- Nearly 100 organizations, 300 Jewish leaders, and 250 healthcare professionals have spoken out against mask bans in NY.
- The revised mask ban relies on subjective intent and perceived threats, inviting the same biased enforcement that has historically targeted marginalized groups.
- If police doubt someone's reason for masking, the new carveouts offer no real protection.
- Intent is typically proven after the fact, risking wrongful arrests and forcing high-risk individuals to unmask in unsafe settings.
- Masks are essential for safety and protection against COVID-19, H5N1, and other viruses, especially as the Trump administration weakens public health agencies.
- Criminalizing masks fuels hostility, inviting harassment, discrimination, and even violence against mask-wearers.
- This law rolls back freedoms when protecting rights is crucial, giving Trump’s administration a tool to suppress dissent. Democrats should be protecting these rights, not restricting them.

Lawmakers recently updated their mask ban legislation in New York, and while the bill may look improved on paper, it remains deeply flawed. Despite claims of "more surgical" language, the bill now relies primarily on subjective judgments of intent. It opens the door to biased enforcement, invites abuse, and leaves New Yorkers vulnerable to harassment and legal complications for trying to protect their health. Rather than making anyone safer, this legislation fuels fear and undermines the very rights it claims to protect.

On January 13th, Jews for Mask Rights, the NYCLU, and the New York Doctors Coalition delivered letters to state officials urging them to reject a proposed New York mask ban. Nearly 100 organizations, 300 Jewish leaders, and 250 healthcare professionals signed the letters, demonstrating broad opposition to the measure.

The rewritten bill poses dangerous risks to New Yorkers’ right to protect our health and safety. If a police officer doesn’t believe someone’s reasons for masking, no amount of unenforceable exemptions will protect them.

Everyone Deserves the Right to Mask

Masks are essential tools for protecting health and safety. This legislation attempts to target a narrow group of bad actors at the expense of the vast majority who mask for legitimate reasons. Instead of providing safety, the law introduces confusion, anxiety, and fear of being misjudged, harassed, or worse.

The law’s vague language leaves too much room for misinterpretation, forcing individuals to worry about whether their legitimate mask use could be perceived as threatening. The burden of proof should not fall on those who are simply trying to protect themselves or others. This creates an unnecessary barrier to public safety and undermines the utility of masks as a preventative measure. No one should fear being criminalized simply for wearing a mask to protect themselves.

Ambiguity & Misuse

The law criminalizes wearing a mask “for the primary purpose” of intimidation, requiring police to determine motives in high-pressure situations. This leads to misinterpretation, bias, and abuse.

The mask ban’s reliance on intent makes its carveouts effectively meaningless. While the legislation’s exemptions may seem protective, their enforcement relies on subjective interpretations of intent – something that can be difficult to assess in the moment.

Intent, if proven at all, is often only proven after the fact, meaning innocent people could face arrest or detention before their innocence is clear. High-risk individuals could be forced to unmask in unsafe settings like holding cells, risking COVID exposure. This could result in illness, as well as post-COVID complications and disability.

Innocent individuals will be unfairly drawn into the criminal justice system, losing valuable time or wages, based solely on the perception of a threat. In the rapidly changing legal climate, some may even face deportation.

These carveouts fail to ease the anxiety and harm this law causes, unfairly burdening individuals to prove intent. Instead of protecting New Yorkers, it puts us at risk.

What Constitutes a Threat?

The proposed mask ban’s reliance on perceived threat raises serious concerns. By criminalizing masked harassment when someone is placed in "reasonable fear for their physical safety," the law prioritizes an accuser's perception over the masked individual’s actual intent, making fear the key metric of wrongdoing.

Perceptions of threat are inherently biased and shaped by personal prejudices, cultural differences, and individual experiences (see, for example, the Central Park birdwatching incident). Similarly, this law would empower individuals to act based on their personal discomfort, falsely accusing someone simply because they feel uneasy.

