America is like a terrible strategy board game, where the object is to just survive yet the rules keep changing.
Roll the dice and find yourself in a state that has made how you identify a crime…
Take a card… oh no, through no fault of your own, you are pregnant in North Dakota. Dare you sneak across the river into East Fargo for a procedure?
Up here, at worst, you don’t bring large quantities of cigs or booze across provincial borders (for tax reasons)… RCMP ain’t gonna make anyone pee on a strip. I fear Canada might slip into draconian ways should Little PP become PM. Game over.
Time to go down to North Carolina during the winter. Anybody wearing a scarf to keep their face warm seems like they’d be in violation. People on the ski slopes could also run afoul of this too, right?
How about people wearing hairpieces or wigs? Do those count as “devices”? A radical enough change in someone’s hairstyle could “conceal the identity of the wearer”. Would Clark Kent run afoul of this law, with the “device” being his eyeglasses?
But we know how this will work in practice. Anyone protesting and wearing a mask will get roughed up by the police and thrown in jail. Any jock with a ski mask on the slopes will be fine.
the point of laws like this are basically to give the cops an excuse to unleash on some people, but not others.
Such a law in a northern state would make 99% of the populace lawbreakers just for going outside with enough on to prevent frostbite in the winter. After all, what is a scarf, balaclava, or cinched parka hood in zero Fahrenheit but a face covering for health reasons?
Though @anon61221983 is correct, there is no chance a law like this will be applied equally.
Backstory: Around 1956, a NC law was passed to make masks illegal, specifically to oppose-without-really-opposing the Ku Klux Klan. Now, they just want to glorify their ignorance and annoy people they don’t like. I wonder if hospitals are considered public places? I’ll bet they consider airports to be covered by this. Can the next Bird Flu case be in NC, please? I’d like to see them outlaw hats and sunglasses - though they probably won’t do that. They’ll just make up some Stand-Your-Ground excuse to shoot them.
I’m sure there are already Bird Flu cases in NC. Specifically, I would bet there is already a dairy farm worker(s) who have become sick with Bird Flu.
For some reason we’re way behind where we should be with Bird Flu. Starting with tracking, that the USDA not FDA or CDC is the group in charge of Diary farms. Followed by not deploying vaccine stock pile to dairy farm workers. Possibly because there would be resistance to taking it or fear that it was just looking for undocumented workers.
It feels like we learned nothing from COVID. No sense being proactive.
In the most ironic twist, the kids that did freshman year of high school on zoom could end up doing freshman year of college on zoom if we don’t start to react.
I told a friend who was whining about masking early on in Covid, and told him that, mark my words, soon we would have to fight for our right to mask our identities to public surveillance. I wish I was wrong.
You are absolutely right for a specifically business focused definition of regulation.
But banning masks is a regulation. Restricting abortion is regulation. Allowing bakers to refuse to make gay cakes is regulation.
Once again these model citizens live in hypocrisy all the way down.
Did I say they weren’t hypocrites? And yes, I’m aware that this is a regulation. It’s also a direct attack on the rights of people to be safe in a public place (and a violation of ADA, as someone noted up thread).
Not so sure about that. Laws are passed by the legislature. Regulations are issued by an executive branch agency interpreting that law.
Passing a bill outlawing the wearing of masks, limiting abortion or allowing discrimination are laws. A regulation would be the executive branch setting out what that means in enforcing that law. Such as Halloween masks are not forbidden under this law - assuming that wasn’t explicitly stated in the law.
There’s attorneys here who can discuss- but my understanding is law > regulation > interpretation/guidance.
If anybody is experiencing cold or flu symptoms, some people are saying you can be cured by taking a tour of the North Carolina senate building and coughing loudly. I am not a doctor so I can’t vouch for this, but it’s what I heard.
Just a matter of time until the christofascists come up with a version of ‘prosperity gospel’ in regards to health care:
‘You must have displeased god somehow, and got sick/injured because of it’
‘You got sick/injured because it’s part of God’s Plan , and to get treated for it is to defy god’
‘Doctors and Hospitals are servants of satan and must be eliminated’
None of which will apply to them, of course…
While spewing their own fearmongering, as per usual.
IOIYAAM.
And yes, I’m aware that this is a regulation. It’s also a direct attack on the rights of people to be safe in a public place (and a violation of ADA, as someone noted up thread).
, and to get treated for it is to defy god’