Hochul quiet on increased penalties for mask-donning criminals as pols make another push

New York lawmakers are set to weigh a bill that would increase penalties for mask-wearing creeps even as Gov.Kathy Hochul appears to have abandoned the effort she’d backed as the city saw a wave of antisemitic incidents last year.Despite lip service about bringing back a pre-covid ban last year as masked antisemitic thugs were anonymously threatening Jews, any mention of masks was conspicuously absent from Hochul’s state of the state and budget addresses – major signals about her policy agenda for the year.“I have said I would consider language that says if you commit a crime while wearing a mask, there should be enhanced penalties and the process is not over yet,” Hochul told reporters last week asked about the topic of masks being absent from her state of the state agenda.The newly reintroduced bill is not a straight up ban on mask wearing, but would create the low level crime of “masked harassment”.

The violation-level penalty would specifically target someone who harasses another while wearing a mask for the “primary purpose of menacing or threatening violence.”It would also add mask-wearing as a potential criteria for an escalated penalty of “aggravated harassment,” where a masked person physically attacks another.Both penalties include well-outlined exceptions for medical and religious purposes as well as holidays, performing arts, sporting competitions, someone’s professional occupation like a welder wearing a welding mask.“This legislation is overdue and needed ASAP,” Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx), the bill’s assembly sponsor, wrote.While pols have been calling for a straight up ban on masks to be reimplemented since it was lifted during the pandemic, those calls have grown louder after a wave of antisemitic incidents following the Oct.7 2023 attack on Israel.“It is critical that this public safety measure passes to protect all New Yorkers and stop the epidemic of individuals using masks and face coverings to eva...