Cops Arrest Wall Street Protesters on Obscure Centuries-Old Mask-Wearing Charges

By Sarah Seltzer | Sourced from AlterNet

It seems that the NYPD has invoked some obscure old-school laws to help break up the relatively unthreatening “Occupy Wall Street” protests happening downtown.

So far, causes of arrests have included such dangerous subversions as writing a Gandhi quote with sidewalk chalk and wearing “V” masks.

From the Village Voice’s Runnin’ Scared Blog: 

Amid accusations of excessive police force, there was also the question of what, exactly, the protesters were being arrested for. Turns out, there’s a 150-year-old New York City law that bans “masked gatherings.” Five of the people arrested have been issued a violation for wearing masks

….

The anti-mask law goes back to 1845, when tenant farmers used disguises (dressing up like Indians) to attack law enforcement officials, apparently. In 1965 the law was updated to prevent masked gatherings of two or more people, except in the case of masquerade parties. Whew.

Superheroes would not be pleased at this discovery of this ancient law.

The Voice also points to a video circulating of the arrest of one such protester–in which you can see that the “threat” posed by the protesters compared the the massive presence of law enforcement is a bit overblown.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Related articles

• 19th Century Law Banning Masks Used to Arrest Wall Street Protesters [Anonymous] (gawker.com)
• Hands up!!! (eatingliberty.wordpress.com)
• NYPD Defends Arresting Wall Street Protesters For Wearing Masks (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Wall Street protest enters fourth day (manifestinjustice.wordpress.com)

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Tagged with: All Articles, censorship, Censorship, Censorship in America, First Amendment, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourth Amendment, Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, General Censorship, Government, Government, Law, Mask, New York City, New York City Police Department, Newsworthy, Occupy Wall Street, Police, Protest, Village Voice, Wall Street
Posted in Human Rights