LOS ANGELES (LifeSiteNews) – A clothing boutique in left-wing California is forbidding the wearing of COVID-19 masks on its premises in response to a spike in criminals using masks to conceal their identities while stealing.
CBS Los Angeles reported that Fraser Ross, owner of the Kitson chain of stores, posted signs at his Beverly Grove location notifying customers, “Due to safety of our staff and assets of store, we do not allow the wearing of face masks.”
“At Kitson we prioritize the safety of our staff and customers. We noticed a disturbing trend of individuals wearing masks to avoid identification in various situations including, but not limited to, shoplifting, verbal harassment, and physical assault,” Ross explained in a statement. “The mask mandate may have begun as a health precaution, but we believe it is now being used by some people for nefarious purposes. To that end, we enacted our own mandate of sorts. We do not allow wearing of masks in the Robertson store during regular business hours. Those people who wish to wear masks are free to set up an appointment for a person [sic] shopping experience or visit our website. We also offer curbside pickup.”
In an interview with Fox News, Ross relayed that he and his employees have been the victims of violence on multiple occasions, from strangling to pepper spray to even being threatened with scissors, and that masks help the perpetrators evade justice.
“They come in the store with a mask on,” he said. “You know they’ve got a bucket hat, a hoodie and a mask and you can’t see their eyes. In a lineup you’d never be able to identify them.”
Last month, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a warning about an “increase in violent street robberies” in the area.
We are sharing this community alert in an effort to increase awareness of a series of robberies occurring in the City of Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/qRyyB9ZT9n
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) July 17, 2022
Mandatory masking in public places was imposed on most of the country in 2020 in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. However, evidence indicates that masks were not only ineffective at containing the virus but actually resulted in a variety of harms.
Among that evidence was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC’s) September 2020 admission that masks could not be counted on to keep out COVID when spending 15 minutes or longer within six feet of someone, and a May 2020 study published by CDC’s peer-reviewed journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility.”
Last May, another study found that, though mandates effectively increased mask use, that usage did not yield the expected benefits. “Mask mandates and use (were) not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among U.S. states” from March 2020 to March 2021. In fact, the researchers found the results to be a net negative, with masks increasing “dehydration … headaches and sweating and decreas[ing] cognitive precision,” and interfering with communication, as well as impairing social learning among children. The airline mask mandate applied to everyone age two and over, meaning children still in diapers were expected to mask during long flights.
“The potential educational harms of mandatory-masking policies are much more firmly established, at least at this point, than their possible benefits in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in schools,” University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist professor Vinay Prasad wrote in September 2021. “Early childhood is a crucial period when humans develop cultural, language, and social skills, including the ability to detect emotion on other people’s faces. Social interactions with friends, parents, and caregivers are integral to fostering children’s growth and well-being.”
Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) came under fire for removing from its website an acknowledgment of this consensus after coming out in favor of forced masking of children as young as two.