In response to immigration raids by masked federal officers in Los Angeles and across the nation, two California lawmakers on Monday proposed a new state law to ban members of law enforcement from concealing their faces while on the job.
The bill would make it a misdemeanor for local, state and federal law enforcement officers to cover their faces with some exceptions, and also encourage them to wear a form of identification on their uniform.
“We’re really at risk of having, effectively, secret police in this country,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), co-author of the bill.
I get it for that balaclava stuff, which doesn’t have a lot of functional use unless it’s very cold.
But cops are gonna sometimes need to wear a gas mask, and that’s gonna obscure features.
That’s one of the main exceptions mentioned in the article:
But I can see the claim of “health reasons” being abused.
Smoke inhalation too, because of smoke grenades and flashbangs
And theres the problem of frequent blood spatter. College kids and old people bleed a lot.
Is there a reason why SWAT gets a general exception?
Tactical breaching equipment has head and facial protection on just about everything.
It’s likely phrased in the law as closer to while serving on a swat team, as in they’re actively wearing a ballistic face shield and gas mask for legitimate reasons.
It’s a prime opportunity for things to get lost in translation between the law, the person talking to the press, and the report.
They will absolutely claim they need it for protection from Covid. And it all of a sudden won’t hinder their breathing at all.
Which would be obnoxiously ironic, considering how police unions fought tooth and nail against mask mandates during the pandemic. Fucking idiots.
Maybe they shouldn’t be committing war crimes on civilians.