by Jeroslyn JoVonn
April 3, 2025
A coalition of Black and Jewish advocacy teams is asking for laws to extend penalties for crimes dedicated whereas carrying a masks.
UnMaskHateNY, a coalition of Black and Jewish advocacy teams, has launched an advert marketing campaign advocating for New York State laws that might impose extra penalties on crimes dedicated by masked offenders.
The advert marketing campaign seeks to counter “misinformation” in regards to the laws, which some have mistaken for a “masks ban,” Occasions of Israel studies. The invoice wouldn’t prohibit masks, however would enhance penalties for crimes dedicated whereas carrying one.
“With all of the confusion within the debate about regulating the conduct of individuals carrying masks, we thought it will be useful to set the file straight,” the advert says. “Folks can put on masks to their coronary heart’s content material, however they’ll’t put on masks and interact in intimidating, harassing or threatening exercise.”
Titled “Tremendous, Not Tremendous,” the 30-second advert options pictures distinguishing acceptable masks use — comparable to for sports activities, medical causes, or spiritual functions — from unacceptable use, like concealing one’s identification throughout violent protests or vandalism. The industrial will air this week on cable TV and digital platforms.
“The textual content solely prohibits the carrying of a masks in conditions through which they’re used to cover the identification of an individual partaking in intimidating, threatening, or harassing exercise. Nothing much less, nothing extra,” the advert says.
The marketing campaign aligns with New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s efforts to go the laws as a part of the state finances. The invoice seeks to create the offense of “masked harassment,” rising penalties for crimes dedicated whereas carrying a masks “with the first objective of menacing or threatening violence” or “inflicting an individual or group to moderately concern for his or her bodily security.”
The New York department of the American Civil Liberties Union known as the laws a “masks ban” and warned that it may “open the floodgates to disproportionate enforcement.” If handed, the masked harassment regulation would function equally to hate crime laws, which reinforces penalties for offenses motivated by discrimination.
Carrying a masks with out partaking in prison exercise wouldn’t be impacted. New York had anti-masking legal guidelines for over a century till they have been repealed in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
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