World Courant
ALBANY, N.Y. — Governor Kathy Hochul mentioned Thursday she is contemplating a ban on face masks on the New York Metropolis subway system as a result of issues about folks defending their identities whereas committing anti-Semitic acts.
Hochul, a Democrat, advised reporters that the precise particulars of the coverage are usually not clear, however that it might embrace “frequent sense exceptions” for well being, cultural or spiritual causes. Many individuals involved about COVID-19 and air air pollution routinely put on masks on the subway.
Hochul mentioned she was in discussions with lawmakers a couple of doable invoice.
At a information convention in Albany, the governor mentioned she took motion after “a gaggle sporting masks took over a subway on Monday night, scaring passengers and chanting issues about Hitler and exterminating Jews.”
It was not clear precisely which incident she was referring to, nevertheless it may have been an amalgamation of a number of episodes associated to pro-Palestinian demonstrations that day in Union Sq. Park.
Lots of of individuals leaving the rally streamed right into a subway station, some waving flags and banging drums, to board a prepare downtown. On one prepare, a person not sporting a masks led a small group as they chanted to different passengers, “Elevate your hand if you’re a Zionist,” adopted by, “That is your probability to get out.”
In the meantime, a video circulating on social media confirmed a confrontation that reportedly befell earlier within the day, when a person in Union Sq. — who was additionally not sporting a masks — was recorded shouting, “I want Hitler was nonetheless right here.” He would have wiped you all out.”
It was unclear whether or not he was concerned within the protest or who he was yelling at. A gaggle of individuals waving Israeli flags had been additionally within the park on the time.
“We is not going to tolerate people utilizing masks to keep away from accountability for legal or threatening habits,” Hochul mentioned. “My workforce is engaged on an answer. However within the subway, individuals are not allowed to cover behind a masks to commit crimes.”
New York handed a regulation banning face masks in public within the nineteenth century in response to lease protests. It was suspended in 2020 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a part of a pandemic public well being marketing campaign, and masks had been additionally made obligatory for subway passengers till September 2022.
The masks ban beforehand drew criticism from civil rights teams who mentioned it was selectively enforced to interrupt up protests the place folks needed to cover their identities to keep away from authorized or skilled repercussions.
“The Governor’s issues about masks concealing legal exercise is not going to be quelled by banning nameless peaceable protest. Masks bans had been initially developed to stifle political protests and, like different legal guidelines that criminalize folks, can be selectively enforced – used to arrest, doxx, surveil, and silence folks of shade and protesters the place police disagree,” Donna Lieberman, govt director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, mentioned in a press release.
“A masks ban can be simply violated by unhealthy actors and if somebody engages in illegal actions, judgment ought to be based mostly on the legal habits, not their clothes,” she mentioned.
Hochul acknowledged that reinstating a ban can be difficult.
“We perceive how advanced this challenge is, and we’re simply listening to folks, assembly their wants and taking them very critically,” she mentioned.
For the reason that warfare between Hamas and Israel started in October, there have been tons of of demonstrations by pro-Palestinian activists within the metropolis, the overwhelming majority of which have been peaceable. Individuals’ sporting of masks is frequent, partly as a result of concern of police surveillance.
Mayor Eric Adams has additionally talked about reviving a model of earlier masks bans and as soon as prompt that retailers inform folks to take them off to enter.
Carrying face coverings in public has declined since COVID-19 deaths declined, however many nonetheless use them.
“There are people who find themselves at excessive danger of extreme sickness from a respiratory an infection who could use masks in a crowded congregate setting, such because the subway, to cut back the possibility of contracting an an infection,” mentioned Amesh Adalja, a senior scientist on the Johns Hopkins Middle. for well being safety, mentioned through e-mail.
