Gov. Hochul has announced that she may instate a ban on face masks in the New York City subway system, citing concerns of people using them to conceal their identities while committing anti-semitic acts.
At a news conference on Thursday in Albany, Hochul said she was moved to act after “a group donning masks took over a subway car, scaring riders and chanting things about Hitler and wiping out Jews” on Monday night.
One video circulating on social media from the pro-Palestinian protest in Union Square Park that day showed a confrontation that purportedly happened earlier in the day when a man in the park, who was not wearing a mask, shouted, “I wish Hitler was still here. He would’ve wiped you all out.”
During the press conference, the governor stressed that the reasoning behind the ban would be so perpetrators can’t avoid accountability.
“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul said. “My team is working on a solution, but on a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes.”
Hochul told reporters the exact details of the policy are not fully clear as she was in talks with lawmakers on possibly drafting the bill, but if enacted, it would contain “common-sense exemptions” for health, cultural or religious reasons. Currently, many people still leery of COVID-19 and air pollution wear face masks to protect their health.
However, the prospect of a mask ban also draws concerns and criticisms from civil rights groups and advocates who argue it selectively breaks up protests where people may want to hide their identities to avoid legal or professional punishment.
“The Governor’s concerns about masks disguising criminal activity won’t be quelled by banning anonymous peaceful protest. Mask bans were originally developed to squash political protests and, like other laws that criminalize people, they will be selectively enforced- used to arrest, doxx, surveil, and silence people of color and protestors the police disagree with,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement to AP.
New York first passed a law banning masks in public in the 1800s as a response to protests over rent, which wasn’t lifted until 2020 during the pandemic.
