Top Posts Tagged with #wrecking amendment

Poison pill in a pro-mask bill.

Anti mask ban legislation shouldn't undermine the entire reason for the protection, and it definitely shouldn't introduce random "Stop and Unmask" checkpoints by law enforcement.

I've pointed out anti mask ban legislation out of Massachusetts before, favourably about the senate bill, but with the Massachusetts house bill, I'm concerned the similar legislation is going to have the opposite effect, because the house bill is very different.

Let's start with the problems with mask bans and what an anti mask ban bill is supposed to mitigate or prevent.

Mask bans create problems and don't solve anything.

We ought to have a right to protect ourselves from the elements: viruses, pollen, pollution, wildfire smoke, or cold weather. Health exceptions to mask bans are not sufficient because having to carry papers or explain medical status or explain one's reason for wearing a mask is quite frankly Un-American and antithetical to a variety of established rights. You would not ask someone why they're wearing a coat, boots, or a green, black and white striped knit hat with a fluffy tassel and the Eagles logo on the front. So why would you ask why someone's wearing a N95 respirator mask?

And why should the police be asking why you're wearing a mask either when you're just going about your business and not doing anything illegal, threatening, or criminally suspicious? Facial recognition software is not impeded by medical masks - and even dazzle is now ineffective from the latest iterations of computer identification capabilities at the disposal of law enforcement, so that argument is pointless. And police already have the right and the responsibility to intervene if someone is doing something actually menacing or criminal. The police don't need any extra laws to be passed to be able to arrest someone who they find committing a crime. And once arrested, the person will be identified, and restrained from being dangerous if that's a concern.

There's just no reason to make extra laws banning masks unless the intent is to actively criminalize masks across the board and that's exactly what happens with mask bans.

Mask bans create a situation where people wearing masks for whatever reason, including for health protection, get generally branded as criminals. It can create a fear for senior citizens, disabled, immunocompromised, or anyone else who is out of sick time for example, to actually move about freely in public.

It's in crowded places that people need to mask the most to avoid viral infections, so the "no masks while congregating" laws are specifically something that will prevent many seniors from being where people are congregating. This means that many senior citizens and the disabled, who may have very good reason to peaceably assemble for redress,(1) will have that right curtailed. Even with a medical exemption, a senior staff attorney at NYCLU explained very clearly why police can't determine if someone is wearing a mask for health reasons: “You’re not allowed to interrogate somebody about their private health information, or family member’s or loved one’s health information, including whether or not you’re just Covid cautious”(2) – and this could lead to law enforcement violating the public in an abuse of power, even if just because of ambiguity.

But it goes beyond law enforcement. When you create the idea of criminality in wearing a medical respirator mask, this creates a community attitude that stigmatizes people, and worse, brings out the would-be vigilantes and propagandized anti-maskers, because that's how things play out in the real world, with lots of unintended consequences, and also some intended ones.

Anti-maskers don't distinguish between "medical" usage of masks or otherwise. The extremist political propaganda has convinced these people to see all masking as some kind of a threat to which they think requires harsh response. Mask bans put targets on vulnerable innocent citizens – including people working in jobs where respirators are required like construction sites and hospitals.

At the time of the Nassau County New York mask ban there were disturbing letters to the editor in a New York newspaper suggesting vigilantism against mask wearers. One letter to the editor was suggesting that others should harass people wearing masks and take photos of strangers in public. The author of a letter asserted that vigilantism was appropriate – he said he felt it was his "civic duty to help enforce the law" even though only officially designated people in law enforcement are supposed to enforce the law, and this person writing this letter only stopped short of suggesting forcibly unmasking people because he proposed that masked elderly community members might actually be dangerous criminals "in costume" disguised. It's clear that many, including newspapers, will very publicly stigmatize people with such provocative accusations, and agitate people toward very imprudent and probably unlawful behaviour. Another letter to the editor in the same newspaper that day suggested Americans should live in a "papers, please" society where anyone wearing a mask should have to carry a doctor's note for permission, in order to "foreclose anonymity" in public.(3) It's clear some weird people would prefer it if you were required to identify yourself to every rando creep in the street and disclose your medical information, but it's not even always required that you identify yourself to law enforcement, depending on what state you're in and the circumstances. In Pennsylvania you're free to decline to identify yourself if you're not operating a vehicle and not being detained under suspicion of a crime – it varies by state.(4)

It was also in the news that a cancer patient in North Carolina, at a time a mask ban was merely being proposed, was reportedly “confronted by a man who shouted expletives and called her a liberal for wearing the mask”. She actually explained why she was wearing a mask for health reasons, and then he feigned coughing and actually said he hopes the cancer kills her.(5) In other words, this wasn't about the guy being concerned she was a criminal – he literally had a problem with her wearing a mask for a medical purpose — during cancer treatment. And he truly believed the law was on his side to brazenly harass her at a service station. This happened before the law even passed, so just the talk about it in the news made him feel like he was in the right.

