(The Center Square) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling for a statewide ban on wearing masks during protests, saying the current rules don’t do enough to deter demonstrators who shield their identities to commit acts of vandalism and violence.
In an interview Sunday, Adams called on state lawmakers to restore prepandemic restrictions on masks that allowed police to charge someone with a crime for congregating in public while wearing a mask or disguising their identity. He said the state’s rules, including changes approved by lawmakers earlier this year, are inadequate to protect public safety and prevent antisemitism.
“When you see people at a protest like that with masks on, some had gas masks on, it just emboldened them to do bad behavior,” Adams told NY1 during the interview. “And if we ban that from happening and people have to show their faces, they are less likely to commit some of the disorderly actions that we see at protests, even on our college campuses and what we saw in other municipalities.”…