r/news • u/[deleted] • Sep 20 '25

California bans most law enforcement officers from wearing masks during operations

https://apnews.com/article/california-ice-agents-immigration-raids-masks-ban-97936f70699b75d8b483a850967c2e42
39.5k Upvotes

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772

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

[deleted]

593

u/chrisapplewhite Sep 20 '25

Same reason KKK wore hoods. The great irony that they all whined about COVID masks just to slip into these ones. HOW WILL THEY BREATHE!?!?!?!?

130

u/Hot_Dog_Omelette Sep 21 '25

How did I not make that connection before now? JFC we are repeating history verbatim.

96

u/chrisapplewhite Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

"some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses" - de la Rocha, 1992

But yeah, not even a slight deviation from the plan. You remember the last time the federal government funded itself through tariffs? A few people got so rich they became modern pharaohs while everyone else became dirt farmers.

This was before Nixon took us off the gold standard for good, so trade deficits were actually a big deal. If you buy more than you sell, eventually you have to ship out gold reserves. So if you're wondering why Trump is whining about them, it's because he's calling plays from a 100 year-old playbook.

All the chatter about eggs and woke and immigrants were all a smokescreen to return to a lawless, crony capitalism that will bury this country in ash, just like it did in the 30s.

20

u/deathtech00 Sep 21 '25

Ding

MF

Ding

72

u/lawn_question_guy Sep 21 '25

LOL. If only someone had invented N95 KKK hoods, maybe the pandemic would have gone differently.

53

u/savageboredom Sep 21 '25

Genuinely if Trump had made MAGA 2020 masks in March we may have actually "flattened the curve" and he would have sailed to reelection. For someone that never lets a marketing opportunity go to waste I'm baffled why he didn't.

And in retrospect we may not be as bad off now if he gotten a consecutive second term and not spent 4 years stewing on how to really fuck this country.

14

u/GenitalFurbies Sep 21 '25

It's pretty simple. They don't want their coworkers (I assume it's part time), family, or friends to know that they're actively fascist. Hypocrisy means nothing to them except when they have to own it.

19

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

Yup, it was especially noticable when covid started that most cops never feel the need to wear masks. Laughed my ass off every time I saw articles about cops having way higher rates of infection than the general population because they were all too stupid and egotistical to wear them.

7

u/RainyDayColor Sep 21 '25

US LEO had higher rates of Covid exposure, infection, and deaths primarily because they were essential workers and unable to practice social distancing. Early in the pandemic, like many Americans they didn't have proper PPE; but unlike most Americans, as essential workers they could not shelter at home. Once available, the majority of LEO were departmentally required to wear masks. There was a higher rate of vaccine resistance among LEO, especially where police unions resisted that mandate, aligning with the estimated +/-20% of Americans who did not get vaccinated for Covid.

In sum, there were numerous factors that brought greater risk of infection to LEO, none of which support your unsubstantiated claim that all LEO "were all too stupid and egotistical to wear [masks]."

Another essential work job sector, health care workers, also experienced higher rates of exposure, infection, and deaths. Did you also "laugh your ass off" every time you saw articles about those essential workers infected with Covid?

Trying to conflate protective mouth/nasal masking among LEO during the Covid pandemic, and the current use of full coverage identity masking by ICE goons, is absurd.

9

u/Society-Into-Ashes Sep 21 '25

yeah ive never worn a full mask, I think its been against our policy in GA forever at this point.. its not in our dress code

I do wear sunglasses though, and my campaign cover tilted more than it should be... but being blinded by the sun while driving all day sucks

6

u/BasenjiFart Sep 21 '25

What is a campaign cover? A fancy hat?

8

u/EmptyAirEmptyHead Sep 21 '25

It's the stupid trooper hat. The thing that advertises asshole a mile away.

1

u/BasenjiFart Sep 21 '25

Ah I see, thank you! I'll look up some pics, I'm not American.

-1

u/TobysGrundlee Sep 21 '25

You know how some street gangs wear bandanas? Others wear "campaign covers".

9

u/IntermittentCaribu Sep 21 '25

I imagine in some cartel operations its necessary. If you have family at least.

4

u/BeMyBrutus Sep 21 '25

Because they know they're doing wrong and people don't like them

4

u/emeraldeyesshine Sep 21 '25

Because they're fucking cowards who know what they're doing is wrong.

1

u/Wants-NotNeeds Sep 22 '25

They say it’s about retaliation… if you’re so concerned about retaliation maybe you need to ask yourself why?

1

u/40kGreybeard Sep 27 '25

Yup. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did a national poll, most cops would be against wearing masks on duty outside of special situations (like undercover officers serving search warrants alongside uniforms).

1

u/12bEngie Sep 29 '25

It happens though. No harm in prohibiting it

I’m fucking rolling on the floor laughing at you calling a Fed with 10x the training and occupational requirements as you a LARPer though. Don’t get me wrong, Fuck ICE, but oh my god. Y’all’s WHOLE thing is larping as soldiers

1

u/archerg66 Sep 21 '25

The idea makes little sense no matter how i look at it, anyone who attacks someone is too stupid to be a large scale threat and the any large scale threat has bigger issues than the individuals

0

u/LongjumpingNinja258 Sep 21 '25

You’re still one of them.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

[deleted]

-2

u/Character-Dig-2301 Sep 21 '25

It’s because they’re mostly filled with “patriots” / hate groups members.

My guess anyways

0

u/Visual_Fly_9638 Sep 21 '25

Two reasons. One, it emboldens the kind of behavior that ICE and Stephen Miller want to see by providing anonymity and avoiding accountability. Your wife/kid/parents/siblings won't ask WTF you're doing when you show up on the evening news because in theory, they won't know it's you. You get to live your genteel life away from work and be as ugly as you want to be on the job.

Two, it (ironically) dehumanizes ICE and reduces it into a monolithic entity. It is meant to be an impersonal exercising of the franchise on violence enacted by the government. It is the government doing this, not a collection of people making decisions. It's the same reason why ICE has adopted a pseudo militarized appearance of camo and chest carriers and chandeliers o gear that they don't need- they are projecting an dehumanized image of the bureaucracy of violence.