Police in the New York City suburbs made the first arrest under a new local law prohibiting face masks, officials announced Tuesday. Nassau County Police say officers on Sunday night made the arrest after responding to reports of a suspicious person on a street. They found 18-year-old Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo wearing black clothing and a black ski mask that covered his face, except for his eyes. The department said at Castillo displayed other suspicious behavior, including refusing to comply with the officer's commands - and attempting to conceal a large bulge in his waistband that turned out to be a 14-inch knife, The Associated Press reports. Ramirez Castillo was arraigned Monday on misdemeanor charges of criminal possession of a weapon and obstructing governmental administration -- and will also be facing a misdemeanor violation of the county's new face-mask law.
Sunday's arrest showed that the rule is working, said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who signed the mask ban into law earlier this month. However, the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has criticized the new law, repeated its warning that the mask ban is “ripe for selective enforcement by a police department with a history of aggression and discrimination.” Disability Rights of New York, a group that advocates for people with disabilities, filed a legal challenge last week arguing that the mask law is unconstitutional and discriminates against people with disabilities. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to immediately stop enforcement of the ban. The Mask Transparency Act was approved by the county’s Republican-controlled legislature and makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone in Nassau to wear a face covering to hide their identity in public. It 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.”.
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