Word: masks
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...help the police, local politicians passed a law targeting masked demonstrators. But what they see as a step toward public safety has been criticized as an attempt to put democracy up for sale. The ordinance, which sets a fine of at least $75, allows police to arrest mask wearers who evidence "the specific intent to intimidate or threaten another person...
...While no-mask laws exist in at least 18 states, most were designed to deal with secret societies like the Ku Klux Klan, whose intimidation factor was heightened by members' concealed identities. Philadelphia's law, in language derived from hate-crime legislation, signals a new target: political activists, particularly self-described or suspected anarchists. Ironically, the people protected by the first laws--religious, racial, sexual and political minorities--are potentially the focus of the second wave...
Civil rights advocates argue that the law, aside from requiring ESP to recognize "specific intent," quashes free speech and is a thinly veiled crowd-control mechanism, and not necessarily one that works. Seattle had passed an emergency two-day gas-mask ban to little effect. Detroit passed one too, anticipating trouble at a June meeting of the Organization of American States, but the law was never used. "How in heaven's name can the average officer know what the 'intent' of the masked individual is?" asks Stefan Presser of Pennsylvania's A.C.L.U. "What the officers are going...
...week in Austin, Texas, cheering on her 11-year-old son Rob as he engaged in exactly that type of combat. Of course, when Rob lost a bout at the U.S. Fencing Association's national championships, she would have been upset if he hadn't calmly taken off his mask and shaken his partner's hand. After all, Rob has been trained in the etiquette of the ancient sport since he started fencing...
Behind a surgical mask to filter the odor, police chief Willie Huff tells two officers in latex gloves to use riot shields and ease Big Earl to the floor while the others wrap blankets around him and slide him outside. A tall man, Huff cautiously leads the charge, clutching Earl, hoping not to hurt him and praying not to get sued. He knows mental patients don't belong in small-town jails, but where else can they go? What else...