Likening it to the effort to bring down the Ku Klux Klan, national civil rights leaders are launching an “#UnmaskHateNY” campaign urging the passing of laws barring bigots from using face coverings to hide their identities while harassing or terrorizing Jews, blacks and other Americans.
“Those who carried out the violence at Charlottesville and on Jan. 6 may have felt there would be no repercussions. They were wrong, but only because we saw their faces,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, referring to the deadly white power rally in Virginia in 2017 and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Had they been masked, not only would they have gotten away with literal murder, but they would have been emboldened to continue and escalate the violence,” he added.
The #UnmaskHateNY coalition will finance a paid media ad campaign throughout the summer and fall to raise awareness about the drive to outlaw “masked intimidation with intent” to harass and terrorize others, a spokesman said.
Jewish leaders have told The Post that escalating antisemitism in New York has reached breaking point — with some comparing the city to the 1930s and the rise of Nazism.
Hateful vandals recently splattered red paint on the home of the Brooklyn Museum director and Jewish board members, and at least two homes were also daubed with a red triangle symbol that Hamas uses to denote targets marked for death.
Many of the crimes are committed by masked vandals or harassers traveling in groups spreading hate-filled terror, including in the subway.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said “antisemitic and harassing” conduct has erupted on New York streets and campuses of “our most elite institutions” in recent months.
“We have noticed a common, alarming trend. Many of those who are protesting are engaging in harassment and intimidation behind masks to conceal their identities and to terrorize their targets. We say enough is enough,” he said.
“UnMaskHateNY will hold those who engage in this harmful conduct accountable and make all of our communities safer.”
Hazel Dukes, the longtime president of the New York State Conference of the NAACP, said, “Black communities know all too well that individuals who hide their identities with intent to terrorize, intimidate or harass are a threat to all of our safety and have no place in New York.
“Reinstating New York’s masking laws will protect New Yorkers from some of the most terrifying periods in our history; when the Klan menaced black Americans, faces covered, without accountability. We can’t let history repeat itself,” she added.
The coalition will announce the mask ban campaign during a press conference Thursday outside Columbia University, whose own task force investigating antisemitism has found a disturbing pattern of bias against Jews while anti-Israel vandals took over a campus building.
“Dangerous and despicable actions such as intentionally covering your face to go hunting for Jews inside of a NYC subway should not feel the comfort of state law,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, a member of the coalition.
Eric Goldstein, CEO of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York said “masked intimidation cannot be allowed in our city. This diverse coalition is critical in helping to reduce the escalating and frightening harassment of New Yorkers.”
Elected officials who are part of the coalition include Assembly members Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx), Brian Cunningham (D-Brooklyn), and Queens Democrats Nily Rozic and Jennifer Raju Rajkumar as well as newly designated Manhattan Democratic Assembly nominee Micah Lasher. They are expected to attend the press conference.
Dinowitz is one of the lawmakers who proposed legislation to reimpose a mask ban for participants in protests that was repealed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a law, if approved, would likely provide an exemption for those who have medical issues or wear coverings for religious reasons.
Gov. Kathy and state Attorney General Letitia James have expressed support for prohibiting hate-mongers from covering their identities with masks.