Mask bans criminalize masking, and some misguided or cruel people in the community will feel compelled to enforce this, no matter how inappropriate. And all for nothing, because law enforcement doesn't depend on a mask ban to enforce any laws or protect anyone or anything. Again, they already have the power to intervene with probable cause. A mask ban just adds a justification in itself of probable cause for the worst intrusive policing on anyone and everyone who masks whatever the reason. It sort of makes chemo patients masking "suspicious" on its own.

The Massachusetts state senate bill was a decent idea, but the state house bill would create the problems the legislation is supposed to prevent.

The Massachusetts senate bill SB.245 introduced in January 2025 looks pretty decent as it is a state prohibition on municipal mask bans that would prevent medical use masking in public places or businesses or events, and lists examples like grocery stores and performance event venues which could not impose bans on people wearing medical masks.(6)

My only problem with it is that I don't think it should stipulate "medical use" because that introduces the problem of leaving open who decides what constitutes medical use and who has to prove what how? This is the problem with mask bans in the first place. Even with health and religious exemptions as proposed by the New York governor's mask ban push,(7) it then still leaves open to all sorts of abuse when it comes to deciding what's legitimately medical or religious. But at least this Massachusetts senate bill would prohibit local mask bans without medical exemptions like North Carolina almost actually passed,(8) so it's a step in the right direction in deterring such policies, possibly entirely, given that the medical angle brings up enforcement liabilities and ADA issues that may make rulemakers decide it's not worth the trouble.

I suppose it could be fixed with a clause that nobody has to prove that it's for medical purposes, but then why not just say don't make mask bans at all – which is really what the best most sensible anti mask ban bill would say and leave it at that.

It was since brought to my attention that in February 2025 the Massachusetts House proposed its own bill, H1981, which doesn't actually prohibit local mask ban ordinances or policies exactly, it just specifies: "No individual shall be discriminated against or penalized for wearing necessary personal protective medical equipment." where that's defined as "equipment that is worn to minimize exposure to health risks".(9)

This inclusion of "necessary" of course has the same problem of – who decides it's necessary and how is that proven? With the current medically reckless regime at the federal level,(10) where the public health leadership is actively hostile to public health and medical science(11) – nobody can depend on a federal agency to be consistent, accurate, or reliable, that's for sure. And how would law enforcement or shopkeepers ever be able to constantly determine what's NIOSH recommended and when anyway?

But this isn't even the big problem with the Massachusetts House bill – that's got one hell of a poison pill.

The Poison Pill – a wrecking amendment.

Section 3 of Massachusetts H1981 bill, An Act relative to the right to wear personal protective medical equipment, includes this language:

"The request to momentarily remove personal protective medical equipment is acceptable at security checkpoints and at the request of law enforcement for identification purposes."

The problem here is that section 3 is proactively asserting that it's acceptable for law enforcement to do "stop and identify" checks when Massachusetts is not currently a "Stop & ID state". Unless you're stopped while operating a motor vehicle or bicycle, there's no requirement in Massachusetts to submit to a random ID check by police according to the ACLU.(12) So right now according to state law stopping people to identify them is inappropriate and not the law. So weirdly, instead of being a law to protect mask wearers, it's like this legislation is self-contradictory as it will specifically lead to discriminatory "Stop and Unmask" incidents by law enforcement targeting people who are wearing masks, including, if not especially, for medical purposes - since that's what this whole bill is about.

Of course one might say, oh but they're just talking about security checkpoints, right? Well, what the hell are security checkpoints?

I think there's a bit of a mind trick happening here where mentioning that someone might unmask momentarily to verify identity at a checkpoint invokes people's experience at border crossings and airport security, where they are indeed required to show their face momentarily for identification purposes. This is the reason many people no longer travel abroad or by airplane though! And it's already federal law that people have to identify themselves at international border crossings and to get on airplanes, there's zero need to introduce that into state legislation. And that's not even what the wording does anyway. There's no mention of airports or border crossings. So why even put this in there at all?

The introduction of "checkpoints" is a little sinister in the context of current politics.

Again, what do they mean by security checkpoints? Security checkpoints could be set up arbitrarily anywhere really. Undefined "security checkpoints" could mean the entrance to any building or anything set up anywhere in a neighborhood. It could refer to almost anything, including having a random pharmacy store employee stationed at the door requesting everyone to unmask – an employee who's maybe out of sick time and has to work with a double case of flu and covid they caught from standing at the door greeting everyone coming into the shop for Paxlovid and Tamiflu. This might sound absurd, or even like a case of argumentum ad absurdum, but it's the vagueness of "security checkpoints" in this bill that's the real absurdity here. Though the fact is that people very definitely do go to work actively sick with viruses a lot is pretty ridiculously unpleasant.

