Defying a ban, Long Islanders masked up for “No Kings”

At the “No Kings” protest outside Nassau County’s main courthouse, on New York’s Long Island, as a crowd of perhaps 400 residents rallied against widespread attacks on Americans of all stripes by President Trump’s administration, dozens of protesters wore masks.

Witnessing the use of tear gas in Los Angeles and across the country, people understandably feared the same—especially with the Nassau County Police Department under fire for allegations of brutality and excessive force. 

Amid rain, Long Island locals gathered under umbrellas, ponchos, rain coats, and the tall trees on the courthouse lawn in an attempt to stay dry during speeches. The crowd, largely an older demographic, carried posters decrying the administration’s actions and track record. 

In this county, even wearing a mask can mean standing up against local government: in August, Nassau County lawmakers passed a bill banning the public wearing masks, making it the first individual county in the country—North Carolina previously passed a statewide mask ban—to do so after the start of the Covid pandemic. 

Liam, a protester from Nassau County wearing a white respirator, linked the ban to the heavy police presence at the protest. “I think the mask ban is just a shallow way of trying to prevent people from hiding their identity or discouraging them from protesting,” he said. “I knew I was going to wear a mask, but I understand why someone else might not want to, just because of the fearmongering.” 

Local lawmakers who supported the ban assured the public that there would be health exemptions—but as Mother Jones previously reported, the police who are expected to enforce the mask ban received basically no relevant training. Mask bans are poised to help authorities crack down on protestors, an approach the right-wing Manhattan Institute’s model mask ban legislation promotes, and that willfully ignores the continuing use of masks to protect against Covid-19. 

“Masks are also a vital tool for medically vulnerable people to safely participate in public life, including protest,” New York Civil Liberties Union senior policy counsel Allie Bohm said to Mother Jones before the protest. “Any ban on masks effectively forces them to choose between their safety and their rights.”

The nonprofit Disability Rights New York brought a class action lawsuit against Nassau County over the mask ban on behalf of two individuals with disabilities, which was dismissed in September by a federal judge. The law makes wearing a mask punishable of a fine up to $1,000 or imprisonment for up to a year. Days before the planned protests, Nassau County police warned a local news station that anyone who, in the department’s view, conducted any illegal activity would be arrested. No one was arrested during Saturday’s protests, despite the criminalization of wearing masks for non-health reasons. Nassau County police on the scene declined to comment. 

Kathy Brammer, a social worker based in Oyster Bay, New York, wore a hot pink respirator to the protest. She finds the mask ban to be “silly.”

“I have elderly parents, I have people [in my life] who are immunocompromised,” Brammer said. “The statistics and the science really say that this is what’s going to keep them safe, me safe, and everyone else safe.” 

“We’re going to march just like everyone else,” said another masked woman who spoke with Mother Jones.

And as the Trump administration steps up its surveillance dragnet on protestors, immigrants, and anyone else it perceives as opposed to its agenda, masking can protect people from being targeted after protests (ICE seemingly wants to prevent its own officers being identified by wearing masks, too). Brittany, a protester from Nassau County wearing a cloth mask, said, “If ICE is going to wear a mask in their uniform, then I can wear a mask.”

“We’ve seen firsthand, from the government’s relentless efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, how being publicly identified at a protest can cause lasting, life-altering harm,” Bohm added. “Everyone has a constitutional right to speak out.”