New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, is considering reimposing a ban on face masks in the Big Apple’s transit system over allegations that masked protesters are taking advantage of identity-concealing face wear to stage antisemitic attacks.
The governor has not spelled out details of the policy or people who may be exempted. But she has said that she is motivated to act by “a group donning masks that took over a subway car, scaring riders and chanting things about [Nazi dictator Adolf] Hitler and wiping out Jews”.
Hochul may have been referring to a recent episode involving a pro-Palestinian rally in which a man led a small group on a New York City subway car in chanting: “Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist – this is your chance to get out.”
Another man is reported to have shouted allusions to the Holocaust, saying: “I wish Hitler was still here. He would’ve wiped all you out.”
However, neither men was reported to have been masked.
“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul said on Thursday, adding that “on a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes”.
The potential move comes close to four years after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic during which New Yorkers initially struggled to obtain enough masks to slow the spread of the virus. Masks then became a defining feature of the era, but recommendations to wear them have been dropped as protective vaccines have become available and the rate of spread has slowed.
New York has historically had a push-and-pull relationship with face coverings dating to 1845, when they were banned in response to attacks by tenant farmers on landlords. That ban was repealed in 2020 in response to Covid, and masks became mandatory for two years until September 2022.
Hochul, who last week put on hold a plan to charge drivers for entering lower Manhattan over concerns it could interfere with the city’s ongoing economic recovery, said the mask issue was “complex”.
“We’re just listening to people and addressing their needs and taking them very seriously,” she added.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have said that wearing masks is necessary because of police surveillance and threats by some employers in the finance industry that participating in demonstrations could render protesters unemployable.
On this issue, Hochul appears to have the backing of the New York City mayor, Eric Adams. He told the political talk-radio show Cats & Cosby this week that “people have hid under the guise of wearing a mask for Covid to commit criminal acts and vile acts. Now is the time to go back to the way it was pre-Covid, where you should not be able to wear a mask at protests and our subway systems and other places.”
Adams went on to invoke the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. “Those civil rights leaders did not hide their faces,” Adams said. “They stood up. In contrast to that, the [Ku Klux] Klan hid their faces. Cowards hide their faces when they want to do something disgraceful.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