Normal people may think "checkpoints" mean border crossings or sobriety stops on high accident roads on holiday weekends. But those of us paying a little bit closer attention know what's been going on in America for some time is not normal, and has only gotten worse. When I hear "checkpoints" now I think about a podcast series I listened to last year telling the stories about the far right "Constitutional Sheriffs". I assume these are the people "at the county level" referenced by Ivan Raiklin who said that anti-vaxxers would be deputized to go after public health people and democrats on some right-wing shitlist.(13) Some of these county level sheriffs have already deputized large amounts of untrained people already.(14) And in some counties, such as in North Carolina, they're already setting up militarized style checkpoints within neighborhoods and "stopping people from driving from one neighborhood to another, just for looking like an immigrant" according to reporting by Political Research Associates.(15)

It's uncomfortable and disturbing, but checkpoints are often used to perpetrate targeted harassment, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocidal killings. Tigray.(16) Germany.(17) China.(18) Bosnia.(19) South Africa.(20) Rwanda.(21) Occupied Palestinian Territories.(22) Azerbaijan.(23) Poland.(24) So many times and so many places this happens again and again.

I don't think anyone trying to protect people who mask for health reasons would be promoting legislation that proposes checkpoints to stop and unmask the disabled, seniors, and other Americans trying to protect their health, in this nation during a time that people in positions of prominence have suggested that wearing a respirator to avoid illness or respiratory particulates is wrong or "mental", people in positions of power have been campaigning against the use of vaccines, and the American President is known for disparaging the disabled.

In Rwanda in 1994, during the genocidal massacres of Tutsis, people were hyped up and hopped up on fear, where the leadership of the extremist Hutus claimed that the Tutsis were in fact plotting. Corinne Dufka interviewed deputized militia men during the genocide at a checkpoint, asking them about reports of massacres of Tutsis and Dufka said: "I got the predictable answer of you know of denial as well as explaining that in fact it was the Tutsis who were actually planning to massacre the Hutu.”(25)

And fear, disgust, and hate, can lead to things getting way out of hand. Stuff like this is already going on all over the place.

According to the Political Research Associates sheriffs map, the closest "far right sheriff" to my area is in the rural northern tier of Bradford County Pennsylvania. (At least that has been identified as such.) There has been some drama there in November 2024. And in December 2024, Bradford County slashed the library budget there by 30% apparently based on far right censorship efforts based on fears over gay penguins.

It's incredibly dangerous if pro-mask laws actually lead to encouraging Stop and Unmask checkpoint situations that can be used to hassle people seen as "liberals" or "disabled" or "democrats" or whatever. We know there is a eugenics component to these far right schemes like Project 2025,(26) it's part of the ideology,(27) and we know what's happened to disabled people in the Holocaust.(28)

The Illinois mask bill has similar problems.

Massachusetts is not the only state that introduced legislation that includes this poisoning addition. The bill in Illinois was also adding in "security requirements" needlessly. The language was definitely not as damaging, but nevertheless superfluously undermines the reason for the legislation, saying: "Protective medical equipment may be removed by the medical device wearer upon request temporarily by law enforcement under reasonable suspicion provided that reasonable accommodation is offered."(29) It's entirely unnecessary because the law in Illinois already provides law enforcement with the ability to stop and identify anyone under "reasonable suspicion" that they're committing a crime.(30) And I'm fairly sure that if there's reasonable suspicion, the mask removal wouldn't be temporary, the person would be likely arrested or something.

The operational safety part seems odd too, as the bill includes the statement: "Specific types of protective medical equipment may be restricted if proven to interfere with the safe operation of machinery or hazardous environments, provided that alternative accommodation or equivalent protection is offered to the individual." With this, we're back to the situation of who decides masks are "proven to interfere with the safe operation of machinery" and in what contexts? Operation of machinery could include a motor vehicle, and we know how unhinged anti-maskers are about people wearing masks in their cars – they lose their shit over that. It's all over social media for years – for whatever reason, the anti-maskers just can't cope when they see someone wearing a mask inside a car in traffic. What if someone like that is in the position to decide what's "proven" about masks and safety? Not a great situation.

At least the Illinois bill has language specifying that accommodation would be in accordance with ADA expectations, that nobody would be required to "disclose health status or any other protected information" in order to not be discriminated against for masking.

But I just don't get why they had to put in these "exceptions" that are already covered in some other law, or would create new law probably nobody wants. We just don't need to needlessly broaden law enforcement's already vast power to unmask people at will. It's the whole reason mask bans are a bad idea because it encourages it. So why are people including any of this? And this is Democrats. I know there were propaganda campaigns to convince liberals to dislike masks,(31) but this fixation on policing people's gear is just really out of hand.

Just don't outlaw masks. And don't give a laundry list of reasons to make people unmask when they don't want to. This shouldn't be difficult.

Poison pills are poison.

