NEW YORK — Police said Tuesday that the first arrests have been made in a New York City suburb under a new local law banning face masks.
Nassau County police said officers responded Sunday evening to reports of a suspicious person on a road near the city line between Levittown and Hicksville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Manhattan.
They found Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo wearing black clothing and a black ski mask that covered his face except for his eyes.
The department said the 18-year-old resident also exhibited other suspicious behavior, such as attempting to hide a large bulge in his waistband and refusing to comply with officers’ commands.
Officers said the bulge was from a 14-inch knife. Ramirez Castillo was arrested without further incident, police said.
According to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, he was arraigned Monday in Nassau County District Court in Hempstead on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and obstruction of public order.
Lt. Scott Skrynecki, a police department spokesman, said Ramirez Castillo will also face charges of mask violation in the coming days.
Bruce Blakeman, a Republican and Nassau County executive who signed the mask ban earlier this month, said Sunday’s arrest shows the rule is working.
“Our officers were able to use the mask ban and other factors to stop and question an individual who was carrying a weapon and attempting to commit a robbery,” he said in an emailed statement. “The passage of this bill gave police another tool to stop this dangerous criminal.”
Keith Ross, a criminal justice professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said police did not necessarily need the new law to stop and question Ramirez Castillo, but it strengthened their justification.
“The law gives the police at least reasonable suspicion to conduct a stop,” the retired New York police officer explained by phone. “With reasonable suspicion, police in New York State can forcibly stop a person if they are suspected of committing a crime or criminal offense, and that falls within the scope of this new law.”
But Scott Banks, chief counsel for the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, which represents Ramirez Castillo, disputed that notion.
“There is no reason to believe that wearing a face mask was intended to conceal identity or criminal behavior, and if that was the reason for the stop, I believe there is reason to conclude that the stop was unlawful,” he wrote in an email.
Skrynecki declined to comment, adding that police and county officials would discuss the incident at a press conference on Wednesday.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, which criticizes the new law, reiterated its warning that the mask ban was “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 the rights of people with disabilities, filed a lawsuit last week arguing that the mask requirement is unconstitutional and discriminates against people with disabilities.
The class action lawsuit in federal court seeks a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to immediately stop enforcement of the ban.
The county’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the Mask Transparency Act in response to “anti-Semitic incidents, often involving mask-wearing” since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
The law makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine for anyone in Nassau to wear a face covering in public to conceal their identity, except for people wearing masks “for health, safety, religious or cultural reasons, or for the peaceful observance of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event at which masks or face coverings are customarily worn.”
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This story was first published on August 27, 2024. It was updated on August 28, 2024, to correct the court in which the defendant was arraigned. It was Nassau County District Court in Hempstead, not Family Court in Westbury.
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Follow Philip Marcelo on twitter.com/philmarcelo.
