Early in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve, a man was violently thrown in front of an oncoming subway train in Manhattan. According to Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman from the Bronx with his eyes on higher office, the alleged perpetrator was—unsurprisingly—wearing a mask.
“Wearing a mask for the purpose of committing crimes against innocent New Yorkers or for the purpose of intimidating and harassing Jewish students on college campuses should be strictly prohibited by state law,” Torres posted on X.
As it happens, New York State had the oldest anti-masking law in the nation but repealed it during the pandemic. Torres is correct in calling for its reinstatement. He’s also right to connect the state legislature’s failure to do so to the abuse of Jewish college students by pro-Hamas fanatics. The State Assembly considered two bills to bring the ban back last year, but didn’t act amid pushback from left-wing groups.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Jewish Policy Center
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Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
