Wearing a Mask in Public Shouldn’t Be a Crime: New at Reason

In a free society, the default position should be the one that upholds individual liberty, not what makes police work easier.

A. Barton Hinkle writes:

Last weekend’s demonstrations on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va. didn’t descend into rioting and mayhem, for which we can all be thankful. Only seven people were arrested—and four of them shouldn’t have been.

Three of them are students at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the fourth is a former student. They were on hand to protest the neo-Confederates who had come to town, and were arrested for wearing masks in public. One wore a bandanna over her face; the others wore Halloween masks. In Virginia, wearing a mask or hood to conceal your identity is a felony.

In one of those amusing coincidences of which the universe seems so fond, their trials have been set for Oct. 31—Halloween. In another amusing coincidence, the law they are accused of breaking was passed in 1952, in an effort to stymie the KKK’s effort to start a chapter in Richmond.

Actually, that is neither amusing nor a coincidence. Laws passed for the sake of protecting racial minorities or limiting the power of the majority often wind up being used for precisely the opposite purpose.

View this article.