A Galveston, Texas woman was arrested after refusing to put on a mask when she went to a local bank that required masks be worn by all employees and customers, despite Texas’s governor lifting mask mandates two weeks ago, the Washington Post reports.
Terry Wright was at a branch of Bank of America when she was asked by an employee to put on a mask. Wright refused, and the employee told her she could be face criminal consequences. She still refused, so a bank official called police.
Officers told the 65-year-old Wright that if she didn’t put on a mask as the bank personnel requested, she would have to leave. Wright smirked to a responding police officer, “What are you gonna do, arrest me?” They did.
Wright mistaken said that she was in a public place–a place of business is actually private property–and that the governor’s statement that he was rescinding the mask mandate allowed her in the bank without a mask.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott rescinded the mandatory mask mandate, but allowed private businesses to continue to mandate masks and other public health measures as they see fit.
Sitting on the floor in handcuffs, Wright stated defiantly, “Police brutality right here, people.” On the police body cam footage, a patron in the bank can be heard responding, “No,” and another says “No, it is not.”
In an interview with the Post, Wright said the mask mandate was part of a “Plandemic” to deny people their rights, and she “compared face mask requirements to the way that Nazi Germany forced Jewish people to identify themselves with a Star of David.”
She said people “can’t cancel me. I’m retired.” and that “I feel like I took one for the team, because people need to wake up, decrying mask mandates.“