“I understand you need to wear a mask. I understand you social distance. What bothers me is: You pick on the good people,” said Brooklyn resident Meir Nimni.

He argued that Orthodox Jewish gatherings were being singled out for a clampdown, noting that huge crowds convened this spring for racial injustice protests where destruction and violence sometimes broke out.

“Everybody here wants to live, and everybody cares” about stopping the virus, Nimni said. But he saw a double standard that’s “just not fair.”

Nearby, Renee Jeremias said authorities “have absolutely no right to shut us down.”

Video posted on social media on Tuesday showed a crowd swarming and knocking down a man holding a camera. Another video showed protesters rushing another man who had been filming the unrest, and pummeling him. A relative told The Associated Press that the man was taken to the hospital unconscious but was doing “much better” Wednesday and was expected to be released. The relative spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Police said there were no arrests.

Here is the current scene in #Brooklyn , Jewish community set to march to protest Gov.Andrew Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio’s new lockdown restrictions. #newyork pic.twitter.com/RLGaKcg9Ku

— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) October 8, 2020

Cuomo insists the new restrictions are based solely on science and coronavirus case clusters in areas that, in his view, have flouted the state’s existing virus-safety rules.

The Democratic governor said wider “spread is inevitable” if the clusters don’t get under control.

“There’s always opposition. And we move forward anyways. And we’ll continue to do that,” he said on a conference call with reporters.

He said a few areas are disproportionately driving the worrisome trends, with over 5 percent of coronavirus tests coming back positive in 20 hot spot ZIP codes, compared with about 1.3 percent statewide.

In one Brooklyn ZIP code, 18 percent of everyone who has gotten a coronavirus test since Oct. 1 has tested positive, compared with a rate of about 3.9 percent citywide, according to city data.

Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of an Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization called Agudath Israel of America, said the group was contemplating a court fight if the state wasn’t open to changing a new 10-person limit for houses of worship in areas where new coronavirus cases are most concentrated.

The restriction comes amid the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Many large events this season have already been canceled or rearranged, Zwiebel said, but the 10-person cap “would basically wipe out the entirety of the spirit of the holiday.”

“We are now, you know, on the precipice of an enormous sense of despair,” Zwiebel said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told opponents of the new rules to respect them and follow police instructions.

“There’ll be consequences” if people don’t, the Democratic mayor added at a virtual news briefing Wednesday.

After becoming the nation’s deadliest coronavirus hot spot this spring, New York wrestled its outbreak down to a steady and relatively low level over the summer.

But infections have been rising in recent weeks, and hospitalizations are starting to follow. There has been an average of 659 COVID-19 patients in hospitals statewide over the past week, up from 426 for the week ending Sept 6, Cuomo said. During an early April peak, nearly 19,000 coronavirus patients were hospitalized statewide.

The new rules, set to take effect Friday, involve parts of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City, sections of Orange and Rockland counties in the Hudson Valley and an area within Binghamton, near the Pennsylvania border. Many of the areas are home to large enclaves of Orthodox Jews.

The plan sets up color-coded, concentric zones where the severity of the measures varies. In the hearts of the hot spots, schools can’t teach in person, and all non-essential businesses will be closed, among other measures. Surrounding areas face less stringent restrictions, such as limits on gatherings and restaurant diners.

Orthodox Jewish residents aren’t the only ones complaining. The leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, said churches “fervently object” to being told to reduce capacity after not having any outbreaks since reopening in July.

The state already faced a lawsuit this year from religious observers who questioned why peaceful mass protests were able to occur while religious groups once faced stricter gathering limits than businesses.

Under a federal court ruling that the state is fighting, unlimited outdoor religious gatherings with social distancing are currently allowed. That ruling also means both religious groups and businesses currently face a 50 percent indoor capacity limit, though New York City restaurants are limited to 25 percent capacity indoors.

Business interests are dismayed, too.

“To shut down almost all of south Brooklyn and punish small businesses that have reopened safely will be an overwhelming setback to the borough’s economic recovery,” Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Randy Peers said in a statement.

Villeneuve reported from Albany. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Jim Mustian contributed from New York.

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