Oscar López Rivera on a float at the Puerto Rican Day Parade.William Farrington
In the end Oscar López Rivera didn’t march like anyone else, but still led the Puerto Rican Day Parade — scowling from atop the first float and surrounded by supporters, including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Despite the signs calling him “our Mandela,” it wasn’t the triumph she’d hoped for. The parade scrubbed OLR from its Web site and didn’t offer him formal “National Freedom Hero” honors.
Mayor de Blasio kept a careful distance, marching 10 blocks behind the unrepentant terrorist and his fans. But it was still his allies who produced this travesty.
Nor was it remotely the “day of unity” that the speaker insisted: OLR drew boos as well as cheers, with plenty of celebrants telling reporters they disapproved.
“He makes me ashamed to be a Puerto Rican,” Mark Rivera of The Bronx told The Post. “He did not represent me,” Nanchelle Rivera of Florida told The Associated Press, adding that she wouldn’t have made the trip if she’d known.
The headline from Britain’s lefty Guardian was “Oscar López Rivera polarizes crowds at Puerto Rican Day parade.”
All of which suggests malpractice by the parade’s board and its chair, top de Blasio aide Lorraine Cortés-Vazquez. Their effort to use the event to forward a left-wing agenda wound up losing them major sponsors and prompting marquee politicians to boycott.
Oh, and turning Puerto Rican against Puerto Rican amid the celebration. Nice.
All this leaves the parade’s future in doubt: What stunt will the board pull next year? How can sponsors trust them after this?
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (a no-show Sunday) put this crew in charge of the parade after unseating a prior board for abusing the event for personal gain. If the law won’t let him oust this bunch for harming the parade for political gain, he should at least offer a public apology.
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