Many Americans firmly believe that there is a personal line that the government should not be allowed to cross. That is our bodies and how we choose to protect them.
For some, the line is drawn at vaccines. They feel as though the government has no right to tell us what we must put in our and our children’s bodies.
For others, it comes down to the necessity of face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
The point here is that the government doesn’t have the right to tell us what risks to take with our bodies. So in California, an angry group of anti-maskers decided to take things into their own hands.
Anti-mask protesters aggressively approached shoppers at a Ralph’s grocery store in Los Angeles’ Century City neighborhood and then moved to the nearby Westfield mall, leading to minor altercations and the police at times intervening.
The protest, captured in a series of videos from a Twitter thread Sunday and livestreamed by the protesters, took place as Los Angeles COVID-19 cases soar, as safer-at-home orders remain in effect and as Southern California ICU are stuck at 0% availability.
At the Ralph’s grocery store, one female protester falsely claimed a man hit her and began pursuing the man with a shopping cart as other protesters shouted. The woman then was seen kicking the man. Another protestor called a shopper a “mask Nazi” and said he didn’t have to wear a mask because he had tested negative for the virus.
The protest then moved to Bloomingdales and other stores throughout the Century City mall. Protesters were asked to leave various stores and had a brief dance party to the tune of YMCA in the corridors. When one shopper says that her father was in the hospital with COVID-19, the man shouted back that, “People die. Your father’s not special.”
Today, a group of anti-maskers protested at Ralph’s and the Century City shopping mall. Lots of angry confrontations with customers and a few physical altercations.
Thread pic.twitter.com/cS0YAR2CiH
— Samuel Braslow (@SamBraslow) January 4, 2021
