Unmasking as Performance Art

Amid the continuing interference, assaults, and attempted murders of ICE and Border Patrol agents, which has been encouraged by potty-mouthed legislators endorsing violence in the streets to “stand up to power” (such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently depicted ominously holding a baseball bat in his hand to declare his opposition to…something or other – his explanation shifted after criticism poured in), we get three pieces of performance art from sanctimonious lawmakers in California, New Jersey, and New York.

In each of those sanctuary states, bills have been introduced to forbid the agents from wearing masks as they go about their increasingly dangerous work (see here and here).

State lawmakers have no more authority to dictate whether federal officers are masked than they have to dictate what kind of firearms they carry or vehicles they drive. The standards and working conditions of federal officers are a uniquely federal prerogative. Surely, they know this.

Do they perhaps hope to create a standoff between federal agents, and state or local officers ordered to unmask them? Surely, they are also smart enough to know that no state or local officer is going to risk jail and federal charges on such a fool’s errand.

Meanwhile, the anarchists and hooligans who arrive fully geared up for riots – carrying rocks, molotov cocktails, and other weapons with which they violently confront these officers at every opportunity – continue to be seen on national television, hiding their faces with masks, balaclavas, and keffiyehs.

Apparently, that is acceptable, because I see no legislative outrage on display to demand that these individuals, over whom the states do have authority, should unmask themselves.

As I say, just another piece of “performance art”, and a cowardly one at that.