayor London Breed violates San Francisco’s strict mask mandate, which city has yet to soften.”

SFGate had asked the city’s Department of Public Health in August if it was considering an exemption from mask rules for venues that require vaccination for entry – following the model adopted in some other US cities – but was told that the order “requires people to mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status.”

While many San Franciscans on social media cheered the mayor’s decision to go out and have fun, others were wondering why the mask mandate still applies to them.

“While I think it's great that you can have fun and I certainly don't begrudge that, can you please clarify the rules of mask-wearing? If we are all required to wear them even if we are vaccinated, why doesn't it apply to you? What are we missing?” asked entrepreneur Neil Gehani.

“If everybody can party like that, why must we wear masks in gyms?” asked life coach Michelle Tandler, a self-described moderate liberal.

“She clearly feels like it's fine and safe to remove her mask, then let that be the rule for everybody,” gym owner Danielle Rabkin told KNTV on Friday. “You're not impervious to Covid any more than I am, so let the rules for you be the same as the rules for me.”

This isn’t the first time Breed has broken her own coronavirus rules, however. Last November, she attended a birthday party at the high-end restaurant French Laundry – the same exact place Governor Gavin Newsom was busted partying the night before.

Breed previously worked under Newsom when he was mayor, as well as Willie Brown – who mentored the current Vice President Kamala Harris – before she was elected in 2018.

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