A New York City real estate agent caught on video following elementary school children with a megaphone, decrying the masks they’re seen wearing and disparaging their parents for allowing the protective covering, was canned from a local brokerage for the one-man anti-mask protest last week.
Curtis Goldstein can be heard in the 56-second video posted late last week spewing anti-vaccine conspiracies and wondering aloud about the health of the masked children, who can be seen with backpacks leaving a school in what appears to be New York City. Shortly after the video was posted online Oct. 29, it went viral, prompting Goldstein’s brokerage to denounce his actions and distance itself from the agent.
“This is a psychological operation,” Goldstein said in a now-viral live stream of his solo protest in front of the school. “Children should be breathing fresh oxygen. Why are we suppressing oxygen levels for our children? Why, why are we doing it? Parents, please pick up these masks from your children. Take them off; they’re not helping. They’re degrading their health.”
“Children need empathy. We only get that via facial recognition in the street,” he continued as parents urged him to stay away from their children. “Your parents are abusing you. That’s what’s going on. Because they can’t let go of CNN.”
Over the past several months, schools have become ground-zero for the debate about vaccine mandates as Pfizer and Moderna reach the finish line for approved usage in children aged five to 11. While FDA approval is welcome news to many parents, it’s become a clarion call for anti-vaxxers to double down on their efforts.
Goldstein’s video quickly picked up steam on Twitter after Resist Programming, a left-leaning political profile with more than 50,000 followers, shared the video and exposed the agent’s treasure trove of controversial posts, including one that compared vaccine mandates to rape.
Although most of Goldstein’s social media profiles have now been scrubbed, Twitter users unearthed an interview Goldstein did with US News during an Oct. 24 ‘Stand with Kyrie’ event supporting Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving who’s refused to follow the NBA’s vaccine mandate.
A screenshot of one of Goldstein’s Instagram posts. | Credit: Resist Programming
“We also know so much more than we knew 18 months ago about the virus,” Goldstein told US News under his social media moniker, Curtis Orwell. “We have therapeutics that have been tried and proven to great success. Unfortunately, those kinds of voices are being totally suppressed and censored.”
“It doesn’t feel right to them and that’s OK,” he added. “We need to respect that.”
Thousands of Twitter users began retweeting what’s left of Goldstein’s public statements, and asked the agent’s brokerage, R New York, to release Goldstein from his contract with the company.
“Curtis Goldstein has linked his anti-vaxxer Facebook profile to his employer, R New York Real Estate,” Resist Programming tweeted. “Does @RNewYorkBrokers support this kind of behavior… calling parents child abusers for allowing their children to wear masks?”
“Harassing children for something they have no control over is about as low as you can go. It’s disgusting,” user @Amy0227 added. “I can’t imagine anyone’s employer being ok with this person representing their business.”
As news of Goldstein’s video poured over to Instagram and Facebook, R New York released an announcement that Goldstein was no longer on the team.
“R New York does not support bullying or harassment of any kind, as it is not aligned with our values,” the brokerage said in a tweet that’s garnered nearly 2,800 likes. “The company has made a decision to terminate Curtis Goldstein effective immediately. He is no longer affiliated with the company.”
“Good on @RNewYorkBrokers,” retweeted user @the_tall_sister. “#HateHasNoHome in New York.”
Both R New York and Goldstein were unavailable for comment.