18-year-old charged with violating mask law: ‘I didn’t even know it was a law. Nobody knew it was a law’.
https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/04/04/18-year-old-charged-with-violating-mask-law-i-didnt-even-know-it-was-law-nobody-knew-it-was-law/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
54 replies
Fucking South Carolina. How the shit is something that doesn’t conceal your face a mask??
This is without exaggeration the reasoning behind like 90% of South Carolina's policies. Absolute shithole state, my heart goes out to people whose communities are there.
He probably got charged because he pissed off a cop. Maybe try not cursing at them while they are trying to break up a fight that you are not even a part of.
You just want to legalize murder!
/poeslaw
The ones that want the job for the power are pieces of shit. It's best to not draw their attention to you for no reason.
“Just give up your right to free speech because cops can’t be trusted to respect your constitutional rights” is practical advice, but it’s not exactly saying anything good about cops.
Also, if you don't exercise your rights, it's functionally like you don't have those rights at all
There's no law saying you can't curse at a cop, but the cop decided to charge they guy for breaking some old, obscure law from the 1950's that would not normally have been enforced.
You do know that there is literally nothing a black person in South Carolina can do to stop a cop from arresting or attacking them if they feel like it, right? They can be sitting on a park bench reading a book and a cop will find a reason to abuse them because the South is filled with racist cops.
There's a reason why "driving while black" is a phrase all over the country, but in the South it's especially true.
Oh no! How dare he fucking swear at a cop?! Clearly, this fucking shit could not be allowed to fucking stand.
How about the cop grow the fuck up and not go off on a fucking immature power trip just because a teenager swore at him?
Fuck that pig.
Why the fuck are you defending cops persecuting people for swearing at them?
I am absolutely not defending them. The cop should have acted professionally and ignored what this guy said. Unfortunately, this is what tends to happen in the US. The cops here can usually get away with anything including murder with nothing more than some paid suspension as a punishment.
How do you say that and not get upset at the cop for clear abuse of power in that hypothetical? The cop is older, has training
It's a hood. I thought southerners liked hoods considering all the defending they do of the Klan.
Maybe if the hood had been white. Or most definitely his skin.
The sad thing is, according to the article, this was originally an anti-Klan law. And now it's being used to selectively and falsely prosecute black kids.
Read and you won't have to ask. It's even in the article.
Sounds like blatant selective enforcement of a law that only applies to people who commit contempt of cop.
Well, it looks like you can pull it up over your face. He just has it pulled down.
Edit: I'm not even defending mask laws. I don't see how they could possibly be constitutional and disagree with them fundamentally. I just think this guy was clearly wearing something that covers his face. It's a mask that he uses to cover his face.
So kind of like any T-shirt, sweatshirt, or a scarf?
Or napkin, towel, and blanket!
Would be real fun to see them twist themselves into pretzels banning all clothing that can cover a face without running afoul of their own pathological fear of human mammary glands 😂
Oh no, somebody call the police /s
Oh wait, I guess they did. I guess he's lucky he wasn't shot...
(I didn't downvote you, I assume you're playing devil's advocate or the like)
A bunch of people were saying that it wasn't even a mask, but it obviously is. His mom even said that he wears one to cover some scars he is embarrassed about. I was just pointing that out.
Also I don't think mask wearing should be illegal. I think it's a big government over reach. Maybe I'd be fine with an additional penalty for wearing a mask while committing a crime, or something like that, if you really wanted to go after masked people. No way you should be able to be arrested for that. I don't think it would even hold up to court challenges as a viable law. I am confident that we will see these laws overturned.
Isn't it painfully ironic that right wingers who cried about being told what to do by the state suddenly imposed a non-scientific law imposing what people can't do to their own body?
So much for individual freedumb amirite.
See, you don't understand.
Freedom means freedom... for them. For them to do what they want, impose what they want on others, and to do it all without repercussions.
This is a fine example of it. They want the freedom to be free of "burdensome" mandates. but they want the absolute authority to impose mandates on others, without anyone being able to push back against it
That's because they're authoritarians. They are protecting a hierarchy that they believe exists in the world. That's why they don't mind if rich white men hurt them. Those people are higher in their hierarchy, so it makes sense to them.
They don't like it if non-white people or women in general try to subvert this hierarchy. They believe if someone else rises in status they might fall in status. To them it's "not right"; it's a moral issue that people should "stay in their place" in the hierarchy.
The whole of conservatism is "there must be outgroups for the law to bind but not protect, and in groups for the law to protect but not bind"
That's it.
They're trash people.
So oddly enough this law is really old and is actually an anti KKK law.
The "mask" isn't even a mask. *Similar to blah blah blah.
I don't know exactly what that is, but I definitely wouldn't call it a mask.
Just looks like a hat tbh
I don't usually think of hats as going under the chin like that, but I guess there's no reason they can't.
It's like the removable hood from a jacket but without the jacket.
This mf keep you warm like you wouldn't believe, strap on that chin strap and roast
Similarly, I used to have one of these-
Fuck Stalin, but he found someone who could make a warm hat.
Cowl?
Coif?
I would consider the thing that Finn from Adventure Time wears a hat, and that’s similar to this, was my reasoning.
It's like an inverse mask
If the goal was something that "conceals their identity in public" it's doing a pretty crappy job.
Maybe they don’t like ewoks
It’s funny how this didn’t happen to a white person. /s
This is a psyop to help normies accept the stupid law.
Yes, who ever heard of a racist cop in South Carolina finding an obscure reason to arrest a black person before?
It's almost like ACAB or something.
Laws that are stupid need to be violated. People should join this poor fella and shit on that joke of a law by wearing this "mask" as mich as possible.
Someone on Bluesky pointed out that masks are part of Asian culture and this is obviously racist against Asians. I think that's right.
It's not a mask, it's a hood is why.
It's the first photo if you read the caption, it's just not easily recognizable as a mask
It's an old law that was actually passed to fight against the KKK, many states have similar laws, but apparently this one wasn't worded too carefully so intent isn't a part of the law, in other states you have to be clearly trying to hide your identity, this guy was wareing an open face ski hood. His entire face was visible, and he walked into police breaking up a fight or something, so they pounced on him as if he were involved, but clearly wasn't as they didn't charge with anything related to the fight.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Unless you're rich; then you have to also have intent to break the law.
Unless you're rich enough to bribe the DA.
It's the South, he's black in the heart of racistville, and Republicans hate medical masks because they're stupid. He's got the entire deck there stacked against him. I hope he's able to get out of this damn situation, and preferably also moves out of that useless state.
9th amendment continues to be pissed on