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We were just talking about this the other day. [IsraelTimes] Legislation would create crime of ‘masked intimidation,’ partially in response to anti-Israel protests and antisemitic hate crimes
Legislation that would crack down on masking, a priority for some Jewish groups, was introduced to the New York State legislature on Thursday, after the start of the state legislative session at the beginning of the year.
The legislation, if passed, would establish the crime of "masked harassment" when a person conceals their face "for the primary purpose of menacing or harassing."
Anti-masking legislation was introduced to the state legislature last summer, near the end of the state government’s legislative session, but failed to make it through the legislative process before the session ended. The bill introduced on Thursday differs from the legislation from last year.
State Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of the bill’s sponsors, told The Times of Israel he aims to pass the legislation by the end of the next session in June, while acknowledging that there will likely be opposition.
"People generally don’t wear masks for good reasons. We want this to happen this year. There’s going to be opposition, there’s no question," said Dinowitz, a Jewish politician from Assembly District 81 in the Bronx.
"People who wear masks do it for two reasons. One is for intimidation purposes, and two is they want to hide their identity," he said.
"New York state currently faces a new era of masked harassment and intimidation. Individuals who are targeting others with violence and intimidation are using masks and other face coverings as a tool to place their targets in fear of physical harm," the bill says.
The legislation includes exemptions for holidays, celebrations or costumes; physical safety, such as a welder wearing a protective mask; masks for weather, such as for winter sports; artistic or theatrical events; gas masks or protective gear for emergencies or drills; face coverings for religious purposes; and medical masks.
The bill is significantly different from the legislation introduced last year. That bill banned "concealment of identity in a lawful assembly, unlawful assembly, or riot," and had a more narrow set of exemptions. The new legislation does not mention public gatherings.
The new law would make masked harassment a violation, a non-criminal offense, and if the harassment takes place in conjunction with discrimination, it would become a misdemeanor, Dinowitz said.
The legislation would not "affect one particular ethnic group," Dinowitz said, while highlighting harassment against Jews since the start of the war.
"In the past year and three months, but even before then, Jewish people have been probably the largest target of hateful demonstrations and this is meant to combat that, but as I said, it applies to everybody," he said.
Masking has become a divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled ...
focal point in the debate over anti-Israel activism and protests in New York. Some Jewish groups have said agitators conceal their identities to intimidate and harass others, and that masking hinders prosecution for crimes including hate offenses and vandalism. Supporters of masking, including some leftist Jewish organizations, said the ban introduced last year would infringe on civil liberties and pose a health risk.
Jewish and Black community groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and NAACP, formed a coalition called UnMaskHateNY last year to support anti-masking legislation. The group announced the effort at a presser in June outside Columbia University, which has been rocked by anti-Israel protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas
 ..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
war.
On Tuesday, the first day of class for the spring semester, several masked protesters disrupted a class on Israel’s modern history led by an Israeli professor.
At other anti-Israel protests in New York, demonstrators often conceal their faces, including while committing antisemitic crimes.
"New legislation introduced today will bring back and strengthen a law prohibiting masked intimidation," UnMaskHateNY said in a Thursday statement. "The law pledges to finally protect New Yorkers from unchecked harassment and violence as masks and face coverings have been exploited to subject innocent New Yorkers to threats, violence and intimidation."
The ADL, The UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all...
also backed the legislation.
"This proposed legislation will bring back and strengthen a law prohibiting masked intimidation, not masks, which remain a critical public health tool. Under this law, you can wear a mask for lawful reasons, but not to hide your identity while committing another crime," Bragg said.
A group called Jews for Mask Rights came out against the measure, calling it ineffective and dangerous.
"This vague, subjective ’intent/intimidation’ language makes anyone a potential target. It’s a recipe for unnecessary harm and escalation," the group told The Times of Israel. "Amid the chaos of the current administration and escalating public health threats, this bill strips away fundamental rights, making everyone less safe."
The leftist Jews for Economic and Racial Justice is also opposed the new version of the bill, saying it was "not a serious approach" and focused on legal penalties, instead of more systemic change to combat hatred.
"New Yorkers — especially Jews and all minority groups vulnerable to acts of hate violence — deserve real solutions to the very real and serious issues of harassment and bias incidents," JFREJ told The Times of Israel. "That takes funding and investment in the kinds of programs we know address (a) violence, and (b) hate — but those are not as flashy as hate crimes legislation, and they take time to implement and yield results."
Dinowitz dismissed opposition to the bill as "nonsense," saying there were appropriate exemptions for health, safety and religious concerns, and that it would not infringe on protesters’ rights.
"If anybody has lost a job during the past year or more because of their activities, it might have been because they’ve done something that was particularly egregious, not because they were exercising their First Amendment rights," he said, citing anti-Israel activists who were punished for tearing down posters of Israeli hostages.
"We’ve got to have appropriate laws in effect to both, on the one hand, protect people’s right to participate in protests, but on the other hand, make sure that nobody is infringing on anybody else’s rights or engaging in any hate or discrimination," he said.
New York State had an anti-masking law dating back to the 1800s that was scrapped in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, to help stem the spread of the virus.
That's why. Good to know. Long Island’s conservative-leaning Nassau County passed a masking ban in response to anti-Israel protests in August. That measure was led by Mazi Pilip, an American-Israeli Republican politician. 
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