New York lawmakers are set to weigh a invoice that will improve penalties for mask-wearing creeps at the same time as Gov. Kathy Hochul seems to have deserted the hassle she’d backed as town noticed a wave of antisemitic incidents final 12 months.
Regardless of lip service about bringing again a pre-covid ban final 12 months as masked antisemitic thugs had been anonymously threatening Jews, any point out of masks was conspicuously absent from Hochul’s state of the state and funds addresses – main alerts about her coverage agenda for the 12 months.
“I’ve mentioned I’d think about language that claims for those who commit a criminal offense whereas carrying a masks, there needs to be enhanced penalties and the method isn’t over but,” Hochul informed reporters final week requested in regards to the matter of masks being absent from her state of the state agenda.
The newly reintroduced invoice isn’t a straight up ban on masks carrying, however would create the low stage crime of “masked harassment”. The violation-level penalty would particularly goal somebody who harasses one other whereas carrying a masks for the “main goal of menacing or threatening violence.”
It could additionally add mask-wearing as a possible standards for an escalated penalty of “aggravated harassment,” the place a masked particular person bodily assaults one other.
Each penalties embody well-outlined exceptions for medical and non secular functions in addition to holidays, performing arts, sporting competitions, somebody’s skilled occupation like a welder carrying a welding masks.
“This laws is overdue and wanted ASAP,” Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx), the invoice’s meeting sponsor, wrote.
Whereas pols have been calling for a straight up ban on masks to be reimplemented because it was lifted throughout the pandemic, these calls have grown louder after a wave of antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7 2023 assault on Israel.
“It’s crucial that this public security measure passes to guard all New Yorkers and cease the epidemic of people utilizing masks and face coverings to evade any penalties for harassing and menacing others,” State Senator James Skoufis (D-Orange), the invoice’s sponsor within the legislature’s higher chamber mentioned.
Skoufis and Dinowitz are additionally touting the help from lefty Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg who known as the laws “robust and truthful.”
Richmond County District Legal professional Michael McMahon, who can be president of the District Attorneys Affiliation of the State of New York, agreed.
“When masks are used throughout the fee of crimes it impedes legislation enforcement efforts to research and establish perpetrators,” McMahon informed The Submit.
Legal professional Normal Letitia James additionally urged final 12 months she want to see the legal guidelines addressed.
The efforts nonetheless face opposition from lefty pols within the legislature and teams just like the NYCLU, which just lately argued “places New Yorkers’ well being and security in danger” and “opens the floodgates for selective and racially-biased enforcement”.
Skoufis and Dinowitz’s invoice can be supported by anti-hate teams such because the NAACP and Nationwide City League and Anti-Defamation League.
New York’s authentic masks ban was scrapped throughout the onset of the pandemic in 2020 out of issues it may inhibit public well being efforts encouraging folks to masks up. The availability had been adopted over a century earlier amid anti-rent protests, however was later used to go after the Ku Klux Klan.
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