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The ban on mask would cover any sort of public protest, but
lawmakers in the Republican-controlled county say the bill aims
to prevent protesters who engage in alleged violence and
antisemitism from hiding their identity and avoiding
accountability. Civil rights advocates saw the step as an
infringement on free speech rights.
The bill was approved late on Monday, with all 12 Republicans in
the county legislature voting in its favor while the seven
Democrats abstained.
The bill makes wearing a facial covering to hide identity in
public a misdemeanor that can be punished with up to one year in
prison and a $1,000 penalty. It makes exemptions for health or
medical reasons as well as for "religious and cultural
purposes."
"Unless someone has a medical condition or a religious
imperative, people should not be allowed to cover their face in
a manner that hides their identity when in public," Nassau
County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, said about the
bill that he is expected to sign.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said the bill was an attack
on free speech.
"Masks protect people who express political opinions that are
unpopular. Making anonymous protest illegal chills political
action and is ripe for selective enforcement," Susan Gottehrer,
the Nassau County regional director of NYCLU, said.
Gottehrer added that the mask ban's exceptions were inadequate:
"Nassau County police offers are not health professionals or
religious experts capable of deciding who needs a mask and who
doesn't."
The U.S., Israel's key ally, has seen months of protests,
including in New York, against Israel's war in Gaza that has
killed nearly 40,000 according to the local health ministry,
caused a hunger crisis, displaced nearly the entire population
of 2.3 million. It also has led to genocide allegations that
Israel denies.
The latest bloodshed in the decades old Israeli-Palestinian
conflict began when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked
Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking around 250 hostages,
according to Israeli tallies.
The U.S. has also seen a rise in anti-Muslim incidents,
anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism amid the war and its
resulting protests and counter-protests.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by David
Gregorio)
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