New York bar co-owner speaks out after defying coronavirus restrictions
Mac’s Public House co-owner Keith McAlarney defends the decision to keep his business open.
The lawyer and a supporter of a Staten Island, N.Y., bar owner who defied coronavirus restrictions spoke out against Pete Davidson’s recent jokes on “Saturday Night Live.”
Over the weekend, the “SNL” cast member and Staten Island native mocked the owner of Mac’s Public House after demonstrators marched on the location to protest Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus restrictions after the bar found itself in legal trouble for violating.
On Monday, owner Keith McAlarney was joined by his attorney, Lou Gelormino, and community activist John Tabacco for a press conference where they addressed Davidson’s sketch on the most recent episode's edition of “Weekend Update.”
“I kind of almost feel like the ignorance level is so high now that you have mega-millionaires in the national spotlight, like the folks on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and instead of making fun of their friends and the local business owners who are broke and crushed and bankrupt, instead of coming down here as fellow Staten Islanders and standing up for them and bringing a positive light to this thing, what they want to do is go on national TV and try to humiliate the little man when he’s down, and to me that’s quite disgusting,” Tabacco said.
He went on to discuss Davidson’s father, a firefighter who was killed on September 11, 2001, noting that he was a friend of his.
“As I mentioned before, my dad was a member of the NYPD, the King of Staten Island’s dad was a proud fireman and a great friend of mine, and I saw Staten Islanders heavily come out and support him, his mom, his family and everyone else in a time of need after 9/11 when I cried for his father,” he continued. “So, when I hear stuff like this, it hits me emotionally and I think ‘Wow, if you came out of your perch in your affluent neighborhood and came down here and told the liberal left this is a good thing because it’s about our freedom and liberty, we probably wouldn't’ be standing here today.'”
Pete Davidson mocked a Staten Island bar owner during a recent appearance on "Saturday Night Live." (Getty Images)
Gelormino took the microphone after that and shared a few remarks of his own on the protest.
“We had 2,000 people here in a peaceful, respectful rally. They actually cleaned up when they left,” he said. "We had 50-100 people cleaning up the street when they left. Maybe ‘Saturday Night Live’ should be mocking the people that looted and rioted and destroyed our great city of Manhattan and the rest of our great cities in this country.”
On Saturday, Davidson appeared on “Weekend Update” to talk about the viral protest in his hometown and the bar owner’s refusal to only allow outdoor service.
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“The owner said no one wants to do that 'cause they’ll go out of business," Davidson explains. "But the argument that people in Staten Island don’t want to drink outside can be disproven by going to literally any Little League game."
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Davidson added that because of the protest, he's “no longer the first thing people think of when they say, ‘What’s the worst thing about Staten Island?’”
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