• The city attorney will draft an ordinance laying out repercussions for people who refuse to cover their faces or confront others without wearing face coverings.
• The plan would be to look at penalties for refusing to wear a mask at an indoor public place when requested to do so by the facility’s management or operators.
• It would also look at penalties for those refusing to wear a mask while invading someone’s personal space.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to increase mask enforcement amid the COVID-19 pandemic and directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance laying out repercussions for people who refuse to cover their faces or confront others without wearing face coverings.

The motion, as amended by Councilman Mike Bonin, instructs the Los Angeles City Attorney to draft an ordinance to provide fines and penalties for refusing to wear a mask at an indoor public place when requested to do so by the facility’s management or operators, and for those refusing to wear a mask while invading someone’s personal space.

Bonin said two recent events contributed to him drafting the amendment.

“At the mall in Century City, crowds of maskless people came in, and they confronted employees, they confronted customers, they were asked to put on masks and they refused to,” Bonin said. “We have other situations where people, maskless protesters, are going up to people, getting into people’s faces and deliberately using the fact that they are not wearing a mask as an act of aggression.”