Obviously I don't know if the inclusion of this poison pill was deliberate or not because I don't actually know who wrote these bills or that part of it, or proposed that these stipulations should be included. But typically a poison pill that would "make the bill malformed and nonsensical, or to severely change its intent" doesn't wind up in legislation by accident. It's typically a form of sabotage. And of course we know sabotage works best when it looks like incompetence!(32)

Wikipedia has a neat little description about what a poison pill amendment is in legislation being debated or proposed and describes it this way:

"In legislative debate, a wrecking amendment (also called a poison pill amendment or killer amendment) is an amendment made by a legislator who disagrees with the principles of a bill and who seeks to make it useless (by moving amendments to either make the bill malformed and nonsensical, or to severely change its intent) rather than directly opposing the bill by simply voting against it. An important character of wrecking amendments is that they are not moved in good faith, that is, the proposer of the amendment would not see the amended legislation as good legislation and would still not vote in favour of the legislation when it came to the final vote if the amendment were accepted. Motives for making them include allowing more debate, delaying the enactment of the legislation, or oftentimes a direct attempt to convince the bill's legislator to withdraw said bill."(33)

The same people didn't write the Massachusetts senate and house bills. But the Illinois assembly bill and the Massachusetts house bill both include the term "discrimination" whereas the Massachusetts senate bill is just a straightforward "don't ban masks for health reasons" and doesn't introduce the concept of discrimination into the issue. I haven't found any other actual bills that have been introduced. It's a good political policy strategy to copy from other states in theory, but obviously not if the legislation stinks!

The inclusion of suggesting the mask can simply be "momentarily" removed seems to suggest the author of this section of the bill is unfamiliar with the contagiousness and transmissibility of covid. Or perhaps even a covid denier who wrongly believes propaganda saying masks serve no purpose. A person can catch a virus in just a very brief encounter, which was proven by contact tracing of covid infected people and video surveillance evidence in Australia in 2021.(34) Most people organizing around masks would know this, and so it seems unlikely that this wording would've originated with someone from grassroots public health and disability justice groups. At least I should hope not, but who knows what motivated this. It seems a little like the terrible habit people on the left have of low balling right out of the gate in a haggle, and this preposterous strategy of making concessions in advance to capitulate under the mistaken idea that right-wing politicians hostile to public good would return the favour.(35) We have to know by now that's ridiculous though, surely.

References:

1

Congress.gov - Constitution Annotated - First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2

Mother Jones - September 5, 2024 Free Rein and No Guidance: Long Island’s Cop-Enforced Mask Ban Isn’t Going Great - “There’s none of the sort of training you would expect.” Julia Métraux Through an information request reviewed by Mother Jones, NYCLU, a state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, requested policies and training materials used to instruct the county’s police on enforcing the ban. In return, the group received a three-page legal bulletin on the “Mask Transparency Act,” and a six-slide presentation, including a title page, briefly going over the new law. The presentation reiterates the bulletin’s explanation of the law, as well as saying police officers still need to follow Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure—but there is little else. “There’s none of the sort of type of training and guardrails you would expect to see in a police procedure or in a training module around how you interact with members of the public,” said Beth Haroules, a senior staff attorney at NYCLU. The very brief materials also do not address people’s rights in protecting their health information from police, which also underscores why police officers cannot independently determine whether someone is wearing a mask for health reasons. “You’re not allowed to interrogate somebody about their private health information, or family member’s or loved one’s health information,” Haroules continued, “including whether or not you’re just Covid cautious,” something county law enforcement seems to have overlooked altogether.

3

Battery storage, abortion laws in states, Nassau County mask ban - By Newsday Readers - August 20, 2024 10:30 am To those who are feeling insulted or otherwise put out by the mask ban, it might be worthwhile to focus on the point rather than on yourself “It’s surreal: Mask ban is obscene,” Letters, Aug. 16. The idea is to cut down on crime by trying to foreclose anonymity. Maybe that’s worth the inconvenience of justifying mask-wearing or maybe it’s not — that’s the right calculus and is legitimately a matter of opinion. But feeling insulted or put out for being asked to carry a note for the sake of the greater good of crime reduction? Try to get over it. It’s just not always about you. If I ever need to wear a mask for medical reasons, I will have no problem sticking a note in my wallet or bag. — Drew Oringer, Syosset As a concerned and patriotic citizen, I think it’s my civic duty to help enforce the law. I also think that my fellow citizens should help where they can. Since most of us today have cellphones with cameras, when we see a crime, we should take a picture or video and send it to the police. So, we should start taking pictures of people wearing masks and send them to the police. Obviously, we shouldn’t try to make any arrests. These may be criminals who are armed and dangerous. A little old lady with a walker could be in costume. — Randy Perlmutter, Oceanside

