A criminal. California Penal Code sec. 185:
It shall be unlawful for any person to wear any mask, false whiskers, or any personal disguise (whether complete or partial) for the purpose of:
One--Evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of any public offense.
Two--Concealment, flight, or escape, when charged with, arrested for, or convicted of, any public offense. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.Probably an anti-KKK law. It would be entertaining to see it used against the masked and uniformed antifas. (Just like the 1920s and 1950s Democratic Party auxillary with white hoods and robes.) 9/4/17 Los Angeles Times reports on question of whether to treat antifa as a street gang. A list of states with mask laws driven by concern about wearing surgical masks.
IIRC, during the Spanish Flu epidemic about 1919-1920, various cities (and possibly states) required everyone in public to wear medical type masks, and forbade shaking hands.
ReplyDeleteToday's citizens would be horrified at the toll that pandemic had on the US, and the rest of the world. Most don't even know of it. We are overdue for another one, and the death toll will be incredible, as it's usually calculated in %'s of population. Lot higher numbers now. Airliners will guarantee a higher percentage of loss than traditional, as the illness will be spread much faster. No .gov will stop the planes early enough.
According to the NYT, the California mask law was struck down in 1979:
ReplyDeleteIranian-Americans in California sued over the law, saying it kept them from shielding their identities for safety purposes in protests against the new leadership in Iran. The law was struck down.
“The California court recognized, and other courts recognize, that people wear masks in all sorts of situations for completely nonviolent and, in fact, purposes that are protected by the First Amendment,” Michael T. Risher, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said in an interview.
After that case, the state enacted a far narrower provision: It is illegal to wear a mask in the act of committing a crime. The University of California, Berkeley, also has its own regulation for masks: People who are not affiliated with the university cannot wear masks on campus for the purpose of intimidation.
And obviously the amenable authorities running California's cities have no intentions of suppressing their party's paramilitary wing, although the national party line on antifa recently changed.