So much for freedom and personal liberties.
Leaving interpretation up to law enforcement is demanding that they abuse it. Its the point of discretion.
“…But Republican legislators continued to express doubt that someone would get in legal trouble for masking because of health concerns, saying law enforcement and prosecutors would use discretion on whether to charge someone. Newton said the bill focuses on criminalizing masks only for the purpose of concealing one’s identity…”
I don’t have faith that people would not get harassed or feel threatened by somebody because they are wearing a mask for health reasons. The law discourages mask use.
During the height of Covid, there were countless stories of unmasked people verbally harassing mask wearers in public out of the South. I’m talking frothing at the mouth, in their face, furious that this person would wear a mask. Once the law is on their side, I suspect this will get worse.
project 2025 is already happening.
What about on Halloween?
Come on bird flu, do your thing.
Opponents of the bill say it risks the health of those masking for safety reasons. But those backing the legislation say it is a needed response to the demonstrations, including those at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that escalated to police clashes and arrests.
The bill also further criminalizes the blockage of roads or emergency vehicles for a protest, which has occurred during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Raleigh and Durham.
I feel like if you just told them this criminalizes klan hoods they’d back off…
It’s not stated well in that article but the bill actually has an exception for secret societies to request permits to wear masks for parades and such. A Democrat state rep (forget her name) pointed out this explicitly would protect the KKK but not regular folk wanting to, say, legally protest Palestine murders, because everyone knows they would be denied permits.
Earlier versions of this bill kept failing until they added what people are calling the KKK exception.
That’s fuckin wild. How many ‘secret societies’ wear masks for parades and such? This stuff is getting so close to open fascism.
