NYC NOW - June 14, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Governor Kathy Hochul says she's considering a mask ban on the New York City subway. WNYC’s Sean Carlson talks with Albany reporter Jon Campbell about the governor’s announcement. And finally, WNYC’s Janae Pierre talks with arts and culture reporter Ryan Kailath about Juneteenth events happening in New York City.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Police are promising to spare no expense as they hunt for a man who allegedly robbed and assaulted two 13-year-olds at Knife Point Thursday at Casina Park in Queens. Police say the teens were playing in the park after school when a man in his 20s approached them. He allegedly pulled out a machete and forced them to go to a wooded area. Once there, police say the man tied the teen's wrist together with a shoelace, sexually assaulted the girl, and stole both their cell phones before fleeing. NYPD chief of detectives, Joseph Kinney, is asking residents near the park to help with the investigation. This is a residential area.

A lot of people have home video systems. If they could just check their systems for around 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, to look for that type of perpetrator I described, that would be great. That would be very helpful. Police say the suspect has a light complexion, curly hair and attention. of a boar or bull with red eyes on his chest. Governor Kathy Hockel says she's considering a mask ban on the New York City subway. The news comes just days after a video of mass protesters on a subway car yelling for Zionists to identify themselves circulated online.

While it's not clear how the ban would be enforced, the governor says she's consulting with state lawmakers and Mayor Eric Adams. For more, my colleague Sean Carlson talked with Albany reporter John Campbell. John starts the conversation telling us why the governor is considering such a move in the first place. The governor first kind of teased this. She pointed to that recent incident on the subway that police are still investigating. And the governor said the face coverings make things difficult for investigators. We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsible for criminal or threatening behavior.

Now that said, the governor doesn't have a full-fledged proposal out there. yet, but she says she wants to crack down on mask usage in the subways in particular. Now, correct me if I'm wrong here. This is something that I learned today. New York State had a mask ban on the books for more than a century. What happened to that? Yeah, absolutely. This is a law that went back more than a century to 1845, if you can believe it. And it allowed police to charge somebody with loitering if they wore a mask in certain public situations. And there were some quirky exceptions in that law, like if somebody was attending a masquerade party that was actually written into the law. Back in the late 90s, early 2000s, the Ku Klux Klan actually challenged that law in the courts, but they lost.

And then two huge things happened. COVID and the civil unrest that followed George Floyd's death. State lawmakers actually repealed the mask law in June of 2020. They argued it didn't really serve a purpose other than to criminalize, protests. And they said it could have run afoul of the COVID mask mandates that were in place at the time. Now, the governor says she is considering carving out exemptions, right? How would those work? That's a great question. And we don't really know the answer. And we won't know that until the governor puts some sort of proposal together or takes some sort of action on her own. But she did make clear

there would have to be exceptions in at least three circumstances. people who are wearing a surgical mask and 95 masks for health reasons. People who are wearing face coverings for religious observances. People who are wearing masks as part of cultural celebrations. Now, that said, the governor also acknowledged she'll need to work with the legislature to get their support to do any of this. And they just ended their session at the Capitol last week. I can imagine it's something like this.

I'm sure there are folks who are saying, wait a second, isn't this a First Amendment issue? Are there folks who are concerned about their rights or civil liberties when it comes to that? Absolutely, Sean. I reached out to the New York Civil Liberties Union. They actively fought that mask law for decades. They went as far as supporting the KKK when it battled with New York City over 20 plus years ago. Donald Lieberman is the executive director of the NYCLU. She says mask bans are used to quash political protests and they're selectively enforced.

She also says if somebody does something that breaks the law, they should be judged on their behavior, not what they're wearing. What do legislative leaders have to say about this? So far, nothing. Okay. I did reach out to spokespeople for Andre Stewart Cousins. She's the Senate Majority Leader and Carl Hasty. He's the Assembly Speaker. I didn't hear back from either of them.

But like I said, lawmakers just ended their annual session. They're not supposed to be back up here in Albany until January, though they could be back sooner to deal with a whole of me, MTA's budget. now that congestion pricing isn't going forward. Now, John, the MTA, the NYPD, by their own admission, can't even stop fare beaters from doing something as blatant as hop in a turnstile. How are they going to enforce a mask ban over the entire city subway system? Yeah, that's something that would be TBD. At this point, we don't know what potential penalties would look like.

