Gavin Newsom Signs Law Enforcement Face Mask Ban And Everyone Gets Stupid About It, Including Federal Prosecutors

from the take-the-L,-boys dept

ICE made the bed and now California law enforcement officers have to lie in it. The flashpoint of ICE backlash occurred in Los Angeles, as Trump’s mass deportation desires manifested itself in the form of masked officers chasing day laborers through Home Depot parking lots.

As protests ensued, ICE officers continued to operate without face masks and a deliberate dearth of agency insignias. Then Trump added fuel to a mostly nonexistent fire by sending in the National Guard (illegally) along with a few hundred Marines.

In response, California has done what it can. First, it sued the government, pointing out the illegality of the National Guard mobilization. Then the legislature went further, passing a ban on use of identity-obscuring masks by law enforcement officers, whether they’re local or federal. Of course, California’s ban on federal officer face-wear probably won’t hold up in court, but it at least means those deciding to ride shotgun with Trump’s secret police won’t be able to hide their identities from members of public observing them perform their public duties in public.

This bill is now law, having been signed by Governor Gavin Newsom late last week.

Saying it’s the first bill of its type in the country, Newsom — a Democrat and frequent critic of President Trump — said it was a sign of growing authoritarianism to have detentions in by masked men “hidden from accountability, any transparency, any oversight. That’s Trump’s America.”

[…]

The law, called by sponsors the “No Secret Police Act,” comes in response to increased immigration enforcement in California, particularly in Los Angeles. Newsom went to L.A. for the bill signing.

The law hasn’t even gone into effect yet, and already some of the most powerful people in the nation are bitching.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican running in the 2026 race for governor, said the ban showed Newsom and Democratic lawmakers care more about the safety of criminals than officers.

“They didn’t ban criminals from wearing masks, they didn’t tell criminals that they had to identify themselves,” Bianco said while campaigning in Northern California on Friday. “Every single person that voted for that needs to be eliminated in the next election. Anyone that votes for those people are absolute idiots.”

The idiot here is Sheriff Chad Bianco. Laws are already on the book that force people to hand over identification if they’re suspected of committing a crime. And the “ban criminals from wearing masks” law is specifically cited in the law’s text:

Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to wear a mask, false whiskers, or any personal disguise, as specified, with the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification while committing a public offense, or for concealment, flight, evasion, or escape from arrest or conviction for any public offense.

So, to paraphrase this law enforcement official, anyone who votes for this sheriff is an idiot, because Chad Bianco clearly doesn’t actually know the laws he’s expected to enforce.

More whining can be heard at the usual far right-coddling outlets, like Fox News:

“We don’t need to abide by this garbage,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on social media.

Whatever. See you in court.

More here, from the UK’s Daily Mail, which doesn’t really even have a horse in this race:

Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, told the AP that the bill was ‘despicable and a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers’.

She said that federal law enforcement officers are ‘being assaulted by rioters,’ and has claimed that Newsom’s rhetoric led to an 1,000 percent increase in attacks on federal agents.

Whew. Fun stuff. Apparently, Gavin Newsom’s “rhetoric” is responsible for a 1000% increase in assaults on ICE officers. Even if true (it isn’t), that means Newsom has managed to generate an additional 100 assaults on ICE officers since the beginning of this year — apparently with his mouth alone. The DHS, of course, continues to use the percentage because it’s much more impressive to say “1000%” than to say “~110 assaults since 1/1/2025.”

But the stupidest thing said about the passage of this law came from none other than Acting US Attorney for Southern California, Bill Essalyi, last seen at Techdirt berating federal prosecutors from failing to talk a grand jury into indicting protesters on bullshit federal charges.

Here’s Mike Masnick asking Ken (Popehat) White a relevant question about the legal definition of true threats over a screenshot of US Attorney Bill Essayli’s post on X (the social media site where stupid goes to die thrive).

Essayli — another law enforcement idiot — tags in (of all entities) the fucking US Secret Service while quote-tweeting Governor Newsom’s press office.

Essalyi: We have zero tolerance for direct or implicit threats against government officials. I’ve referred this matter to @SecretService and requested a full threat assessment.

The alleged “threat?”

Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today.

You’re welcome, America.

That’s the governor’s office announcing the signing of the face mask ban. There’s nothing threatening about it. Furthermore, the US Secret Service isn’t the person to call even if you idiotically believe (as Essayli does) that this constitutes a “direct or implict threat.” That would be the FBI, which may decide to engage with the people providing protection to Noem if it’s determined it’s a threat worth taking seriously.

It’s one thing for a law enforcement official whose ignorance of the law is a net positive under the qualified immunity doctrine to say dumb stuff out loud about this law. It’s quite another for an actual government lawyer — someone who might actually face punishment or banishment if their ignorance of the law is great enough — to insinuate that a clearly innocuous statement is a possible “threat,” much less take the extra step of “referring” it to federal law enforcement for investigation.

But it always plays well with the home fans. They also believe the law is whatever they need it to be in any given situation. However, most of those cheering on Essayli and local sheriffs aren’t in positions that require them to have more than the average layman’s grasp of legal issues. Statements like these don’t exactly give the impression they’re being uttered by anyone worthy of the title “law enforcement professional.” It’s rookies all the way up and all the way down, which is exactly the sort of climate that allows a species like Donald Trump to thrive.

Filed Under: california, dhs, doj, face mask ban, gavin newsom, ice, mass deportation, trump administration