SF Dem authoring legislation to ‘shut this ski mask s**t down’ after masked agents crash Newsom speech

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A prominent San Francisco Democrat announced he is authoring legislation to ban what he calls “extreme masking by law enforcement.” State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said he will introduce Senate Bill 627 (SB 627) in response to the arrival of masked Border Patrol agents outside a venue for a rally California Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a rally Thursday.

“I’m authoring legislation to shut this ski mask s**t down,” Wiener said in a Reddit post Friday.

The outspoken SF Dem, who is tipped by some as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi should she not seek reelection, accompanied the post by a picture of masked agents outside the downtown Los Angeles venue where Newsom spoke Thursday. Newsom was holding a rally to unveil what he called the “Election Rigging Response Act.”

At the rally, the governor announced that California would be moving forward with a partisan redistricting plan to counter a similar plan by Texas Republicans that’s backed by President Donald Trump.

Outside the venue in LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, masked Border Patrol agents posted up in what some have characterized as a “show of force.”

“We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place,” Gregory Bovino, Chief Patrol Agent of El Centro Sector and Commander-Operation At Large told a reporter outside the venue.

“Yesterday, Governor Newsom, legislators, and community leaders held a press conference in Los Angeles to announce California’s redistricting process to counter the rigged redistricting process Trump and his cronies initiated in Texas,” Wiener wrote. “Trump’s thugs showed up with ski masks. This situation — California leaders rallying for democracy and Trump’s secret police showing up to intimidate people — encapsulates exactly where our country is right now.”

Wiener said he was “proud of California for standing up for our democracy” and that he would be voting next week to back Newsom’s redistricting plan.

The three-term Democratic state senator went on to say that he would be authoring SB 627 to band masking by law enforcement, “including federal agents.”

“I look forward to passing that bill and sending it to the Governor,” he added.

Also known as the “No Secret Police Act,” SB 627 would prohibit “law enforcement at all levels from covering their faces while conducting operations in the state of California,” according to Wiener’s official website. The bill would also require officers to be “identifiable via their uniform, whether with name or other identifier.”