‘Exactly like the KKK:’ Lawmakers say mask ban needs to happen ASAP

Jun 27, 2024

Pro Palestinian students lock arms, sing and chant outside Hamilton Hall.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers say a ban on protesters wearing masks on subways or at demonstrations is needed to protect against hate crimes. | Seyma Bayram/AP

MASK OFF: Lawmakers are getting serious about a mask ban on protesters.

Mayor Eric Adams already endorsed the idea. Gov. Kathy Hochul has pushed it again and again in recent weeks.

And now a group of Democratic Assembly members wants to bring lawmakers back to Albany to enact a ban they say is needed after some masked pro-Palestinian protesters intimidated Jewish New Yorkers at demonstrations and on the subway.

“We have never experienced in our lifetime the hatred that is being focused on Jewish people as we are now,” said Bronx Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, who is sponsoring a resolution to ban masks with state Sen. James Skoufis. “I don’t want to wait until January,” he said, calling for a special session on the issue.

New York used to have a ban on masks in public, dating back to an 1845 law enacted after violent tenant activists attacked and killed landlords while dressed as American Indians. The law was taken off the books during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the measure has been enforced at protests and litigated in the courts multiple times over the years.

Now moderate Democrats in the state, led by Hochul, want to bring the restrictions back as they increasingly look to distance themselves from the left flank of their party that has cheered on pro-Palestinian protests and aided efforts to unseat incumbent Democrats earlier this week.

The proposed ban has also helped Hochul message that she is tough on crime ahead of her 2026 election.

“No one should be able to hide under the cover of almost a full-face mask to commit these atrocities against fellow New Yorkers; that's where we have to draw the line,” the governor said on MSNBC Sunday.

Assemblymembers Brian Cunningham, Nily Rozic and Dinowitz gathered today with Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, near Columbia University to rally for the proposed ban. They repeatedly compared the pro-Palestinian protesters to the Ku Klux Klan as they argued for the measure.

“I'm saying they’re exactly like the KKK, in my opinion,” Dinowitz said. “They both wear things that cover their eyes.”

“These individuals are employing KKK tactics, and we've seen it throughout history,” Greenblatt also said.

Dinowitz’s bill carves out exceptions for face coverings worn for religious observances or to protect against public health emergencies, but Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins expressed concerns about how it would work. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told Playbook last week he supported the ban.

Groups like the New York Civil Liberties Union are already working to prevent a mask ban.

“The Governor’s concerns about masks disguising criminal activity won’t be quelled by banning anonymous peaceful protest,” Donna Lieberman, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Mask bans were originally developed to squash political protests and, like other laws that criminalize people, they will be selectively enforced — used to arrest, doxx, surveil, and silence people of color and protestors the police disagree with.” — Jason Beeferman

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From the Capitol

Newly installed traffic cameras will charge drivers entering midtown and lower Manhattan.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's decision to indefinitely pause the congestion pricing program is supported by about half of Democrats in the state, according to a recent poll. | Ted Shaffrey/AP

PRICED OUT: Half of Democratic voters in New York City are supportive of Hochul’s indefinite pause of the congestion pricing program, according to a poll by Slingshot Strategies.

The survey of 1,424 Democrats in the city found a 50 percent to 32 percent spread in support of Hochul’s surprise decision. The results are in line with a Siena College poll released last week that also found an 18-percent gap among Democrats in backing the governor.

Hochul’s reversal on the toll program angered the business leaders and transit activists who had pushed for congestion pricing.

Micah Lasher, a former top policy adviser to Hochul who won a Democratic primary for a Manhattan Assembly seat this week, told NY1 today he believes the pause is a “mistake.”

“Congestion pricing was the right policy and is still the right policy,” Lasher said.

But Hochul has insisted that $15 tolls during peak hours would be unaffordable for many of the people who must drive into Manhattan and harm a delicate post-pandemic economic recovery. — Nick Reisman

NOT ENOUGH LATINOS: The state’s Puerto Rican and Hispanic Task Force says the Governor’s recent slate of 148 appointees lacks diversity, with only 13 of those appointees of Latino or Hispanic descent.

“We are unsatisfied with Governor Hochul's recent list of confirmed administration appointees,” Assemblymember Karines Reyes, the chair of the task force, said in a statement. “We encourage Governor Hochul's administration to consider more Latino/Hispanic appointees,” she added.

Though Hispanics represent about 19 percent of the state, just 9 percent of Hochul’s appointees are from Latino or Hispanic backgrounds.

Hochul’s office responded to Reyes in a statement.

"Governor Hochul proudly appointed the most diverse cabinet in New York State's history, and Latino leaders are serving at the highest levels of this Administration and within the Executive Chamber,” Hochul’s spokesperson Avi Small said. “The Governor will continue her efforts to make appointments and nominations that reflect the diversity of our state and lift up the voices of all New Yorkers." — Jason Beeferman

IN OTHER NEWS

— TRAFFIC DEATHS UP: Deaths from car crashes rose more than 25 percent between 2019 to 2022, a new report from the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, finds. In 2022, there were 1,175 traffic deaths, the highest number since 2013.

— WHERE’D ALL THE KIDS GO?: New York City has 186,000 fewer children and teens than it did four years ago. (The New York Times)

— NYPD OVERSIGHT LACKS: Police commissioner Edward Caban has shut down discipline cases against fellow officers through an obscure authority known as “retention.” (The New York Times)

— TOP COP CLEARED: NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell was cleared of charges brought against him by an oversight board. He was accused of abusing his authority when he ordered a photojournalist be arrested during a protest last year. (New York Post)

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