By tying accusations to fear rather than concrete actions, the law shifts the burden of proof onto the accused, exposing lawful mask-wearers to scrutiny, harassment, and potential harm based on nothing more than someone else’s subjective perception.

The Reality of Enforcement

Nearly 100 organizations recently signed NYCLU’s letter urging lawmakers to reject the ban. The letter cited historical examples of discriminatory enforcement. The bill’s updated language states the “measure is not only a legal necessity, but a moral imperative to ensure the rights of all New Yorkers.”

State Senator Skoufis claimed that mask bans have never been 'pervasively abused' by law enforcement, but this is both inaccurate and dismissive. By dismissing these concerns as fear-mongering, Senator Skoufis is ignoring history and fails to engage seriously with the issue.

Mask bans have long been used to target marginalized communities and stifle free speech, disproportionately affecting activists, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ individuals. There is no reason to believe this bill would be any different.

Bill proponents have invoked the KKK and other far-right groups, and some Jewish organizations hope the law will combat antisemitic hate. However, history suggests otherwise. A 2021 study found only 8% of protest arrests involved right-leaning groups. Police have a record of selective enforcement, especially when it comes to masks, protecting hate groups while targeting their counter-protesters. This pattern of bias disproportionately harms those already vulnerable to mask-related policing and at higher risk for COVID complications. Rather than enhancing safety, the mask ban will likely serve as another tool for discriminatory enforcement.

Superficial measures are inadequate to address the complexities of antisemitism and other hate crimes.

Public Health Concerns

This legislation ignores the critical role masks play in protecting public health. Masks are vital for preventing illnesses like COVID-19 and the flu. This will become even more crucial as the threat of a bird flu (H5N1) pandemic escalates and the current administration silences public health information. While the bill includes health-related carveouts, its reliance on subjective interpretations of intent nonetheless endangers those masking for protection.

The idea that someone could be questioned – or even arrested – for masking is both alarming and unjust. How can anyone feel secure wearing a mask, knowing their intent might be misinterpreted?

Threats Beyond Legislation

Any legislation that conflates mask use with criminality discourages individuals from masking and fuels increased hostility toward mask-wearers, increasing their risk of harassment and discrimination.

After North Carolina passed similar mask ban legislation, a man spat on a cancer patient, saying he “hoped the cancer would kill her.” Incidents of anti-mask violence and harassment have been reported in New York and New Jersey, where an attack left a mask-wearer permanently blind.

Shortly after the Nassau County mask ban passed, rhetoric emerged encouraging citizens to send photos of masked individuals to authorities, fostering an environment of suspicion and hostility and creating a chilling effect for those simply exercising their rights.

Jews for Mask Rights began documenting anti-mask incidents following Nassau County’s mask ban to highlight the real harm caused by the growing stigma against mask wearers. Since then, we have gathered 80 reports, including 65 cases of verbal harassment, 19 incidents of physical assault, 19 instances of intimidation or stalking, and 15 situations that intentionally endangered the health of mask wearers. Alarmingly, three of these incidents targeted children.

Casting suspicion on maskers deepens societal divisions, undermines public health efforts, and increases the risk of harm and discrimination by both law enforcement and private citizens.

A Dangerous Precedent

The mask ban is fundamentally flawed legislation that causes confusion, invites abuse, and undermines public safety. It imposes unnecessary burdens on New Yorkers who wear masks for legitimate reasons and exacerbates systemic inequalities. And it erodes civil rights precisely when preserving those rights is imperative.

As attacks on individual freedoms become rampant, it is deeply troubling that Democrat lawmakers – who should be protecting these rights – are instead pushing measures that restrict them. Trading our rights for increased policing will help no one. Antisemitism is a real and complex problem, and enacting an unrelated and dangerous bill does nothing to solve it.

New Yorkers deserve better. Instead of addressing legitimate threats, the mask ban wastes time and resources on a non-issue, putting more New Yorkers in harm’s way.

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