New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is one of the co-sponsors of a bill that would force ICE agents to wear identification and not wear masks when on the job. In Nassau County, however, officials are trying to pass legislation that would do the opposite; ICE and other law enforcement officers would be allowed to wear masks in the interest of safety. Nassau officials fear that anti-ICE rabble rousers would only like to exploit the identification of officers and bring harm to them or their families. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is among the proponents of the legislation; he appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to explain why the county is backing the men and women behind the badge.
Blakeman told host Larry Mendte that law enforcement officials and their families would be in harm’s way without the ability to mask up in dangerous situations: “There are these crazy people, anti-American, anti-cop people, who are trying to out these law enforcement officers, they tell (people) where they live, and these people have families and their families are entitled to protection, and we’re going to protect them here in Nassau County. So if they try to do it, and I don’t think they’d be successful, but if they tried to do it, I would fight it tooth and nail all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Blakeman says there are too many people who are on the wrong side of the issue of letting law enforcement mask up: “Everything that they do is to make it easier for criminals to operate, and it makes it more difficult for law enforcement, and it hurts the victims. You know the types of crimes we’re talking about, some of these ICE agents are going after people who’ve been involved in murder, rape, drug dealing.”
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