Ex-Gov. David Paterson on Sunday backed reinstating the ban on masks in public to thwart moped criminals, Jew-hating rioters and other lawbreakers who wear the face coverings to hide their identities.
He said civil libertarians should get out of the way and not attempt to block such a law.
“Many of the [moped bandits] are wearing masks so the victims can’t identify them to the police,” Paterson said Sunday on 77 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
He noted that both Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams support reviving the law, which was repealed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Exceptions would cover people who wear face coverings for religious or health reasons, a cultural event or holiday costume.
“Sometimes you have to govern what is happening around you and not always some vague principle that isn’t going to help,” Paterson told host John Catsimatidis.
“The New York Civil Liberties Union has come out and opposed the mask [ban] because they feel it is an impingement upon freedom of speech, and, of course, freedom of activity,” said the Dem, who led New York from 2008 through 2010.
“But at the same time, unless you have a better suggestion for how to cut the number of offenses … you really should just step back and let the people who are charged to deal with it find their own way and let the legislature, if they want to pass a law, then that law should supersede your interest,” he added.
The campaign for a reinstated mask ban has garnered momentum after masked thugs took over a subway car in Manhattan last week and demanded that “Zionists” raise their hands — and then added: “This is your chance to get out.”
Masked vandals also have splattered red paint on the door of the home of the director of the Brooklyn Museum, Anne Pasternak, and unfurled a banner calling her a “White Supremacist-Zionist.”
Meanwhile, masked moped drivers have been responsible for rampant shocking robberies across the city.
State Attorney General Letitia James also is behind the effort to unmask haters and criminals.
“No one should be able to hide behind a mask to spew hate,” a spokesman for AG James told The Post on Friday.
Paterson praised the Adams-NYPD offensive overall against reckless moped drivers.
“For some of the things they do on the bike, they should go to jail,” he said of the criminals.
New Yorkers still don’t feel as safe as they did “five or six years ago,” the former gov said.
“Just getting out of a car is an invitation to an attack. I hope the police keep plugging away, they seem to be making some progress. When they make significant enough progress, we will feel it,” Paterson said.
Paterson added that he would be “shocked” if Hochul OK’d the $15 congestion toll to enter Midtown south of 60th Street after the November election, after suspending the unpopular pricing scheme in the 11th hour, saying it was too costly for New Yorkers at this time. The first-in-the-nation congestion toll was scheduled to go into effect June 30 before Hochul nixed it earlier this month.
“It would ignite some rumors that she actually delayed until after Election Day so that Democrats would have better chances in the congressional races,” Paterson said of the notion that Hochul would revive it after November.
“I’d be shocked if that were to happen. I did feel that she sincerely, as the deadline approached, became uncomfortable with the whole process and will now attempt to do something different,” he said.
“It would be in her best interests to find a different way [to finance the MTA].”
He said the big champions of congestion pricing — first former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and then ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — “now see that perhaps [the toll] was not the best decision.”
