A suburban New York county on Long Island issued its first arrest over the weekend in relation to a new mask ban that prohibits protesters from wearing facial coverings in public spaces while providing exceptions for people who wear masks for medical or religious reasons, local authorities said Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman signed the Mask Transparency Act into law after the Republican-controlled legislature unanimously passed the bill. Nassau County police pointed to the recent arrest as proof that the ban works.
Police identified Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18, as the first person arrested under the new law. Wearing a mask and all-black clothing, the man was arrested Sunday evening in response to reports of suspicious behavior. Officers spotted a bulge in his waistband — the bulge happened to be a 14-inch knife. The suspect initially refused to comply as he was placed under arrest. No injuries were reported during the encounter.
Castillo was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second-degree obstruction of governmental administration, and violation of the Mask Transparency Act. He was arraigned in court on Monday.
Blakeman’s office hailed the arrest as a “success” for its newly enacted mask ban.
The Nassau County Police Department has said it wasn’t aware of any other Mask Transparency Act violations since the law was enacted on August 14 while defending its decision to enforce the mask ban. “To be able to facilitate these investigations, we need to unmask them,” a police spokesperson told NBC New York.
Critics argue the law infringes on citizens’ free-speech rights, with the New York Civil Liberties Union saying it “chills political action and is ripe for selective enforcement, leading to doxxing, surveillance, and retaliation against protesters.”
Meanwhile, Nassau County police commissioner Patrick Ryder assured lawmakers that officers will only arrest someone who wears a mask for criminal reasons and not for medical or religious reasons. If officers are unsure of the situation, they are allowed to approach the suspect and investigate.
“We are not going to just arrest someone for wearing a mask. We are going to go up to the person and talk to them and find out,” Ryder said during testimony to the legislature before the bill was passed this month.
Still, the new law has already received its first legal challenge. The Disability Rights of New York filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Nassau County last week, claiming the mask ban discriminates against people with disabilities. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the Mask Transparency Act from being enforced any further while it plays out in court.
The measure notably exempts people who wear masks for health, safety, “religious or cultural purposes, or for the peaceful celebration of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event for which masks or facial coverings are customarily worn,” according to its text.
The bill classifies mask-wearing in the context of a public protest as a misdemeanor. Those who violate the new law can serve up to one year in jail, receive a $1,000 fine, or face both punishments.
It was introduced in response to “antisemitic incidents, often perpetrated by those in masks” in the months since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Republican county legislator Howard Kopel said. Nassau County was no exception to that alarming trend.
Republican lawmakers moved forward with the bill after Governor Kathy Hochul announced in June that she was considering a potential ban on mask-wearing in the New York City subway system due to rampant antisemitic incidents in recent months. No formal plan to enact such a ban has been announced.
In April, the Anti-Defamation League reported that New York alone accounts for nearly 14 percent of all reported antisemitic incidents across the U.S. in 2023, a statistic clearly exacerbated by October 7.