North Carolina Senate votes to ban people from wearing masks in public

[Yoda]

Does this include Proud Boys/3 Percenters/Oath Keepers/Whatever-the-domestic-Nazis-are-calling-themselves-these-days marches?

I ask b/c it honestly wouldn't surprise me if NC Republicans wrote in an exception to the law for their most loyal voters - cowards who wear masks and carry tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us."

Or did they just stop at virtue signaling against efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases?

[wnwnwn]

I think he tried to say Murica instead of Murcia.

A ME RI CA.....
Wtf is a kilometer?
I hAtE broccoli
Mac n cheese!!!
T Bone baby 
This land is my land, NIMBY!
WaLkInG iS 4 pEaSaNtS

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Does this include Proud Boys/3 Percenters/Oath Keepers/Whatever-the-domestic-Nazis-are-calling-themselves-these-days marches?

I ask b/c it honestly wouldn't surprise me if NC Republicans wrote in an exception to the law for their most loyal voters - cowards who wear masks and carry tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us."

Or did they just stop at virtue signaling against efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases?

No there isn't anything like that at all. The bill removes an exception in a longstanding law that was placed in response to the COVID epidemic, and adds enhanced penalties for wearing a mask while committing a crime. It also adds sections stating that religious institutions can't be placed under more restrictions than non-religious institutions, and adds penalties for blocking emergency vehicles and repeat offenses of blocking traffic.

https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H237v4.pdf

[Christian Man]

Does this include Proud Boys/3 Percenters/Oath Keepers/Whatever-the-domestic-Nazis-are-calling-themselves-these-days marches?

I ask b/c it honestly wouldn't surprise me if NC Republicans wrote in an exception to the law for their most loyal voters - cowards who wear masks and carry tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us."

Or did they just stop at virtue signaling against efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases?

Three Senate Democrats proposed amendments to keep the health exemption and exclude hate groups from masking, but Senate Republicans used a procedural mechanism to block them without going up for a vote.

It doesn't explicitly make an exception, but I find it troublesome that the Republicans moved to block the vote on those amendments.

[Badger]

Does this include Proud Boys/3 Percenters/Oath Keepers/Whatever-the-domestic-Nazis-are-calling-themselves-these-days marches?

I ask b/c it honestly wouldn't surprise me if NC Republicans wrote in an exception to the law for their most loyal voters - cowards who wear masks and carry tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us."

Or did they just stop at virtue signaling against efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases?

Three Senate Democrats proposed amendments to keep the health exemption and exclude hate groups from masking, but Senate Republicans used a procedural mechanism to block them without going up for a vote.

It doesn't explicitly make an exception, but I find it troublesome that the Republicans moved to block the vote on those amendments.

Troublesome, or on point?

[T'Chenka]

Every single libertarian should be up in arms about this (figuratively).

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Does this include Proud Boys/3 Percenters/Oath Keepers/Whatever-the-domestic-Nazis-are-calling-themselves-these-days marches?

I ask b/c it honestly wouldn't surprise me if NC Republicans wrote in an exception to the law for their most loyal voters - cowards who wear masks and carry tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us."

Or did they just stop at virtue signaling against efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases?

Three Senate Democrats proposed amendments to keep the health exemption and exclude hate groups from masking, but Senate Republicans used a procedural mechanism to block them without going up for a vote.

It doesn't explicitly make an exception, but I find it troublesome that the Republicans moved to block the vote on those amendments.

excluding groups from masking on the basis of what they advocate for runs into 1st amendment issues since it can be considered viewpoint discrimination.

[Skill and Chance]

Does this include Proud Boys/3 Percenters/Oath Keepers/Whatever-the-domestic-Nazis-are-calling-themselves-these-days marches?

I ask b/c it honestly wouldn't surprise me if NC Republicans wrote in an exception to the law for their most loyal voters - cowards who wear masks and carry tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us."

Or did they just stop at virtue signaling against efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases?

Three Senate Democrats proposed amendments to keep the health exemption and exclude hate groups from masking, but Senate Republicans used a procedural mechanism to block them without going up for a vote.

It doesn't explicitly make an exception, but I find it troublesome that the Republicans moved to block the vote on those amendments.

excluding groups from masking on the basis of what they advocate for runs into 1st amendment issues since it can be considered viewpoint discrimination.

Wouldn't ADA compliance/preemption be the out if you want to allow it only for health reasons?

[HillGoose]

BIG GOVT COMMUNISM has arrived in NC!

[Trans Rights Are Human Rights]

BIG GOVT COMMUNISM has arrived in NC!

Arrived? We've had it for at least eight years.

