STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - A bar on Staten Island that declared itself an "autonomous zone" is now closed after the general manager was arrested Tuesday night for violating orders put in place to curb the city's rising number of coronavirus cases.
Deputy Sheriffs say Daniel Presti, general manager of Mac's Public House on Lincoln Avenue in Grant City, was charged with multiple offenses including obstructing governmental administration and was later released.
Video posted to the bar's Instagram account showed him being led out of his business.
The arrest also sparked a peaceful protest of about 50 people outside the bar.
"You don't selective enforce. You have all of these big box businesses that are wide open, making billions of dollars and these people, if they don't survive, they're going to go to ugly extremes, and that's what's going to happen, it's going to be worse than the virus itself," said Scott Lobaido, a protester.
No injuries were reported during the protest, and deputies say no further arrests were made.
The bar is in an orange zone, where indoor dining is not allowed and there is a 10 p.m. dining curfew.
To try to get around those rules, Mac's tried to offer free food and drinks with a suggested donation.
The state stripped the bar of its liquor license last week, and the city health department ordered the bar to close.
The state Liquor Authority had said offering alcohol for free is not a âloophole" and that a liquor license is needed to sell or serve alcohol.
On Tuesday, the city Buildings Department ordered the business to vacate.
Despite that order, investigators say plainclothes deputies saw 14 people inside eating and drinking inside Tuesday night.
Deputies arrested Presti and gave employees appearance tickets for violating city and state laws.
One of the employees given a ticket, attorney Louis Gelormino, said he had been inside earlier to suggest the owner comply with the regulations despite what they believe is an unfair rule.
"He's in the orange zone. And obviously him like a lot of the business owners throughout Staten Island feel like, that their businesses and livelihoods are being taken away from them. They complied with everything the first time, they complied with all the measurements the governor and the mayor ordered and that all of a sudden they're shut down," said Gelormino. "Here's the ironic part, you can turn around and go two blocks away and it's not shut down. It's only half of Staten Island that's shut down."
Keith McAlarney, the bar's owner, tells NY1 he plans to open up for business on Wednesday but only to serve food as takeout.
Another protest against the regulations is expected to be held outside the bar Wednesday night.
Reporting from Justin Izzo and Alyssa Paolicelli was included in this story.
Editor's Note: An earlier version referred to Presti as a co-owner. A lawyer for the bar said he's the general manager.
scyth3rr on December 2nd, 2020 at 14:42 UTC »
"To try to get around those rules, Mac's tried offering free food and drinks with a suggested donation"
Didn't Julian try this with the Dirty Dancer?
Pretzel_Bagel on December 2nd, 2020 at 13:56 UTC »
This is one of those "its easy to arrest one person and shut it down, it's a lot harder to arrest thousands of people" kind of things.
LastAmericanAlive on December 2nd, 2020 at 13:51 UTC »
At first this guy got a small fine. Then he decided to tear up the fine on camera bragging about how he would never pay it. Which is as open and shut a case of contempt of court as you get.
chances are very good that if he had not chosen to draw all of that attention to himself, he could have stayed in business continuing to break the law and just have to deal with a small fine every now and again.
Edit:. Dozens of people keep messaging me and telling me this is not contempt of court because the police issued the citation. These people are all wrong. The citation includes a court date on it, because he has a right to challenge this fine in court. he does not have a right to refuse to pay it and to refuse to go to court to challenge it. By refusing to do both of those things, he is demonstrating contempt for the role of the court in assigning punishment for wrongdoing.