State legislatures and judicial authorities across the US are beginning to enact previously inactive laws which criminalized the use of masks with the aim of punishing – in a similar situation – pro-Palestine protesters who hide their faces
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are poised to override Governor Roy Cooper’s recent veto of criminalization to cover your face.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said earlier this month that she supports legislative efforts to ban masks on the subway, citing an incident in which masked protesters on a train shouted, “Raise your hand if you are a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.”
Student protesters in Ohio, Texas and Florida have also been threatened with arrest for covering their faces.
According to the International Nonprofit Law Center, decades of anti-mask laws — often created in response to the horror of Ku Klux Klan– are still in effect in at least 18 US states.
In some regions, special legislation was even passed to create health exemptions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lawmakers who want to restore mask restrictions as they existed before the pandemic say the legislation would not target clinically vulnerable people and those who wear masks to avoid respiratory infections.
However, critics of the criminalization perspective say such an approach would be impractical and would leave mask wearers vulnerable to further harassment by police and fellow citizens.
You are leftist!
In fact, the Washington Post publishes an incredible story:
The day after North Carolina passed its anti-mask law in June in response to pro-Palestinian protests at State University, a citizen named Shari Stewart faced an unbelievable incident for wearing a surgical mask when she went to a repair shop to change her oil in your car. .
A man asked her to take off her mask. She tried in vain to explain that she has breast cancer and a weakened immune system.
The man called her a “leftist” and insisted that masks are now illegal. Later he coughed on her telling her he waits die of cancer.
Stewart recently shared her experience on a local television station, saying she’s worried this type of harassment will get worse if mask restrictions become law, despite the bill’s language permitting their use. “medical or surgical mask to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.”