All screenshots from Galveston Police Dept
Choose Your Battles Dept: A woman in Galveston, Texas kindly reminded us that entitled idiots are still all around us when she threw a fit in a bank after she was repeatedly asked to wear a mask, and then refused to leave when they told her to. Terry Wright, 65, who has been living in a Hitchcock, Texas RV park across the bay, went to the Bank of America to make a withdrawal. It was the day after Gov. Greg 'You Have To Keep Making Money Even If It Kills You' Abbott ended a statewide mask mandate against the advice of health officials and any sentient being; after he declared businesses should decide what COVID precautions to take, many thankfully opted to keep their mask rules in place. Police body-cam footage of the encounter with "Grandma Karen" begins as a cop, called by the bank manager, arrives; Wright is standing defiantly in the middle of the bank's lobby, surrounded by masked customers. The officer asks her to go outside or put on a mask; she refuses because it's a "public place"; he explains it's a private business and they have the right - see "No shoes, No shirt, no service"- to set their own rules; she pulls away and starts to walk toward the tellers, prompting things to get pretty Monty-Pythonesque. The now-frustrated cop says, "Ma'am, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." "What are you gonna do - arrest me?" Wright sneers. "That's hilarious." At which point, yes, he hilariously arrests her.
The scuffle that ensues would, of course, be much more scary and much less ridiculous if Wright was black and male and young. But she isn't; she's just another arrogant white lady who's spent her protected life feeling the rules don't apply to her - which is why at one point she yells at the cop wrestling with her, "Who do you think you are?" In the most entertaining moment of the confrontation, she screams to the crowd of masked onlookers, "Police brutality right here, people." To which an exasperated chorus swiftly replies, "No, it's not." She also charges the cop is "taking away my human rights" and "has issues." Wright reportedly suffered minor injuries in the struggle, and was taken to a hospital. Because the sheriff's office had already warned, in the aftermath of Abbott's decision, that people could be charged with trespassing if they did precisely what Wright did - ie refuse to mask up and leave - she was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. In a later interview, Wright said she doesn't believe in the pandemic - or "Plandemic" per a right-wing, anti-vaccine, conspiracy-themed video - that people "can't cancel me - I'm retired," and she feels she "took one for the team, because people need to wake up." She also said she's never worn a mask, statewide orders or no; compared mask mandates to the Star of David Nazis forced Jews to wear; and, in her final, righteous, stupid act of rebellion, declared, "I won't wear that diaper on my face!" No word on the challenge a ventilator might pose for her.
