New York’s Nassau County enacted a first-in-the-nation post-pandemic mask ban Wednesday — but don’t expect it to be rolled out statewide as Gov. Kathy Hochul threw off her mask of support for a law targeting face coverings.
The bill, signed by Nassau Country Executive Bruce Blakeman, prohibits anyone over 16 years of age from wearing masks or other face coverings on public streets and property — with exceptions for health and safety reasons or religious custom.
Blakeman said the ban — which drew protests when the Nassau County legislature approved it last week — would protect the public.
The lawmaker evoked the chaotic and hateful scenes of anti-Israel protests that recently gripped the Big Apple.
“In New York City at Columbia University, people wearing masks were engaged in antisemitic acts, engaged in violence, tried to abridge people’s constitutional rights,” he said.
“They occupied buildings, they tried to occupy roads and bridges and disrupt people’s lives …. all while wearing a mask.”
Gov. Hochul previously suggested she would support a partial mask ban for New York City’s subways amid a wave of disturbing antisemitic incidents by masked protesters.
However, in an apparent about-face, the governor said Wednesday that she instead favors a law that targets hooligans who wear masks while committing crimes with harsher penalties — rather than a preemptive ban.
“What I have said is I think we need to have an enhanced penalty for someone who is wearing a mask during the commission of a crime,” Hochul said when pressed by The Post if she would sign a mask ban into law.
“I’m talking about something different than just a flat-out ban. I’m talking about people who go on a subway train wearing a mask, disguising themselves and threatening individuals and wreaking havoc — that’s what I want to get at. Or walk into a store wearing this kind of mask and disguise themselves from the cameras that are there to capture any crimes that are committed.”
Meanwhile, the Nassau County signing ceremony drew Jewish victims of antisemitism, who spoke in support of unmasking hateful protesters.
Joseph Borgen recounted being beaten and pepper sprayed by masked “Palestinian thugs” during a 2021 clash in Midtown — an incident that made him second guess wearing his yarmulke in public.
Borgen noted it took years for Manhattan prosecutors to indict one of his attackers, who only ended up with a sweetheart plea deal.
“We couldn’t identify him 100% positively,” he said. “If he wasn’t wearing a mask he would have been arrested with all the other thugs years ago.”
Blakeman insisted that the ban wouldn’t just curb crimes at protests. He argued that the law is a broader measure that will be used to clamp down on masked criminals who carjack, shoplift and rob banks.
The lawmaker also said the action has “bipartisan support,” noting that Mayor Eric Adams wants the City Council to pass such a ban.
“No one has the constitutional right to hide their identity in public,” he said.
New York repealed a nearly 200-year-old mask ban as the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
But a recent spate of antisemitic incidents as the war in Gaza rages on — including a masked hooligan demanding that “Zionists” raise their hands on a crowded subway train — has prompted Jewish leaders to call for reinstating the ban.
Doing so would help hold hateful anti-Israel protesters accountable for violent or threatening behavior, they argued.
Critics, however, blasted the law as an infringement on rights.
Susan Gottehrer, Nassau County regional director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Blakeman chose to chase a culture war over protecting his residents’ rights and well-being.
“We’ll say it again: masks protect people who express political opinions that are controversial,” she said in a statement. “Officials should be supporting New Yorkers’ right to voice their views, not fueling widespread doxxing and threatening arrests.”
State Sen. Iwen Chu (D-Brooklyn) agreed bad behavior hidden behind masks should have consequences — but said she worried that the Nassau ban would lead to discrimination and hate against those who wear masks for health reasons, especially those from Asian cultures hit by SARS and COVID-19.
“Many Asians over the world have adopted this mask culture and sense of public safety as a societal responsibility to prevent health crises from spreading,” she said in a statement.
“Legislation like this may lead to anti-Asian hate and discrimination towards the mask needed population due to health, culture, religious reasons.”
