BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) — A Baltimore County Council proposal aimed at stopping what its sponsor called “widespread panic” failed Monday, ending Councilman Izzy Patoka’s push to ban face masks for law enforcement officers and require visible identification.

Patoka’s bill would have prohibited face masks not only for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but also for Baltimore County police officers, and would have required officers to visibly display identification. Patoka criticized ICE tactics, saying, “There’s no excuse for ICE behavior, wearing mask, creating terror…It’s not how a law enforcement entity ought to act.”

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“The intent was, you know, the behavior of ICE is not the behavior of the Baltimore County Police Department,” Patoka said. “But in order to make the bill viable legally, this is what my lawyer has told me is that you can’t just target one agency ICE.”

Read full article and view video: Baltimore County Council rejects bill banning masks for ICE and other law enforcement