In another case of police incompetence, Virginia cops arrested a Black man on felony charges for wearing a mask in public for his job.
The Norfolk police officers claimed they were enforcing a state law prohibiting the wearing of masks in public when they arrested Jorge Diaz Jr., who was returning home from his job at a home improvement company, when he was aggressively arrested at his apartment complex by three cops on January 22.
But the cops failed to acknowledge that the law includes exceptions allowing citizens to wear masks in public, including for safety reasons while on the job, which was the case here.
“I’m still on the clock at work! What are you doing? What the f_ck you doing?” Diaz exclaimed as he was being arrested, according to the video recorded by a Black woman named Samira Brooks.
“He didn’t do anything but Walking While Black,” Brooks said while recording the arrest before posting it to her Facebook page that same afternoon, where it has been viewed more than 357,000 times as of this writing.
The story was picked up by local media, and Norfolk police have since said they would withdraw the charges against Diaz, a 29-year-old employee of Paramount Builders, a Virginia-based home improvement company.
Brooks, who said she is a nurse in the video, was debating the law with a male cop who insisted she was wrong, telling her to “look it up” – when it should have been the cops looking up the law before making an arrest.
“This young man was walking into his residence and he was arrested because the police asked him to pull down his mouth mask over his face,” she said.
“It only cause he’s Black.”
Watch the video below.
Ignorance of the Law
The arrest took place after Norfolk police responded to a complaint of domestic violence that allegedly took place inside one of the apartments at the complex.
But the female caller told police the male suspect had fled the apartment, which was when police turned their attention to Diaz, who had nothing to do with the call or the apartment it came from, but was returning home from work.
In her affidavit, Norfolk police officer Ashleigh Marie VanDriesen wrote the following:
While on another call for service, I saw a male walk by wearing a balaclava mask covering his face to include mouth, nose and hair. I asked the male to pull the mask down. He briefly pulled it down, then pulled it back covering his mouth and nose. I told the male he could not wear the mask in public and asked for his ID.
The male refused to provide ID. Male was arrested for 18.2-422.
The law cited in VanDriesen’s affidavit was enacted in 1953 to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from donning masks and terrorizing Black people as they had done for decades. It applies to anybody 16 and older.
But had VanDriesen bothered to look up the law, she would have discovered several exemptions, including the legality of wearing masks for traditional holiday costumes, masquerade balls, theatrical productions, as well as for medical reasons and under public health emergencies like COVID-19 if the governor issues a declaration.
The exemption that applies to Diaz states the following:
Engaged in professions, trades, employment, or other activities and wearing protective masks which are deemed necessary for the physical safety of the wearer or other persons;
As a home improvement contractor, a mask protects Diaz from dust, solvents, fibers and other contaminants. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration also recommends that contract workers wear masks for safety reasons.
In her report, VanDriesen claims she arrested Diaz for refusing to provide identification, but Virginia is not a stop-and-ID state, meaning police need to have a reasonable suspicion a person is committing a crime before they are required to hand over their identification.
Diaz spent the night in jail before he was released the following day.
‘Obviously Stereotyped’
While VanDriesen does not appear to understand the laws she is supposed to enforce, Brooks, the Black woman who recorded the arrest, was not as clueless when she posted the video on her Facebook page with the following caption.
In Norfolk / Virginia, wearing a mask or “shiesty” is legal
Virginia’s mask law (Va. Code § 18.2-422) only makes masks illegal when BOTH are true:
• A person is committing or about to commit a crime, and
• They are wearing the mask to conceal their identity for that crime.
It also has clear exceptions for:
• Health / medical reasons
• Work
• Weather
• Safety
A man:
• Getting out of a marked Paramount Builders truck
• Wearing a company hoodie
• Walking into his apartment
= not committing a crime
= mask is 100% legal
The officer saying “you aren’t supposed to wear a mask in public” was wrong under Virginia law.
⸻
2. Virginia is NOT a stop-and-identify state
In Virginia:
You only have to identify yourself if:
• Police have reasonable, articulable suspicion you are involved in a specific crime.
More than 1,500 comments have been left on her video since she posted it last week, most of whom are outraged over the unlawful arrest, thanking her for recording the unlawful arrest.
“I thank God you was there black Queen thank you for keeping him safe,” commented one woman.
“I know this young man personally,” commented another. “He has never done wrong or anything to get into trouble EVER. This is ridiculous. His whole family is tore up over this. Which I don’t blame them one bit, he was very obviously stereotyped.”
“A felony?! Really?!” questioned another commenter. “Say you’re targeting a certain demographic without saying you’re targeting a certain demographic.”
Last year, Atlanta Black Star reported on the case of another Black man who had been harassed and falsely accused by Norfolk police, retaliating against him when he tried to hold them accountable.
