<
https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2023/04/09/mask-off-at-the-door-policies-undermine-our-rights-as-disabled-people/>
"In early March, as the third anniversary of Covid-19 passed unnoticed by many,
comments by New York City Mayor Eric Adams rang out like an ominous warning,
signaling further erosion of our few remaining pandemic protections. “We are
putting out a clear call to all of our shops,” Adams said in a radio interview
with
1010 WINS, “Do not allow people to enter the store without taking off
their face mask.” In follow up questions by journalists, Adams said that masks
were not banned in stores but that he was recommending stores make showing your
face on camera a requirement for entry. He also indicated that he planned to
coordinate with other Mayors nationally to reproduce this as part of a broader
initiative to “tackle retail theft.” The mayor’s comments heralded one of the
first concrete signs of what many disabled and immunocompromised people have
feared was long coming: Could this be the beginning of the criminalization of
masking in public places?
In the media frenzy that followed his initial remarks, Mayor Adams gave further
comments to local reporters expanding upon what I’ve been calling his “mask off
at the door” proposal. Adams explained that the goal of his proposal was to
facilitate a process in which shop owners could better profile their customers.
Violators who resisted mask removal or were uncomfortable with it, Adams
explained, could act as a kind of early warning system for potential antisocial
or criminal behavior. “Some of these characters going into stores that are
wearing their mask, they’re not doing it because they’re afraid of the
pandemic,” Adams said, “they’re doing it because they’re afraid of the police.”
The Mayor’s proposal was echoed by NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey who said “mask
off at the door” policies should be thought of as “a peace offering” and “a
sign of safety for store workers.”
It is ironic that this proposal has been framed as an issue of worker safety,
as the implementation of “mask off at the door” policies, would not only put
workers at increased risk due to increased exposure to Covid-19, it would also
put them at increased risk of altercations with the public over the policy
itself. In public appearances, Adams has explained that the point of the
suggestion was to both intimidate alleged would-be-shoplifters and to provide
police with security footage necessary for arrests: “We need to stop allowing
them to exploit the safety of the pandemic by wearing masks, committing
crimes.” As of this writing, Mayor Adams has yet to produce any satisfactory
answers as to how exactly implementing “mask off at the door” policies would
keep workers safer, instead trading on the false-panic that living through the
ongoingness of Covid-19 has left our society broken and those who mask are
seeking to exploit the pandemic for their own gain.
Such fear-mongering about a “crime wave,” or waves of “unstoppable” retail
theft has been common throughout the pandemic, fueled by viral videos of
“brazen daytime thefts” that have made the rounds on social media accompanied
by statements from major retailers that blamed crime and theft for store
closures (it turns out many already had been scheduled to close since 2019). It
is important to note that this narrative of a massive wave of coordinated
retail theft has been largely disproven, both by local, state and national
crime statistics, as well as in earning reports and comments from retailers
themselves. As Christopher Robbins reported for the NYC-focused, worker-owned
publication
Hell Gate, recent wide-spread media reports that retailers,
especially in New York City, were victims of “Organized Retail Crime” seem to
be mostly unfounded, and in an anonymous annual survey of retailers product
losses were lower in 2021 than the five year average. The crime panic narrative
is little but a distraction from the ongoing critiques of police budgets and
behavior, organizing against the prison industrial complex, and against the
ongoing pandemic we are pretending is over even as it still visibly rages on.
Most importantly, Adams’ suggestion would further deny disabled and
immunocompromised people access to public space, economic participation, and
social life, while fueling chains of transmission in the ongoing Covid
pandemic. And at worst, it could lead to the criminalization of masking
itself."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: April 13, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-81447422
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
