Police in a New York City suburb made the first arrest under a new local law banning face masks, the Associated Press reports. Nassau County Police say officers on Sunday night responded to reports of a suspicious person on a street near the Levittown and Hicksville town line, 30 miles east of Manhattan. They found Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18, wearing black clothing and a black ski mask that covered his face, except for his eyes. Police said Castillo displayed other suspicious behavior, including attempting to conceal a large bulge in his waistband and refusing to comply with the officers’ commands. Th e bulge turned out to be a 14-inch knife. Ramirez Castillo was placed under arrest without further incident.He was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of criminal possession of a weapon and obstructing governmental administration. Lt. Scott Skrynecki, a police department spokesperson, said Ramirez Castillo will face a misdemeanor violation of the face mask law.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who signed the mask ban into law this month, said the arrest showed the rule is working. “Our police officers were able to use the mask ban legislation as well as other factors to stop and interrogate an individual who was carrying a weapon with the intent to engage in a robbery,” he said. “Passing this law gave police another tool to stop this dangerous criminal.” Keith Ross, a criminal justice professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said police didn’t need the new law to stop and question Ramirez Castillo, but it helped bolster their justification. “The law gives police, at the very least, reasonable suspicion to conduct a stop,” the retired New York City police officer explained. “Under reasonable suspicion, police can forcibly stop a person in New York state if they are suspected of committing a felony or a penal law misdemeanor, which is where this new law falls.” Scott Banks, attorney-in chief at the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, which is representing Ramirez Castillo, challenged that notion. “There is no basis to believe that wearing a face mask was intended to conceal identity or criminal behavior, and if that was the basis of the stop I believe there is a basis to conclude the stop was unlawful,” he said.
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