Ohio State Building. (Photo: David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal.)
A Republican lawmaker from Ohio has proposed a solution that would enhance penalties for people who commit crimes by hiding their identity with a mask or disguise. Ohio Democrats would like to see the same restrictions apply to law enforcement officers.
State Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, introduced Ohio House Bill 236which creates a novel crime of “disguised mobbing,” which is punishable as a first-degree misdemeanor.
The state’s tougher riot laws also include novel masking crimes. Wearing a mask while causing a disturbance with four or more people is a fifth-degree crime. Doing so with the intent to commit an act of violence would be a third-degree crime.
Additionally, Williams proposes a novel specification of punishment for each crime committed by a person who conceals his or her identity. If found guilty, they face a mandatory year in prison.
“In recent years,” Williams told a House committee on Wednesday, “we have witnessed an alarming increase in the number of people who conceal their identities, often through the use of masks, and engage in harassment, trespassing, and violent crimes.”
“Increasing penalties for wearing a mask while committing a crime,” he continued, “clearly sends a message: hiding to avoid accountability will not be tolerated in our communities and our state.”
Williams said wearing a mask not only helps the criminal avoid punishment, but “intensifies the psychological terror” victims experience.
He cited protests outside a synagogue in Los Angeles and the murder in Minnesota of a state legislator and her husband.
“Together we can strengthen the rule of law, protect our communities and ensure that no one can use anonymity as a shield against criminal behavior,” Williams insisted.
8 weeks of siege in Minnesota
Democrats on the committee asked a question that’s probably on the mind of anyone following President Trump’s immigration crackdown or the looming government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security: OK, what about ICE?
Goose meets gander
Starting last December, thousands of Department of Homeland Security officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, arrived in the Twin Cities.
Since then, the agency says it has arrested 3,000 undocumented people. Two US citizens also died as a result of the operation.
The reaction was quick and fierce. In addition to the shakeup of the operation’s leadership, Democrats in Congress are threatening to withhold DHS funding.
One of their main demands is to prohibit federal agents from performing their duties while wearing masks.
“I couldn’t, you know, NO think about ICE and federal law enforcement and what has been going on over the last few months,” Ohio Rep. Ismail Mohamed told Williams.
He explained that Ohio Democrats have proposed legislation requiring all law enforcement officers, with confined exceptions, to provide identification and not wear masks while on duty.
“So I guess you would be in favor of applying this to law enforcement as well?” Mohamed asked about Williams’ proposal.
Williams said he would not support legislation that “dictates” what federal law enforcement can and cannot do in the state.
He noted that California’s mask ban was recently blocked by the courts because it exempts state police, which discriminates against federal officers.
Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives are introducing bills to regulate ICE’s presence in Ohio
Mohamed asked about exceptions for people wearing a mask for safety or medical reasons.
Williams dismissed it and pointed to the specifications of an Ohio gun possession sentence.
“If a defendant comes to court and says, ‘I didn’t plan to use a gun to commit a crime,’ we found that having a gun was enough to get a one-year sentence in the state of Ohio,” Williams said.
Who is protected?
Williams argued that some law enforcement officers in Ohio already conceal their identities and it is essential that they do so.
“I have seen gang affiliates in my community conceal their identities. I have seen undercover officers conceal their identities in order to maintain investigative integrity. And what we are seeing now is detrimental to federal immigration enforcement,” Williams said.
State Rep. Phil Plummer, D-Dayton, agreed that “masking these officers is extremely important.”
Before serving in the statehouse, Plummer was sheriff of Montgomery County, a position in which he supervised several drug enforcement officers.
“These cartels are endangering the life of my officer. They are endangering the lives of my officer’s children,” Plummer said.
“We all know I can Google anyone sitting in this room and find out where you live in two minutes, maybe a minute and a half, it’s very easy. It’s all online.”
Ohio Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna, dismissed the arguments as unnecessary jokes.
The mask ban proposed by Ohio Democrats applies equally to local, state and federal officers and includes exceptions for masks worn for security reasons by SWAT teams or undercover officers.
She also noted that Ohio law already provides extensive protections to keep public safety officials’ personal information out of public records.
“I’m trying to understand why we would, I think, have a different First Amendment right,” she said, when law enforcement officers receive protections that private citizens don’t have access to.
Williams rejected the idea that his bill created different levels of constitutional rights and made another comparison to Ohio’s gun sentencing laws.
“If you have a gun on you when you commit a crime, guess what? The gun specification is valid for one year,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it diminished your constitutional right to bear arms.”
In a speech after the hearing, Williams acknowledged that there was a time — when local governments cooperated with federal agencies and adversaries weren’t “nagging elected officials” — when it would have been unacceptable for law enforcement officers to conceal their identities while on duty.
“Right now, given the political climate that exists in the United States,” he said, “I believe it is absolutely reasonable for law enforcement officers like ICE to conceal their identities for the safety of those officers in the future.”
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