Mayor Breed defiant about ditching mask in San Francisco nightclub

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Mayor London Breed was caught without her mask at a jazz club, despite the city's ordinance requiring face coverings in indoor public settings, regardless of vaccination status.

Video shows Breed enjoying a night of drinking and dancing without a mask at the Black Cat club in the Tenderloin while popular Bay Area R&B artists took the stage.

Breed was defiant when talking to journalists on Friday about her disregard for a rule that she has repeatedly urged the public to obey. 

"No, I'm not going to sip and put my mask on, sip and put my mask on, sip and put my mask on, eat and put my mask on," Breed said. "While I'm eating and I'm drinking. I'm going to leave my mask off." 

However, the video posted on Twitter by a San Francisco Chronicle reporter shows Breed was maskless while standing and dancing, not just while she was eating and drinking among a group of people. The footage was taken while Oakland’s Raphael Saadiq and D’Wayne Wiggins, two of the members of Tony! Toni! Toné!, performed. 

Masks are allowed to be removed only when people are "seated at a table or positioned at a stationary counter or place while eating or drinking," according to the term's of the city's healt order which made face coverings indoors mandatory last month.

Mariecar Mendoza, the Chronicle reporter, noted in her published piece that Breed "had a table of drinks in front of her and was often holding one — spent the night dancing, singing along and posing for photographs without a face covering."

Bars, restaurants and other indoor venues in San Francisco are also required to check for proof of vaccination before admitting customers. Breed has said she's vaccinated and regularly tested for COVID. 

Breed faced controversy last year for dining at the French Laundry in Yountville, just one day after Gov. Gavin Newsom's ill-advised dinner at the restaurant.