4

Worgul, Sarna & Ness - Legal Blog - Is Pennsylvania a Stop and ID State? Know Your Rights During Police Encounters - January 14, 2025 by Mike Worgul Is Pennsylvania a Stop and ID State? No, Pennsylvania is not a Stop and ID state. Unlike states with stricter identification requirements, Pennsylvania only mandates providing identification under specific circumstances, such as: If you’re detained or arrested: If police have reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe you’re involved in criminal activity, they can request your identification. During traffic stops: Drivers in Pennsylvania must provide a valid driver’s license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance when pulled over. If neither of these situations applies, you are not legally obligated to identify yourself to the police. How Does Pennsylvania Differ from Stop and ID States? In Stop and ID states, refusing to provide your name during a lawful stop can lead to immediate legal consequences. Pennsylvania, however, takes a more lenient approach: If you’re walking in public, you have the right to decline to give your name unless you’re being detained for a suspected crime. Police cannot arrest you solely for refusing to identify yourself without other grounds for detention. This distinction means that Pennsylvania residents and visitors have more protection under the law than those in states with Stop and ID statutes.

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WRAL News - 'Scared to put on my mask': Cancer patient says she was intentionally coughed on in spat over mask - The Republican-led state House passed a bill Tuesday that would adjust exceptions to the state law governing masks. The bill is awaiting a decision by Gov. Roy Cooper. Posted 8:29 p.m. Jun 12 - Updated 1:43 p.m. Jun 13 2024 As she walked in, she said, she was confronted by a man who shouted expletives and called her a liberal for wearing the mask. The man identified himself as a conservative, she said, and he falsely told her that wearing a mask in public was illegal. According to Stuart, she told the man that it was dangerous for her to go into public without a mask because of her diagnosis. It’s not a political statement, she said, and she says she showed the man a medical card describing her condition. He then proceeded to approach her and feigned coughing on her repeatedly before telling her that he hopes the cancer kills her, she said. Stuart said she called Cary police but ultimately didn’t file a complaint. Cary police confirmed the call. Witnesses at the oil-change store also corroborated Stuart’s account.

6

TrackBill - Massachusetts SD245 - An Act prohibiting municipal bans of face coverings for protective or medical use FILED ON: 1/9/2025 No city or town shall enact an ordinance or by-law, or establish any policy, that prohibits the wearing of face coverings for protective or medical use in any indoor or outdoor space open to the public including, but not limited to: Any publicly-owned facility; Grocery stores, pharmacies, and other retail stores; Public streets, parks, and ways; and Any location, including hotels, event venues, and private clubs, that hosts indoor or outdoor events or performances.

7

Gothamist - Gov. Hochul is pushing a last-minute mask ban in state budget talks By Jimmy Vielkind and Jon Campbell Mar 19, 2025 Gov. Kathy Hochul is reviving her push to restrict the wearing of masks in public, urging lawmakers in state budget talks to bring back some form of a previous ban, Gothamist has learned. The Democratic governor told members of the state Assembly and Senate this week that some form of partial ban on public face coverings to improve public safety is among her top policy priorities, according to four lawmakers. The governor didn’t include masking restrictions in her formal budget proposal and hasn’t put forth details on what she wants, the lawmakers said.

8

AP - North Carolina lawmakers approve mask bill that allows health exemption after pushback By MAKIYA SEMINERA Updated 6:09 PM EDT, June 11, 2024 The previous version of the bill would have also barred masking in public for health reasons. Following extended debate from Democrats, the General Assembly passed the measure in a 69-43 vote. The state Senate passed the compromise bill last week. It now heads to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. The legislation — which previously removed a 2020 exemption for wearing a mask in public for health purposes — moved swiftly through the Senate last month. But it halted in the House after Rep. Erin Pare, Wake County’s lone Republican General Assembly member, said she wouldn’t approve it because of the health exemption removal.

9

TrackBill - Massachusetts H1981 - An Act relative to the right to wear personal protective medical equipment FILED ON: 1/16/2025 SECTION 1. The following, as used in this chapter, unless the text otherwise requires or a different meaning is specifically required, shall mean— ‘Protective medical equipment,’ equipment that is worn to minimize exposure to health risks, which includes, but is not limited to, face masks, respirators, gloves, face shields, protective eyewear, and gowns. SECTION 2. (a) No individual shall be discriminated against or penalized for wearing necessary personal protective medical equipment. (b) Discrimination includes, but is not limited to, denial of service, eviction from premises, termination of employment or undue pressure to refrain from wearing personal protective medical equipment. SECTION 3. The request to momentarily remove personal protective medical equipment is acceptable at security checkpoints and at the request of law enforcement for identification purposes.

10

The Atlantic - The NIH’s Most Reckless Cuts Yet - Ending clinical trials with no warning can put patients at risk. By Katherine J. Wu March 27, 2025, 4:35 PM ET To minimize harm, researchers promise to care for and monitor participants through a trial’s end, long enough to collect the data necessary to determine if a therapy is effective and at what cost. End a trial too early, and researchers might not be able to figure out if it worked—or participants may be left worse off than when they started. But that is exactly what the Trump administration has been asking scientists across the country to do.

