Oh, how times have changed. And in this case, for the better. 

I have been following this story for a while now and haven't written about it because I wanted to see what happened. Proposals often get stymied before they go into effect. 

But today, the ban on masks in public has become law in Nassau County, which is adjacent to New York City (via Queens). 

Nassau County is the region to the right of the photograph, and I included the area to the west so you can see how close to New York City (Brooklyn and Queens are right there). So we are not talking about some remote area, but right in the New York City urban area.

Nassau is on Long Island, which is hardly the Democrat bastion that the City is, and the leadership that passed the law are strong Republicans who were absolutely elated that they got this measure passed and implemented. 

It is a victory against crime--and against the mask insanity of the past few years. All mask mandates did is normalize the wearing of masks by criminals, and it is now de rigueur for criminals and rioters to hide behind masks to commit their crimes and outrages. 

That will no longer be possible in Nassau County, and it doesn't come soon enough. 

A controversial ban on wearing face coverings in public has been signed into law in Nassau County, New York — the first ban of its kind in the nation. https://t.co/DLLmEmKkOB

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 14, 2024

Officials will make an exception for bona fide medical conditions, although I suspect that even for such people the masks are nearly useless--but that doesn't really matter if a cancer patient feels safer wearing one than not. For God's sake, leave them alone. They have more than enough anxiety. 

Police will not be hunting down maskers; they are using this as a tool to literally unmask suspicious persons whom police officers have concerns about. Maskers are breaking the law, and this is a tool in the anti-crime toolbox that doesn't violate anybody's civil rights. 

Of course leftists are outraged, and the New York Civil Liberties Union is predictably outraged. 

The ban’s so-called health and religious exceptions will result in police officers — who are not medical or religious experts, but who do have a track record of racially-biased enforcement — to determine who needs a mask and who doesn’t, and who goes to jail.

— NYCLU (@NYCLU) August 14, 2024

Screw 'em. Where were they when people were being forced and even manhandled by fascist mask tyrants? They didn't give a damn. 

The irony in this measure is thick, of course, since masking was one of the important government control measures to demoralize and control citizens and a key measure in the brainwashing campaign. Masking measures forced citizens to become divided and angry, and resulted in massive incivility, destruction of social trust, and enabled criminals to act with near impunity. 

Thank God the measure is gone. 

Expect to see a lot more of this as local officials try to tackle the crime epidemic in the country. Blue cities in addition to Red and Reddish ones will finally break down and impose or reimpose mask bans. It will outrage a few COVID holdouts, but Americans are for the most part done with the COVID madness. 

In the saner regions of the country, the public schools have been largely discredited and school choice measures are sweeping the Red states, and RINOs who oppose school choice are getting booted from office. 

While pandemic-era policies have enhanced government powers dramatically, the backlash against this in Red areas is actually leading to an increase in freedom. 

Red and Blue areas are becoming even more distinct. Blue areas will become more totalitarian, but Red areas are becoming freer. 

So much for "unity." Move to a Red area if you can.