So Now Local News Guys Are The 'Enemy Of The People'?

Yesterday, on May 14th, dozens of Long Island Trump supporters took to the streets to protest New York's so-called draconic coronavirus safety measures and demand their tanning salons and Billy Joel memorabilia shops reopen. It was a small affair with small minds and no stakes, without any Congress building to storm or evil politicians to boo. But these patriots still had to aim their hatred and frustrations to some kind of authority figure (without a gun and a badge), so they picked on Kevin. This is Kevin:

Kevin Vesey is a veteran reporter for News 12 Long Island. Not CNN. Not MSNBC. Not Al Jazeera. But the local news station that, aside from breaking news, covers strip mall openings and publishes pictures of people's engagements. But when Kevin went to do his job and ask his Long Islanders' neighbors who have been hit with 76,287 confirmed coronavirus cases, 3,713 deaths, and live next to one of the most plague-ridden cities in the world (not that they ever visit), why they had put on their Vineyard Vines T-shirts and had gone outside to flagrantly disregard social distancing guidelines, Kevin was "insulted" and "berated" and "nearly chased off" by the same over-reactionary dickwads he's going to have to see at the Valley Stream Central High PTA meetings after this all blows over.

While reporting, the Setauket Patriots, the Pro-Trump organizers of the protest, called Kevin and his journalist ilk (which, again, is the News 12 weatherman in this case) the "least essential people" and even "a virus." -- too spiteful to realize the irony of coronavirus apologists telling their non-essential, viral neighbor to go home and not bother anyone. Why would a Suffolk County native reporter ever deserve that kind of hatred from his own community? Because, as one angry Long Island Tea mom put it, News 12's Kevin Vesey was there to be the "enemy of the people." And enemies don't deserve to live. So despite numerous pleas to keep his distance, one particularly salty douche got in Kevin's face without a mouth mask, repeating, "I got hydroxychloroquine, I'll be fine, bro" while fuming his snake oiled breath all over the reporter.

And if it all seems so blatantly contradictory, protesting while chasing off the only reporter who, as Kevin Vesey himself put it, "was there to tell THEIR story," it's because the small scale of this idiocy magnifies the truth. These people aren't activists. They aren't patriots. They're bored. They're selfish. They're the Long Islanders who'll explode when people tell them to keep it down while fighting at the Cheesecake Factory, let alone when Big Government tells them to stay inside for the safety of others. These protests are never about going out and having their voices heard. It's just about going out. And if there's any reason why they actually hate Kevin, it's because he's there to shine a spotlight on the bullshit excuse they've concocted to stand in a circle jerk with like-minded bullies. It's because he's essential and they aren't. And why should Kevin be the only one allowed to go play outside?

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Top Image: News12 /Kevin Vesey via Twitter