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Important Context Trump’s Got a New FDA Chief and NIH Director. They’ve Been Getting Public Health Wrong For Years. Donald Trump’s new public health officials have long histories of making false and misleading statements related to science. Jonathan Howard Mar 28, 2025 Both doctors have repeatedly spread misinformation regarding COVID-19, glorifying natural immunity, prematurely declaring the pandemic over, minimizing variants, spreading fake statistics, and overhyping vaccine side effects. Important Context reported extensively on the pair. For example, we reported that Bhattacharya suggested more research into the non-existent connection between vaccines and autism was merited. We have compiled five examples of false and misleading statements the pair have made over the years about COVID—delivered in their own words. 1. In May 2021, Dr. Makary said, “We basically are in herd immunity right now” and “most of the country is at herd immunity.” The Delta and Omicron variants arrived before the end of the year and we still do not have herd immunity to COVID.

12

ACLU Massachusetts - When do I have to give my name or address to law enforcement in Massachusetts? In Massachusetts, the only laws that require you to provide your name and address to the police are connected with being in a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle. However, it is a crime to give false identifying information to police if you are arrested. These laws are discussed in further detail below. Please note, you should not rely on the information below when you are in other states as those states may have different laws.

13

(Archive link) Ivan Raiklin Tells NPR Producer of the "Patriotic & Peaceful" Retribution that's Coming YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN Forbidden.News May 17, 2024 Zoe Chace: Mm-hmm, like via the sheriffs, basically. Ivan Raiklin: What do you think Alvin Bragg's doing right now? Is that a Federal Officer? Exactly my point. Look at the counties in this country that are Red versus Blue. It is overwhelmingly Red. So, Alvin Bragg and the Dems are setting our precedent as we go on offense. Zoe Chace: Okay. Well, thanks Ivan! Ivan Raiklin: It's going to be a doozy. And I love it when it gets spicy. And there are, again, out of the 80,000 of us, we are clamoring to be deputized by sheriffs nationwide, in order to conduct the necessary live stream raids.

14

The Takeover and The Rebellion - The Insurgence: Sheriffs—Season 1, Episode 3 - Cloee Cooper Political Research Associates October 22, 2024 CLOEE: This was all coming from a sheriff who’s already criticized in the state for deputizing over 70 people in his county to be a part of his posse. John Sepulvado: Glenn Palmer essentially formed a posse of people who had not been through legal, uh, training, uh, not been through any type of, uh, insurance indemnity. what did he have like 65, 70 volunteer. I mean how ridiculous this idea that we're going to deputize 65 people in a very small county.

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What is FAIR? The Insurgence: Sheriffs—Season 1, Episode 4 Cloee Cooper Political Research Associates October 24, 2024 CLOEE: This is Stefanía Arteaga, an immigrant rights leader from North Carolina. Stefania: It wasn't until spring break of my senior year of high school. I remember this vividly because I just remember crying and sobbing profusely. Stefania: I got a call from my mom... It was just.. terrible because I had seen checkpoints before, um, but I had never had an understanding until that point of what the checkpoints actually meant. CLOEE: We usually think of check-points associated with militarized zones, or border-crossings. The check-point Stefania was referring to was inside of a town -- sheriff's deputies stopping people from driving from one neighborhood to another, just for looking like an immigrant. Just think, far right sheriffs like the ones we’ve heard about, with the power to arrest and detain people they think are immigrants. Stefania: Sheriff's deputies on this two lane road right outside of a park and rec field just stopping people and asking them for identification and a driver's license... and of course, the immigrant community in East Charlotte, which is heavily Latino, nobody had those documentations.

16

Eritrean troops disguised as Ethiopian military are blocking critical aid in Tigray By Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis and Eliza Mackintosh Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron, CNN Updated 1:24 PM EDT, Thu May 13, 2021 Eritrean troops are operating with total impunity in Ethiopia’s war-torn northern Tigray region, killing, raping and blocking humanitarian aid to starving populations more than a month after the country’s Nobel Peace Prize winning leader pledged to the international community that they would leave. A CNN team traveling through Tigray’s central zone witnessed Eritrean soldiers, some disguising themselves in old Ethiopian military uniforms, manning checkpoints, obstructing and occupying critical aid routes, roaming the halls of one of the region’s few operating hospitals and threatening medical staff.

17

Lüdtke, Alf. “Working the Passage: East German Border Checkpoints, 1961-90. The Case of ‘GÜSt Bahnhof Friendrihstraße,’ Berlin.” Journal of Contemporary History 50, no. 3 (2015): 680–705. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43697396.

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Genocide Watch Aug 25, 2023 Genocide Emergency: Xinjiang, China 2023 by Christian Azzolini Since 2016, "convenience police stations" have become ubiquitous, with armed police manning checkpoints on major roads and in villages. These checkpoints discriminate against ethnic Uyghurs, subjecting them to systematic inspections at roadblocks, train and bus stations, and airports. Since 2017, between 800,000-2,000,000 million Uyghurs have been held in Xinjiang's concentration prisons, commonly referred to as "re-education camps." Uyghurs are forced to participate in CCP indoctrination programs in which detainees are forced to abandon their Muslim faith and culture. The CCP forbids use of the Uyghur language and imposes Mandarin Chinese within these camps. Inside camps, CCP officials subject Uyghurs to physical beatings, sexual assault, and gang rapes of women.