The governor says it's very early in the process, and it's a big question whether lawmakers would even go along with something like this. They're usually very reticent to increase penalties. So stay tuned. That's WMYC's John Campbell, talking with my colleague, Sean Carlson. Black communities across the country are commemorating June 10th, the day in 1865 when slaves were informed of their freedom. Coming up, we'll tell you about a few events happening in New York City. That conversation after the break.

Juneteenth is coming up on June 19th. It commemorates the day in 1865 when federal troops informed slaves in Galveston, Texas, that the civil war had ended and they were free. Since then, a lot of black Americans have marked the day with various celebrations. And now, Juneteenth is a federal holiday, thanks to a bill signed by President Biden in 2021. With national recognition of the holiday, there are hundreds of events marking the day across the country.

Joining me to talk about a few events happening in New York City is WNYC's Ryan Kyloth. Hey, Ryan. Hey, Jeney. Some communities have kicked off the month with Juneteenth celebrations already, and there are even more this weekend. So for those of us interested, how can New Yorker celebrate Juneteenth this year? You know, it's funny to me because you, me, we both used to live in New Orleans where this is a different kind of holiday in the south. Yeah. The city, it feels like we haven't really figured out how to celebrate June.

You know, like Memorial Day, Labor Day, people know we're going to the beach. July 4th, people know there's going to be fireworks. But there isn't a big citywide, all-encompassing Juneteenth celebration yet. That said, there are a million small fun ones. Do you know about the New York City Federation of Black Cowboys? Wow. I'm actually familiar with the Black Cowboys, which started in Texas before the Civil War. But I'm not familiar with the New York City Federation of Black Cowboys.

Tell me about them. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a bunch of black cowboys. They're in Howard Beach is where they're based. They ride horses around. They also, you know, they visit other neighborhoods. They do lectures. They do parades about like the long and sometimes underknown history of black cowboys.

They do block parties. You can have them at your block party. They visit prisons. They're doing an event at Battery Park City on Saturday. You know, education, horses, come check it out. And that is on Saturday, June 15th, to be clear, not Juneteenth Day itself. Also Saturday, the Central Park Conservancy is doing a celebration at Seneca Village. That's the part of Central Park in the 80s on the west side that was a black village back in the day, raised via eminent domain to make the park.

It was like 50 homes and some churches and a school. Actually, not complete. It was like two-thirds black and a little bit Irish and German in that community back then. Yeah, so that's another fun one. Okay. Now, Juneteenth is a federal holiday now, and, you know, many of us have that day off. Are there any events happening that day on June 19th? Yeah, there's a fun one called Black to Broadway.

So that's the Broadway League. That's like the trade group for the industry. They do this thing where they do a free outdoor show in Times Square that has like 35 performers who are all currently in Broadway shows and musicals, black performers. I should say. So people who are in Aladdin or cabaret or the Lion King or Chicago, they do this free concert all performing individually and together. It's in Times Square. It starts at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. But if you don't have the day off, there's another free concert in the evening starting at 6 p.m. at Lincoln Center. They have this whole huge Juneteenth celebration, multiple performers and performances spread out, you know, all across. the campus. Nice. So Juneteenth is an opportunity for teachable moments. Are there any events that offer educational programming or maybe, you know, panel discussions about the history of slavery and maybe like the role of the civil war in that process? Not quite a panel discussion,

but definitely teachable, the Children's Museum in Manhattan, also in the West 80s. They're doing all day stuff, you know, like a story time, crafts, interactive art projects that are teaching some of the history, a mural that kids can participate in. And it's all geared around sort of education about Juneteenth as well as like broader black history. And for the adults, do you remember drunk history? Yeah. Okay, right.

It was this TV show where like people would get drunk and then try to tell funny, interesting history stories. Well, Littlefield and Gowanus is doing drunk black history, which is a bunch of comedians doing that on stage. drinking and recapping events and figures from Black History. It sounds pretty funny. Obviously, it's sponsored by some liquor brands. That seems like kind of a fun time.

That's WNYC's Ryan Kailat. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Bowdage, Amber Bruce, Ave Korea, Audrey Cooper, Leora and Oam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, and Wayne Showmeister. from all of my wonderful colleagues in the WMYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck,

and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrado. I'm Jene Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday.