Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/01/new-york-city-will-aggressively-issue-1000-fines-for-not-wearing-a-face-mask.html
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4 Likes
They’ll do it folks; NY is cash-strapped, and this seems to be an easy way to curb stupidity and generate a few bucks while doing it.
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Please, please, please; cities all over the Americas need to have a mandate like this. The Covidiots can’t be allowed to drag this on for months or years, and we certainly don’t want any more sickness and death.
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A $1000 fine will negatively impact the poor. Why not make fines progressive like we do taxes? 1/2 a percent of your gross income last year. For the average family, that’s about $300, which is still a bit painful without breaking the bank. For a CEO making $50 million a year, $250,000.
Fines should not break the poor. One size does not fit all.
EDIT: And yes, I agree we need to take a FAR firmer line with mask wearing and start issuing these types of fines, just like we do traffic tickets. But we also need to think about how damaging fines can be to the poor.
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I’d agree with you if they weren’t first offering a free mask.
If they know of the fine and still refuse, fuck ‘em
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Even outdoors?
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It’s New York City - “outdoors” is a relative term there. Hell, “parking” is a tradable commodity there.
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This is good.
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I agree, but they are offering masks first. If they can’t afford one, they are getting a free one, so no reason not to wear it then.
And I agree about fines in general as well. But again, in this case, they are offering free masks first.
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Yep, both you and @ClutchLinkey pointed that out, and I’d missed it. Thanks!
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I was going to post the same thing prior to looking at the full article, so I’m with you in general on this issue. 
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From what I hear the people who are most consistently not wearing masks are… NYPD. So we’ll see how this works.
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A progressive fine system (for this any any number of other offenses) based on income would be great, but we’re not really set up for that in this country right now, unlike Finland. I’d hate to see some tax-dodger asshole get away with a minimum fine because they somehow managed to claim paper losses and pay only $750 or less for taxes.
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Can they please charge $2000 if they have a mask but are wearing it on their chin?
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I’m fine with this policy in theory, my concern is that there’s going to be city employees who don’t have masks on hand to offer (or purposely decline to offer the ones they do have) and will just start slapping fines on any unfortunates who cannot afford a mask that they encounter.
Because a system where the poor don’t have masks, the middle and upper middle classes have to wear their masks in exchange for the jealously guarded right to receive mask-advantaged rules for mortaged property that doesn’t apply to renters; and the wealthy have any army of specialists who assure us that their mask wearing is being handled in scruplous accordance with the law because their post office box in New Zealand is obeying local mask rules is, perhaps, suboptimal?
(I jest, slightly, the concern over the impact of fines large enough to be serious business to a great many; but low enough to make mask nonwearing a viable type of conspicuous consumption for more than a few is certainly real and plausible.)
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Or are f-ing “Dick Masking” it (wearing over mouth, but not nose)…
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No reason. I actually do support progressive fine levels, I’m just ornery as fuck these days. 
The point is to get get people to wear a mask. Because of the pandemic. If they did what you described, it wouldn’t help.
Governments don’t always do the right thing, and when they don’t they should be called out for it. If you see New York cops hiding their masks and fining people without warning, you should tell the Daily News. (Take a picture if you can.) But to say, without evidence, that you expect the government to act in bad faith is to abandon the hope for democracy. There’s a lot of that going around. I urge you to reconsider your participation in it.
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