19

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Systematic Executions Begin Back in Potocari, Bosnian Serbs rounded up the remaining men and boys and sent them to nearby Bratunac. Those who had set out on foot through the forest were also met by Serbs at various checkpoints along the way, where hundreds were shot and killed and men farther back in the column were taken in large numbers. By the end of the day on July 13, there were almost no males left in Srebrenica.

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Facing History & Ourselves, “Introduction: Early Apartheid: 1948-1970”, last updated August 3, 2018. Most black South Africans were obliged to leave “white areas” by sunset. At the country’s many checkpoints and roadblocks, black South Africans were at the mercy of the police and could summarily be stopped, arrested, and deported to homelands. Thousands of black South Africans were forced to break the law on a daily basis as they searched for work or attempted to keep their families together. Police carried out daily raids on black residences, bursting in at midnight, forcing residents to show their passes, and arresting those out who did not have them.

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Rwandan genocide From Wikipedia Genocidal killings began the following day. Soldiers, police, and militia quickly executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu military and political leaders who could have assumed control in the ensuing power vacuum. Checkpoints and barricades were erected to screen all holders of the national ID card of Rwanda, which contained ethnic classifications. This enabled government forces to systematically identify and kill Tutsi. They also recruited and pressured Hutu civilians to arm themselves with machetes, clubs, blunt objects, and other weapons and encouraged them to rape, maim, and kill their Tutsi neighbors and to destroy or steal their property.

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Amnesty International - Israel And Occupied Palestinian Territories 2023 Arbitrary restrictions on Palestinians’ movement were further tightened after 7 October, in some cases amounting to collective punishment. The closures prevented patients’ transfer to hospitals. In the West Bank including East Jerusalem, OCHA documented 645 checkpoints, roadblocks and barriers, 80 of which were in Hebron in the south, where some 600 settlers lived illegally in the midst of the most populous West Bank city. After 7 October, the Israeli army imposed a 14-day total curfew on some 750 families in 11 neighbourhoods in downtown Hebron, according to B’Tselem. Checkpoint 54 in Hebron, fortified with facial recognition technology, automated the exclusion of Palestinians. Facial recognition technology also restricted Palestinians’ access in East Jerusalem.7 The army imposed closures of villages and refugee camps, and restricted access to farmland.

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Nagorno-Karabakh conflict From Wikipedia Caucasus expert Laurence Broers wrote "the blockade [of Nagorno-Karabakh] renders irrelevant any talk of the civil integration of Karabakh Armenians. It vindicates the worst fears of the Karabakh Armenian population."[570] Political analysts predict that Azerbaijan would arbitrarily detain and torture civilians, under the pretext of their association with the Artsakh government or with previous wars, if it took control over the region.[573] At least two incidents of Azerbaijani forces detaining Armenian residents around Azerbaijan's military checkpoint have been confirmed.[574][575]

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From cruelty to hell: Warsaw’s non ‘liberation’ 80-years on - TVP Alex Webber 17.01.2025, 07:46 By January 19, General Ivan Serov reported to Lavrenty Beria, the head of the NKVD, that filtration points had been set up around Warsaw to ‘control the traffic’. This was little more than a euphemism for the instalment of checkpoints designed primarily to weed out returning—or departing—members of the Home Army or other perceived anti-Communist threats. Already by January 1945, 50,000 Poles had fallen foul of the Soviets to find themselves deported eastwards and on to the gulags, and this number would grow as Stalin’s noose around Poland tightened even further. “Liberation was a key word in the Communist arsenal of lies,” wrote Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance in a 2017 op-ed. “It became the foundation for all further falsifications leading to the apparent legitimization of power forced down on us by the neighboring eastern force.” Free as Warsaw was from the Nazis, January 17 ushered in a new tyranny to fear and to fight—for this modern-day Carthage, there would be no respite.

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Confronting Evil: Genocide in Rwanda - Human Rights Watch Mar 28, 2014 Corinne Dufka: “When I was interviewing these these militia men from this one checkpoint I asked them and I said you know there are a lot of accounts of a lot of killing going on and of massacres going on I didn't use the word genocide but I used the word massacres – of massacres of Tutsi going on now is this true and how can you explain it and so on and so forth and you know one I got the predictable answer of you know of denial as well as explaining that in fact it was the Tutsis who were actually planning to massacre the Hutu.”

