[NPR] Police Back Off From Social Distancing Enforcement

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced police will no longer require people to wear masks in public, unless the absence of a mask presents a “serious danger.”

The decision is part of a “reset” of the NYPD’s enforcement of emergency rules during the pandemic, following a number of controversial encounters between officers and members of the public, some of them caught on video. The most recent was a confrontation between officers and a woman in a subway station, over whether she was wearing her mask properly...

“The NYPD shouldn’t be thrown at this particular pandemic — at this health problem,” says David Galarza, a volunteer with a police watchdog group called the Justice Committee. “It only leads to more criminalization and violence against our people, people of color.”

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