By Bernadette Hogan, Reuven Fenton and Bruce Golding New York Post
County officials statewide opposed to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate called it “silly,” “misguided” and “unenforceable” on Tuesday — with one rejecting it as “Gestapo tactics” and another saying “we’re not going to become the mask police.”
Since Hochul announced her order on Friday, leaders in 13 Republican-controlled counties have publicly refused to force businesses that don’t require vaccination for admittance to make workers, customers and visitors wear masks.
The defiant counties — along with Nassau County, where incoming Republican County Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman has said he’ll defy the mandate — account for nearly one-quarter of all the state’s territories, not including the five boroughs of New York City.
In addition to Nassau, four other counties — Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess — are among the Big Apple’s suburbs.
Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus said he opposed “using Gestapo tactics and going business to business and asking them if they are enforcing masking.”

















