New York Mayor Asks Shops To Require Customers To Remove Masks Upon Entry
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling for shop owners to have customers remove their masks before entering their stores as a means of preventing shoplifting and robberies.
“We are putting out a clear call to all of our shops: Do not allow people to enter the store without taking off their face mask. And then once they’re inside, they can continue to wear it if they so desire to do so,” Adams said on Monday during an interview on the radio station 1010 WINS.
The plan was introduced as a way to address a surge in shoplifting at New York City bodegas, grocery stores and some high-end stores. Adams said that people often wear masks not because they’re fearful of the COVID-19 pandemic but rather because they fear the police “catching them for their deeds.”
The move directly counters COVID-19 safety protocols that encourage people to wear masks in enclosed public spaces. Many people criticized Adams’ decision and comments, emphasizing that asking customers to remove their masks upon entry will place disabled and immunocompromised people at risk of contracting COVID-19.
“And this ‘you can put your mask back on later’ sop does not save the policy. It is still unlawful disability discrimination to require exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid, as a condition of accessing a public store,” said a tweet by Matthew Cortland, a senior fellow at the progressive think tank Data for Progress who specializes in disability and health care issues.
Make no mistake this action is meant to keep Disabled people out of public spaces. They are criminalizing us. https://t.co/y4Yg4EIDKT
— April the Chaotic Good (@NeuroPoetica) March 7, 2023
What about the damage this will cause to someone’s health? Has Mayor Adams thought about Clinically Vulnerable, who now won’t be able to visit these stores? Covid is #NotMildhttps://t.co/pLfjiQt8qK
— Esther Hopkins (@ELHopkins) March 7, 2023
I just…
How are disabled ppl supposed to get food, medicine, other necessities?
Will they have to carry doc letters to avoid mask removal?
Will that even be honoured?
“Personal responsibility” except criminalizing COVID safety measures
What’s next? Coughing in our faces? https://t.co/ssNvp9faBh— Zahra Khan (she/her) ♿️🦻🏼 (@hellozeik) March 7, 2023
One (1) Twitter like to anyone who can explain to me how exactly this will reduce retail crime.
What this *will* do is further marginalize vulnerable folks who are just trying to live their lives while masked for their own protection. https://t.co/CD5fethaHJ— Siyab Panhwar, MD (@drsiyabmd) March 7, 2023
Others questioned Adams’ implication that mask wearers are potential robbers, adding that the decision to have shops require customers to remove their masks upon entry won’t prevent shoplifting and robberies from occurring.
“The claim by the NYC Mayor that masks encourage crime and make the city less safe are baseless. The truth is the opposite: By slowing the spread of COVID-19, masks keep our communities safe,” Lucky Tran, an expert in public health and communication, said in a tweet.
Remember, this is not a law. There is no city or state order that requires you to take off your mask for any length of time.
It will also do absolutely nothing to stop crime. https://t.co/12XlKydDDg— Anna Pakman (@Annatated) March 7, 2023
This is what I hear from @NYCMayor & his appointed jesters: “In order to prevent robberies we are putting out a clear call for shop owners to stop them we have no clear plan to prevent them. @NYPDnews will only arrest them after the fact” https://t.co/8bQDWlBdDV
— John D. Macari Jr. 🇺🇸🗽 (@JohnDMacari) March 7, 2023
Eric Adams is casually setting the stage to criminalize people for *checks notes* taking basic precautions against a highly transmissible virus and, in turn, discouraging people from masking in the middle of a pandemic. https://t.co/t1xJzJGJIT
— Sam Tuero 🇩🇴 (@Sam_Tuero) March 6, 2023
It's ridiculous, and this move isn't going to stop robbers - not to mention it makes bodega owners do more work. It's a way to make the public take an extra responsibility because the powers that be can't handle their jobs.
— Riley Black 🦕🏳️⚧️ (@Laelaps) March 7, 2023
Adams’ office did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment about the recent criticism.
The decision follows nearly a month after Adams lifted the mask mandate in medical settings, which sparked a similar outcry from disabled and immunocompromised New Yorkers. Despite ongoing high community transmission rates of the virus throughout the country, President Joe Biden declared earlier this year that the nation’s COVID-19 public health emergency designation will come to an end in May.