Conversations around wearing face masks have been contentious throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A video has gone viral on Twitter after an unmasked man was punched in the face at a restaurant in Woodland Hills, California.
"Anti-masker threatens a woman, pushes an older guy, all while threatening to 'f**k them up,' then gets punched in the face and cries about 'assault'—very satisfying," a tweet accompanying the video read.
The video, which originated on Reddit from user u/no-flash-photography before it made its way over to Twitter, begins with a man shown at a counter yelling at an employee and said, while pointing his finger in her face, that he was going to "f**k [their] restaurant up."
anti-masker threatens a woman, pushes an older guy, all while threatening to “fuck them up,” then gets punched in the face and cries about “assault” - very satisfying 🤙 pic.twitter.com/9idiEXN5oq
— your friend (@debdrens) October 25, 2021
As the man began to walk out of the restaurant, a person off-screen is heard saying "this is a mandate."
He reappeared in the doorway just as another restaurant patron urged him to leave.
"You want to do something?" the man said, walking up to the restaurant patron who was standing near the doorway. He continued to walk toward the patron, who began backing away, and eventually shoved him, which led to several people responding, including another restaurant patron who ran into frame and punched the irate man in the face.
The man stumbled several steps backward before falling to the floor as other diners watched the scene unfold. Jeers and sounds of shock rippled through the room before one person yelled for the man to leave the restaurant.
"That was assault," the man said in the doorway to the patron who punched him. Two other men stood by the door and urged him out of the restaurant.
Twitter users didn't hesitate to jump into the conversation and share their thoughts about the video.
"They're all the same," one person wrote. "Tough against [people] they think they can overpower. As soon as someone steps up to them they turn into sniveling cowards uttering the fake tough guy faves like 'that's assault' or 'I'm gonna sue.'"
Another person wrote that he wondered how many times the man acted that way at other establishments.
"He was ok with picking on the old guy who backed away from him but called it assault when someone taught him a lesson," another tweet read.
User u/no-flash-photography, who posted the video, told Newsweek that they believe the argument began because the man refused to put on a mask. They said their mother began filming the confrontation about a minute after it started.
It wasn't until the man started to get loud and pushed the restaurant patron that other people became involved, the Redditor said. They noted that it isn't common for many people to have an issue with mask mandates in the area.
Stories of people being turned away for not complying with a mask mandate set forth by a business are not uncommon.
Newsweek reported in July that a Texas bookstore owner shared a letter he received from a customer that was turned away for not wearing a mask.
Ryan Holiday, the owner of The Painted Porch, shared the letter to Twitter. An anonymous woman wrote that while she supports small businesses, she was disappointed to leave the bookstore because of the mask mandate.
"I can no longer tolerate the theater that is 'the mask,'" she wrote, denying the effectiveness of most masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of masks to prevent the emission of virus-laden droplets. The CDC also reported that masks may also reduce inhalation of the droplets by the wearer.
The woman concluded her letter to suggest a comparison between people wearing masks and getting vaccinated to segregation.
"If we allow this bizarre agenda to manifest into complete fruition, there will be a new form of 'separate but equal,' a new form of segregation, a new version of 'Jim Crow.'"
However, Holiday defended his decision to have a mask mandate in place and said it's, "not even a question for me of what I'd prefer, keeping my kids and my employees safe or losing [the worst kind of] customers in a county that is barely 40 percent vaccinated."
Updated 10/28/2021, 5:05 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from Reddit user u/no-flash-photography.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Catherine Ferris is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting for the U.S. Trends Team. She ... Read more
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