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SALON - "Most extreme white supremacists ever": Project 2025 contributors have a history of racism An analysis from USA Today found that at least five of the manifesto’s contributors have made racist comments By Marin Scotten Published July 31, 2024 8:33AM (EDT) “One of the things that you see when you read Project 2025 is not just the racist dog whistles, but some ideas that were exactly lifted from some of the most extreme white supremacists ever,” author and historian Michael Harriott told USA Today. Among the authors found to have racist connections in USA Today’s analysis is Richard Hanania, who wrote white supremacist essays under a pseudonym for years, an investigation by The Huffington Post previously revealed. In his writings, Hanania, who is a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, said he supported eugenics and forced sterilization of low-IQ people, who he wrote were mostly Black. Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has connections to Hanania, referring to him as a “friend” and “really interesting thinker” in a 2021 podcast interview.

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Eugenics as an ideology - Legal and political agendas have motivations to make semantic arguments that obscure eugenics and maybe that’s why we don’t have a separate word for eugenics as an ideological belief. Chloe Humbert

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Holocaust Memorial Day Trust - Disabled people Severely mentally and physically disabled people, as well as those perceived to have disabilities, were targeted because of Nazi beliefs that disabled people were a burden both to society and to the state. From 1939 to 1941 the Nazis carried out a programme of ‘euthanasia’, known as the T4 programme. The name T4 is an abbreviation of Tiergartenstrasse 4, the address from which the programme was coordinated.

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Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HB3853 Section 25. Exceptions. (a) Security requirements. Protective medical equipment may be removed by the medical device wearer upon request temporarily by law enforcement under reasonable suspicion provided that reasonable accommodation is offered. (b) Operational safety. Specific types of protective medical equipment may be restricted if proven to interfere with the safe operation of machinery or hazardous environments, provided that alternative accommodation or equivalent protection is offered to the individual.

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ILRC - STOP AND IDENTIFY STATUTES IN THE UNITED STATES Illinois 725 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/107–14 Sec. 107-14. Temporary questioning without arrest. (a) A peace officer, after having identified himself as a peace officer, may stop any person in a public place for a reasonable period of time when the officer reasonably infers from the circumstances that the person is committing, is about to commit or has committed an offense as defined in Section 102-15 of this Code, and may demand the name and address of the person and an explanation of his actions. Such detention and temporary questioning will be conducted in the vicinity of where the person was stopped.

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Twitter from @theSGLF: State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) Feb 9, 2022 Our latest ad is making an impact and liberals are now agreeing with what conservatives have been saying all along: mask mandates do more harm than good.

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Sabotage works best when it looks like incompetence. The 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual, a resource from multiple perspectives. Chloe Humbert Mar 19, 2024 There are 4 instances verbatim that the saboteur “make mistakes” in various ways, and the word “accidentally” is used in scare quotes 3 times.

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Wrecking amendment - From Wikipedia In legislative debate, a wrecking amendment (also called a poison pill amendment or killer amendment) is an amendment made by a legislator who disagrees with the principles of a bill and who seeks to make it useless (by moving amendments to either make the bill malformed and nonsensical, or to severely change its intent) rather than directly opposing the bill by simply voting against it.[1] An important character of wrecking amendments is that they are not moved in good faith, that is, the proposer of the amendment would not see the amended legislation as good legislation and would still not vote in favour of the legislation when it came to the final vote if the amendment were accepted. Motives for making them include allowing more debate, delaying the enactment of the legislation, or oftentimes a direct attempt to convince the bill's legislator to withdraw said bill.

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ABC NEWS - CCTV captures 'scarily fleeting' encounter that resulted in Bondi COVID-19 cluster growing By Kathleen Calderwood Mon 21 Jun 2021 It's a "scarily fleeting" encounter between two people out shopping captured on CCTV that has health authorities in NSW worried. The state's Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant described it as a "momentary" crossover at Bondi Junction Westfield. The footage shows two people briefly walk past each other while out shopping – both of them now infected with COVID-19. Dr Chant suspects two other people were infected with COVID in the same fashion. "We know that there's been three people that have been exposed on both June 12 and June 13," Dr Chant said. "In one, we actually have CCTV footage of the encounter and it is basically a crossover of individuals. They are clearly facing each other but it is literally someone moving across from each other for a moment, close, but momentary. "In two other cases, we haven't been able to, with CCTV footage, look at the exact same crossover point, but we know they were 20 metres [apart], signing in at different venues at the same time or in that area so we suspect they did cross over."

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Democratic Party strategy has been objectively bad. Trickle down economics doesn't work. And people, yes people, need to fix this, because politicians doing badly aren't going to fix themselves. There's no change without public pressure. Chloe Humbert Feb 23, 2025 Explanations are floated that all this inexplicable self-defeating behaviour is actually part of the Democratic party strategy. And I think calling these things strategies is incredibly silly. They say that the Democrats try to make goodwill with Republicans to get goodwill back and make deals, and Republicans will come to their senses or something.9 But obviously those deals just sell out the people all the damn time. It’s quite obvious this doesn’t work, and that politics doesn’t actually work like that.

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