#Andrew Cuomo’s ham-handed threats to roll back NY’s re-opening

“It has to stop,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday of the crowds partying outdoors at bars and restaurants sans masks and flagrantly violating social-distancing rules, and if it doesn’t, well, “we’re going to have to roll back the reopening plan and close all bars and restaurants.”

Why does he have to mix the simple truth with nonsense?

The gov is entirely right to say, “What they’re doing is stupid and reckless for themselves and other people.” And he (and Mayor Bill de Blasio) have the power to take action — notably, by taking away the liquor licenses of establishments that foster lunacy like the scene in Queens over the weekend.

But Cuomo has also established clear, objective guidelines for reopening: such-and-such a hospitalization rate, trend in new cases and so on. By his own rules, only a significant resurgence of the virus would justify closing “all bars and restaurants.”

We’d like to think that’s what the governor meant — that the violations would bring a COVID surge that would force him to “roll back the reopening.”

But his increasing imperiousness makes that unlikely: His insistence that drinkers also order food, for example, reveals a deep puritanical streak — one exposed again Tuesday when he tweeted: “Outdoor dining is now permitted statewide. Outside drinking is not.”

Sorry, sir: That’s why people go to bars. Trust the people who elected you (several times now!) to drink responsibly — at least, responsibly enough.

The numbers show New York is doing well: Cases continue to drop in the state, with the number of people hospitalized hitting its lowest mark since March 18, and only 716 total on Sunday.

To boot, barely 1 percent of COVID-19 tests are coming back positive.

Excesses like that Queens scene need addressing, but broad threats only get people’s hackles up. Rein it in, Governor.