Gov. Hochul is backing a statewide ban on wearing masks in public, and in some ways, we understand why. But there are too many problems and New York will be better off without it.
Masks are clearly a problem when people who assassinate health care insurance CEOs or rob banks or rip smartphones out of hands or incite violence with racist or bigoted remarks do so behind face-coverings. Once upon a time, such laws were on the books to stop the Ku Klux Klan from terrorizing Blacks, Catholics and Jews behind their white hoods.
But we’ve got questions about bringing these ordinances back in a post-COVID city and state.
It was a short five years ago that our leaders urged, indeed in many cases required, people to wear masks when in public. In a 2020 survey, 90% of New York City residents reported always or often wearing coverings when out and about. A couple of years later, 45% of New Yorkers asked told Siena College pollsters that an indoor public place mandate should remain in place.
Habits that took hold when that one frightening pathogen was floating in the air remain in place for plenty of New Yorkers either because they themselves are immunocompromised, or because they live or work with elderly or very young people who are vulnerable, or for other reasons. Indeed, we’re just getting through an especially nasty season for the flu, and RSV has been resurgent. Masks help protect from all sorts of contagious respiratory viruses, which is why many people in many Asian nations were wearing facemasks long before the world ever heard of COVID.
Hochul and other supporters of a mask ban are quick to point out that any New York prohibition includes health and religious exemptions. But how on earth would those work in practice?
When a police officer sees masked people at a raucous protest, is he supposed to take them aside and ask them for proof of a medical condition? Would an exemption cover those who aren’t at risk themselves but who are about to go see grandma and don’t want to accidentally pass along a nasty virus?
As for the religious exemption, we’re also stumped. Many devout Muslim women cover their faces with a niqab or burqa. So do some Muslim men, when they complement their taqiyya with a keffiyeh that’s wrapped around parts of the face. Again, imagine cops have to interpret what is allowed and what isn’t.
It was tough enough for employers and others to navigate the complexities of faith-based exemptions for those refusing vaccine mandates to determine whether they in fact sprung from deeply held religious beliefs or not. Are we really ready to enter a world in which police, when patrolling the streets, are trying to make these distinctions? Or where they are taking masked people into custody when they seem not to have good religious or health-based reasons for doing so?
If someone is harassing others or otherwise breaking the law, they can and should already be arrested by cops — masked or not. A mask ban that lets authorities tack on an extra charge might seem like a worthwhile policing tool, but it’s far far far more easily said than enforced.
