‘You should be in a psych ward.’ Anti-maskers get heated at Palm Beach commission meeting
Pedophiles. 5G. Religion. Bill Gates. Underwear.
Those were just some of the topics that anti-maskers mentioned Tuesday to criticize Palm Beach County’s potential facial coverings mandate at a county commission meeting. Commissioners ultimately enacted the order, but the scene leading up to the final vote seemed right out of a movie script.
“I don’t wear a mask for the same reason I don’t wear underwear,” said a woman who identified herself as Beth and whose last name couldn’t be made out on a video of the meeting. “Things got to breathe.”
“You literally cannot mandate somebody to wear a mask knowing that that mask is killing people,” a woman in a red shirt said. “... Every single one of you that are obeying the devil’s laws are going to be arrested.”
“I think all of you should be in a psych ward right the heck now because none of you, none of you know what the hell you are all talking about,” she said before asking why Hillary Clinton and Gates aren’t in jail.
The outlandish comments sparked a spoof on Twitter in which the best soundbites were interspersed with clips from the hit NBC show “Parks and Rec.”
One man who identified himself as an “American Patriot” screamed at the commissioners.
“You see that flag, I would die for that flag,” he said. “The Constitution that you were supposed to uphold, I would die for that! None of you are holding that up. You don’t care about we the people because you already made your decision before you listened to anybody!”
“I would also like to know where do you get the authority to reduce my oxygen,” said a woman wearing a white “Trump Girl” shirt. “Who made you perpetrators over my life?”
“How will young children be able to know who the dangerous deviants are like pedophiles and people in human sex trafficking?” asked another woman. “Can you provide any significant evidence that the benefits of such intervention outweigh the risk?”
Florida has recently become a hotbed for COVID-19, with the state setting a new single day record for cases on Friday. Palm Beach County has the third highest number of cases at 12,359, according to the Florida Department of Health.
As for the efficacy of masks, scientists have been unified since early April on the effectiveness of facial coverings significantly reducing the transmission of COVID-19. Doubters need to look no further than recommendations from the experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Stanford or Johns Hopkins.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 7:05 PM.
