New York ABSOLUTELY should ban masked ‘protests’

Masked protesters march down city streets, specifically in Jewish neighborhoods, chanting in support of Hamas: It’s intimidation as twisted as a Klan rally in a black area.

That’s why Mayor Eric Adams wants a city ban on masked public demonstrations — and pretty obviously why the City Council is resisting.

The same ban was statewide law until lefties in the Legislature repealed it in 2020 (under the pretext of fighting COVID) and this year basically flipped off Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call to restore it.

Why progressives favor intimidating Jews (or other minorities) is a question for another time, and of course the council naysayers pretend their foot-dragging is about protecting civil liberties and/or fears the ban would be used to target Muslims or the immuno-compromised.

Hogwash! The state ban never brought any such abuse, in more than a century on the books. (Plus, the proposed bill includes medical necessity as an affirmative defense, and the only potential penalty is a fine.)

Nor is today’s majority-minority NYPD going to break new ground in oppression — as if any NYC judge would play along.

Nope: The council majority just hates cops and resists giving them any tools to make their jobs easier and the streets safer.

Note that the progs are literally siding with the Ku Klux Klan here.

The Klan challenged the state ban long ago, insisting the Constitution protects hood-wearing.

Not so! ruled future Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2004: Hiding your face to spread hate is not a right guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Adams is entirely right to push a mask ban now. No New Yorkers — Jewish, black, Muslim, Asian, whatever — should be subject to gangs of goons who feel emboldened by their anonymity to sow chaos.

How bad is the City Council? Even Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, an outspoken advocate against organized antisemitism, gets mealy-mouthed about the mayor’s ban: “I oppose Hezbollah masks, Klan masks, and ICE masks,” he told The Post. “No one should be allowed to wear a mask and intimidate people.”

Equating a Klan hood or a keffiyeh concealing a Hamas supporter’s face with the uniform of a federal officer is absurd and frankly offensive.

Klansmen and terrorists wear masks because they’re committing crimes, or want to. ICE officers are enforcing the law — and anyway New York City can’t legislate how federal officers dress or deploy.

Demanding that anti-mask laws also apply to ICE is just another lame dodge (and a cheap talking point).

New York City only works if everyone gets along with each other, and part of that social contract means meeting each other face-to-face.

Plainly, stopping to think about making the city work just isn’t a progressive thing.