US states poised to criminalise mask wearing amid Palestinian protests

State US legislators and law enforcement are reinstating dormant laws that criminalise mask-wearing to penalise pro-Palestinian protesters who conceal their faces, raising concerns among covid-cautious Americans, reports Washington Post. 

The report said republican lawmakers in North Carolina are poised to overturn Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's recent veto of legislation to criminalize masking. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) said this month she supports legislative efforts to ban masks on the subway, citing an incident in which masked protesters on a train shouted: "Raise your hands if you're a Zionist. This is your chance to get out." 

Meanwhile, student protesters in Ohio, Texas and Florida have been threatened with arrest for covering their faces.

Decades-old laws against masking — often crafted in response to the hooded terror of the Ku Klux Klan — are on the books in at least 18 states and DC, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. 

Lawmakers in some areas passed legislation to create health exemptions during the coronavirus pandemic while other authorities vowed not to enforce the statutes.

Immunocompromised Americans and civil libertarians who have long criticized mask bans as a cudgel against protesters of police shootings, economic inequality and environmental injustice say the bans are being revived because covid is no longer treated as a public health emergency. 

Coronavirus levels in wastewater are reaching high levels across much of the Sun Belt and Florida, early indications of a summer covid wave, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lawmakers eager to reinstate pre-pandemic mask restrictions say legislation would not target medically vulnerable people and others trying to avoid respiratory viruses. But critics say such an approach would be impractical and sets mask wearers up for further ostracization and harassment by police and fellow citizens.