In Philadelphia, a Ban on Ski Masks Is Known as Racist – Non Revenue Information

A brand new proposed ban on ski masks or balaclavas in public locations, handed this December by Philadelphia’s Metropolis Council, has civil liberties advocates calling foul and accusing metropolis officers of focusing on Black folks, and youth particularly, with the controversial laws. 

The ban has implications past Philadelphia, as cities across the nation grapple with rising considerations—generally justified by the numbers, generally not—over city crime on the one hand, and simmering rigidity over the function and scope of policing, particularly in BIPOC communities, on the opposite. 

The ban has implications past Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia ski masks ban, which on the time of press was nonetheless being reviewed by Philadelphia’s mayor, handed amid rising concern over violent crime—particularly, a spate of lethal gun violence—and would make carrying ski masks or related face coverings in faculties, parks, and on public transportation a civil offense topic to a $250 positive. 

Proponents of the laws drew a connection between the usage of such masks and an increase in crime, together with a report variety of homicides in 2023 and the obvious lack of ability of police to unravel and make arrests in lots of these crimes. 

However opponents name the measure a subterfuge to permit police to focus on folks of coloration, and youth particularly, and as a method for legislation enforcement to cease—and probably interrogate, frisk, and even arrest—these targets with out due trigger or a lawful foundation for suspicion. 

Opponents name the measure a subterfuge to permit police to focus on folks of coloration.

“If somebody’s strolling round and is in any other case engaged in lawful exercise, they usually occur to be carrying a ski masks…they are often stopped, they are often fined $250,” ACLU-PA lawyer Solomon F. Worlds informed NPQ. “That’s unconstitutional. That flat out is unconstitutional.”

Legacy of “Cease and Frisk”  

The transfer by the Philadelphia Metropolis Council to ban ski masks comes amid a brand new chapter of rigidity over policing nationwide, as some cities have seen rising tendencies in violent crime lately, particularly all through the COVID-19 pandemic. Politicians in cities like Philadelphia—particularly those that establish as progressives—are, in lots of circumstances, discovering themselves caught between calls from many sides to curb crime and, on the similar time, calls to reign in police practices that lead to racialized policing. 

Philadelphia Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker, the primary Black lady to function town’s chief government, is such a politician, having campaigned each as a progressive Democrat and as a troublesome (or more durable) on crime candidate in a metropolis beleaguered by lethal shootings. 

Parker has repeatedly recommended she is open to reconsidering town’s insurance policies round police stops—a place some have characterised as indicating a return to, or a bolstering of, “Cease and Frisk” practices that have been curtailed, although not banned—by a 2011 settlement settlement with the ACLU-PA, which represented plaintiffs alleging that the stops have been unconstitutional and that their implementation was racist. 

A 2018 report by the ACLU-PA discovered that allegedly unconstitutional stops and frisks have been nonetheless being carried out by Philadelphia cops. 

Parker has mentioned she is asking as a substitute for a return to “constitutional” police cease practices—although it’s unclear whether or not the as-yet-unspecified particulars of such a coverage would run afoul of town’s consent decree relating to Cease and Frisk. 

In the meantime, Philadelphia officers will not be the one ones navigating these murky waters. 

In New York Metropolis, the place challenges to Cease and Frisk practices garnered nationwide headlines, Mayor Eric Adams has reinstated the form of street-level anti-crime models accountable for the unconstitutional practices that led to a ban of Cease and Frisk in New York.

A current report by a court-appointed monitor discovered that unlawful stops have been nonetheless occurring in New York, the New York Instances reported in June, noting: 

Nearly the entire stops made by the rebranded “neighborhood security groups” analyzed within the report—97 %—have been of Black or Hispanic folks, and 24 % of the stops have been unconstitutional. Of 230 automotive stops included within the pattern, solely two seem to have turned up weapons, the report mentioned. 

It’s in opposition to this backdrop of uncertainty over the legacy and way forward for Cease and Frisk that the Philadelphia ski masks ban has superior. 

Unintended Penalties

Critics of the Philadelphia ski masks ban say it can give police an excuse to unfairly and unconstitutionally goal folks of coloration, particularly younger males, with police stops. In different phrases, it’s a return to the practices curtailed beneath town’s settlement over Cease and Frisk. And that intent, Worlds informed NPQ, has been, at occasions, express. 

Worlds cites a Philadelphia Metropolis Council listening to on the proposed ski masks ban, at which a deputy commissioner informed council members that the ordinance would enable police to extra simply “put their fingers” on targets in any other case doing nothing unlawful. 

“They’re doing this solely for the aim of pretext” to cease folks, mentioned Worlds. 

“And who will they decide in the event that they’re going to make use of this to put their fingers on folks? We all know the reply from historical past—we all know the reply from present apply,” mentioned Worlds. “It’s blatant. To the extent it’s veiled, the veil is so skinny that it evaporates within the daylight.” 

The ACLU-PA has spoken out in opposition to the proposed ordinance however has not but taken authorized motion—although that would change. 

In the meantime, the ACLU-PA’s Worlds and different civil libertarians across the nation are intently watching the occasions unfolding in Philadelphia. Ought to the ban on ski masks be authorized, Worlds says, there’s a good chance different municipalities will pursue related measures—to the detriment, Worlds famous, of the identical populations of Black and Brown individuals who have already been disproportionately and illegally subjected to warrantless police stops. An Atlanta Metropolis Council member has already proposed an analogous ban in that metropolis. 

“This ordinance would add one other goal on the backs of Black and Brown youth,” mentioned Worlds. “If town council actually needs to scale back crime, I’d counsel that they focus their consideration, their cash, and their time on issues that really are confirmed to scale back crime like housing help, meals help, childcare, psychological well being assets, and academic assets.”