Wearing Masks In Public Is Illegal

Yup. As ridiculous as it sounds, in this great "free" country of ours, you can't even wear a mask in public.

www.charter.net...

Man Arrested for Wearing Grinch Mask
Thursday, May 26, 2005 11:46 AM EDT
The Associated Press

City and county attorneys are defending Wheeling police who arrested a man for wearing a Grinch mask while walking along a city street.

Norman Eugene Gray, 42, of Proctor was arrested Tuesday. He was arraigned and released on a personal recognizance bond.

Officers saw Gray about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, told him to take the mask off and not put it on again. Gray removed it and asked why he could not wear it, according to Wheeling police reports. Officers told him wearing masks in public is illegal.

Gray said he felt he had a right to wear it and said it was not illegal. He put the mask back on and was arrested. The mask was confiscated.

Wheeling City Solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth and Ohio County Prosecutor Scott Smith said masks as well as dark window tinting in vehicles can pose a safety hazard to law enforcement officers and hinder efforts to identify criminal suspects.

Masks present a danger to police officers eh? Notice their defense of this ridiculousness is identifying criminal suspects, so this guy walking down the street was a criminal before he did anything wrong.. thought crime folks.

Some people look better in masks!

I think this is happening because bank robbers, store robbers, etc, have tried pulling heists specially during holloween week.

I ran a store once, and if i was alone and someone tried to get in wearing a mask....Forget it! Go find yourself another victim. I'd bolt the door.

I really cant say this is a bad idea given everything i mentioned

Besides, how is big brother supposed to watch you? hee hee...

This is such a big country with so many diffuse, distributed governmental agencies. Of course you are going to find STUPID things like this going on! Cherrypicking them as examples of "Political Conspiracies" is disingenious at best though. If this is upheld in the Supreme Court of the United States, then it'd be news...until then it's a funny curiousity.

I wear my mask only when I choose to.

Are Wheeling Police also cracking down on burqa-wearing Muslim women?

With each passing week, we welcome the Police State more and more into our lives!

Looks like a terrorist to me

dgtempe I understand what you're saying, but what 'they' are saying has some creepy and far reaching implications. This guy is guilty of no more than having the Potential to be a criminal. He was charged as though the wearing of a mask is somehow inducive to criminality. If he robbed a store, or mugged somebody wearing the mask, then yeah fry his arse, but he wasn't doing anything. I fear the last point you made about benig watched has a great deal to do with local lelgislations like this, hard to keep and eye on somebody is you can't tell who they are.

Twitchy, i hear you. The bottom line is you cant be watched if you are wearing a mask

I can understand questioning someone wearing a mask at an odd moment.

But, actually persecuting him for that? That just doesn't seem right and in the spirit of law.

I'm pretty sure the mask laws were enacted to stop the Ku Klux Klan's terrorist activities.

Ok, I did a quick Google.

Court rulings have allowed Klan marches -- with the masks off.
CNN

So . . . what it means? Now we have to wait until Hallowing to wear our mask

Well oh well, all we need now is the banning of hallowing mask use, using the same logic the police and judge applied when Mr. Grey used his mask in public.

Hell, I wonder what will be next.

Dark big sun glasses?

Originally posted by curme
I'm pretty sure the mask laws were enacted to stop the Ku Klux Klan's terrorist activities.

Ok, I did a quick Google.

Court rulings have allowed Klan marches -- with the masks off.
CNN

That is one facet of a much larger stone I'm afraid.

Kind of funny though the pic you posted, they don't look nearly as intimidating without their hoods, just some rednecks.

I think you're overlooking the seriousness of this guy's crime..

I mean..he stole Christmas for Christ's sake!

(no pun intended, honest)

I think this is a foolish law. It's one thing that banks and other businesses require their patrons to remove masks and hats and hoods when entering their premises, but it's another thing to tell people they can't wear what they please while walking on the street or hanging out by their house.

Eyewitness accounts are sketchy at best..(ok, pun intended) so I don't see the rationale in limiting personal freedom in order to improve the chances of an eyewitness identification (assuming the person has commited a crime, or plans to commit a crime).

The problem is, as Twitchy said, this man was assumed to be a criminal before he had done anything wrong. This type of situation could be dissolved by civil disobedience. That's assuming anyone besides this guy wants to wear a mask in public...

Is he really that ugly?

Originally posted by marg6043


Hell, I wonder what will be next.

Dark big sun glasses?

Yup. Specially the big ones in style now.

Well, a guy at a theater showing SWE3 was robbed by someone dressed up as Darth Vader. Kinda like a woman at a drag queen festival robbing the place.

Yes, I can't see someone being arrested for wearing a mask...isn't that the pursuit of happiness I'd hate to see how 'free' we will be in a few hundred years.

You really have to ask yourself though....How many officers on the beat are going to take their time to stop and warn you or arrest you simply b/c you're wearing a mask....

I mean...Unless you're standing around with a group of other people wearing masks in front of a bank - Or causing some kind of ruckus...

Why the hell anyone would be walking around wearing a mask in public is beyond me though....I guess they're trying to make some kind of satirical comment or something?



[edit on 6/2/2005 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

It should NOT be illegal to wear masks in public if you are not commiting a
crime, escaping apprehension, or scaring people. If I wanna wear a mask
in public 4 fun, why sould I be punished for it when hired costumed
characters, muslim women with veils, and undercover officers can
legally wear them? I do not trust in a government that passes, upholds.
and enforces such an UNFAIR law.

I think it's a tad bit harsh to arrest someone for wearing a mask. However it does obviously look suspicious for someone to be walking down a street wearing a mask if they aren't going to some function that masks would be appropriate at.

He probably was arrested more for putting the mask back on rather than wearing the mask to begin with.

Im gonna go on the side of the cops with this one. Wearing a mask in MAY is a bit weird, suspicious and makes me wonder what this guy was up to to begin with.

It's kind of stupid if it's in essence to preventing robberies because obviously someone walking around with a mask on any day except holloween can't be that dumb and if they were would be easily apprehended.

Besides with a little practice you can use special effects or make molds and use prostetic pieces to alter your appearence without drawing suspicion to yourself.

[edit on 14/1/2009 by Revealation]

People wearing masks in public definitely should not be tolerated.

And also people that don't cover the genitals of their animals should be charged with indecent exposure. I for one find the genitals of animals very offensive and local, state and federal statutes should be instituted to stop this flagrant moral crime. If LEO have the time to arrest people with masks, surely charging people that allow their animals to expose themselves would be more than appropriate.