Time to ban masks at protests

In the May 28 Olympian, I read the article from the Walla Walla paper about Sen. Honeyford’s bill to make wearing masks and other face hiding clothing a crime at protests.

I have personally been to several protests: Watts in the early ’60s, Chicago in 1968 at the Democratic Convention, multiple anti-war college protests, Olympia when the USS Olympia made port. and others. In my history of protest involvement, the wearing of facial concealment is used to stop authorities from identifying someone who is intending to break or has broken the law.

Protesting is a valuable and time honored tradition in this country, but, property destruction for its own sake can never be condoned. These people are not protesters, they are criminals and should be treated as such.

This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Time to ban masks at protests."