[Ferguson97]

BIG GOVT COMMUNISM has arrived in NC!

Arrived? We've had it for at least eight years.

thank god for Chairman Roy Cooper

[Christian Man]

Update: The legislator has overridden Cooper's veto.

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/politics/north-carolina-politics/controversial-bills-become-law-general-assembly-veto-overrides-governor-roy-cooper/275-abbff081-7c93-4c0c-8ab2-38329a4052b7

[Green Line]

This is amazing!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is amazing!

Why?

[Green Line]

This is amazing!

Why?

Wearing a mask while committing a crime should lead to stronger punishment.  The use of masks to conceal your identity in public is antisocial.

[DrScholl]

This is amazing!

Why?

Wearing a mask while committing a crime should lead to stronger punishment.  The use of masks to conceal your identity in public is antisocial.

So crime is better if a criminal isn't wearing a mask? Weird logic. Even if your logic was correct about masks being anti-social being anti-social is not a crime. You can't punish anyone for not socializing or not being a people person.

[DrScholl]

Conservatives always were upset about other people wearing masks. I had a conservative screaming out of their car at me for wearing a mask and even a poster here remarked that it upset them to see someone inside a car wearing a mask.

[Fuzzy Bear]

This bill is a violation of individual rights.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-carolina-masking-bill-pandemic-coronavirus-crime-campus-protest/

Edited because I forgot to insert the link.

From the article:

Most of the pushback against the bill has centered around its removal of health and safety exemptions for wearing a mask in public. The health exemption was added at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic along largely bipartisan lines.

This strikethrough would return public masking rules to their pre-pandemic form, which were created in 1953 to address a different issue: limiting Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, according to a 2012 book by Washington University in St. Louis sociology professor David Cunningham.

There should not be prohibitions against masks.

I would not object to sentencing enhancements for those who commit crimes wearing masks.

[DaleCooper]

Republicans hate freedom, it is a well established fact.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is amazing!

Why?

Wearing a mask while committing a crime should lead to stronger punishment.  The use of masks to conceal your identity in public is antisocial.

So crime is better if a criminal isn't wearing a mask? Weird logic. Even if your logic was correct about masks being anti-social being anti-social is not a crime. You can't punish anyone for not socializing or not being a people person.

That's not what the word antisocial means in this context. No need to weaken the argument against Green Line's eminently arguable-against position by engaging in equivocation fallacies.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The absolute worse anti-social behavior (which actually is a crime even if a minor one) is when people wear portable Bluetooth speakers and blare rap music on the light rail instead of just using headphones. Like yeah it would be bad if they were blaring any music (no it's not OK to blare even emo on the light rail), but it's always rap. Good thing they're upping enforcement on the light rail now, even if the target is fare evaders.

[HisGrace]

It was illegal to cover your face in public in NYC for ages without any 1st Amendment controversy, so that's not really the issue here. That was of course lifted for COVID but it's probably coming back now with even Eric Adams supporting it.

Apparently even NC had a similar law which they lifted for COVID and are bringing back too, way too much drama in this thread.

[T'Chenka]

way too much drama in this thread.

If I want to walk down the street with a face covering, for whatever reason, the government shouldn't be able to tell me I can't do that, with certain specific exceptions. In a (SMALL) high-crime area (not an entire neighbourhood), I can accept that. On private property (inside of a business), I can accept that. In most public places where crime isn't especially high, people who are sick with contagious diseases should be able to wear masks. Muslim women should be able to cover their face. People in costumes should be able to wear the mask part of their costume.

A high % of Americans are obsessed with the fact that America is a "free country". Maybe they should be 99% consistent with that, instead of just believing it when they aren't trying to own the libs.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

way too much drama in this thread.

If I want to walk down the street with a face covering, for whatever reason, the government shouldn't be able to tell me I can't do that, with certain specific exceptions. In a (SMALL) high-crime area (not an entire neighbourhood), I can accept that. On private property (inside of a business), I can accept that. In most public places where crime isn't especially high, people who are sick with contagious diseases should be able to wear masks. Muslim women should be able to cover their face. People in costumes should be able to wear the mask part of their costume.

A high % of Americans are obsessed with the fact that America is a "free country". Maybe they should be 99% consistent with that, instead of just believing it when they aren't trying to own the libs.

Enforcement of this against Muslim women would likely run afoul of the Religious Freedom Act of 1993.

[Badger]

This is amazing!

Why?

Wearing a mask while committing a crime should lead to stronger punishment.  The use of masks to conceal your identity in public is antisocial.

Idiotic. I admittedly don't know North Carolina's statutes, but I would be shocked if a mask worn during furtherance of a crime couldn't be charged under their possession of criminal tools statute