Man first to be charged in New York with wearing mask in public

A man on Long Island has been arrested and charged with possessing a knife and wearing a face mask in public, a milestone moment in the debate over whether to criminalize masks in New York state.

The push to ban masks in some public settings began in June after some pro-Palestinian demonstrators covered their faces during protests. They said that they had done so to avoid online harassment, though some activists used the anonymity provided by their masks to harass people or to engage in acts of vandalism.

The man arrested Sunday, Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18, the first to face charges under a mask ban passed this month in Nassau County, New York, was not engaged in protest. He was walking down Spindle Road, a residential street of tidy lawns and single-family homes in Hicksville, wearing dark clothes and a ski mask in August, the county police said in a statement.

Christopher Boyle, a spokesperson for the Nassau County executive, Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who championed the anti-mask law, said Castillo "was on the street corner, and somebody called in a suspicious person."

When police officers arrived, they frisked Castillo and discovered a 14-inch knife in the waistband of his pants, the department said in a statement Tuesday. He was charged Monday with several crimes, including criminal possession of a weapon and a violation of the mask law.

"Our police officers were able to use the mask ban legislation as well as other factors to stop and interrogate an individual who was carrying a weapon with the intent to engage in a robbery," Blakeman said in a statement. "Passing this law gave police another tool to stop this dangerous criminal."

Scott Banks, the chief attorney of the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, said Legal Aid was representing Castillo. Banks declined to comment on the case.

The law, the Mask Transparency Act, makes it a misdemeanor to wear a face covering in public for reasons other than health or religion. It was passed by the county's Republican-controlled Legislature this month.

Masks that are not worn for health or religious reasons "are often used as a predicate to harassing, menacing or criminal behavior," the legislators wrote in the bill. Violators could face a fine of up to $1,000, up to a year in jail, or both.

In June, a coalition of civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the National Urban League, called for the state to ban "masked intimidation," which the group illustrated on social media with videos of masked protesters from both the left and the right. The coalition said masks allowed people to anonymously commit crimes, which it compared to the tactics of the Ku Klux Klan.

But others warned that such a ban could have serious unintended consequences.

Some feared the proposal was meant to crack down on pro-Palestinian speech, and others warned it could harm efforts to combat the coronavirus, potentially endangering immunocompromised people and people with disabilities. Not long ago, the state heralded face masks as a tool against the spread of Covid.

Others warned that a mask ban could provide police officers with a pretext to stop people of color and frisk them on sidewalks, subways or other public places.

On Tuesday, Beth Haroules, a senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said masks "protect people's health and their ability to speak out" and warned that the arrest of Castillo showed that the measure was "ripe for selective enforcement by a police department with a history of aggression and discrimination."

"Trumpeting today's arrest to justify the county's mask ban is silly," Haroules added. "Reporting suggests black clothes were also involved. One wonders whether the county will soon ban those too.