A group of customers turned violent toward owners of a Chinese restaurant in Plymouth County, Massachusetts after being told to wear face masks.
Violence over face masks: Surveillance cameras inside The Ming Dynasty Restaurant in Marshfield showed an unruly group causing a disturbance in the establishment, with a 49-year-old woman knocking down the store’s protective plexiglass, WHDH reports.
- According to owner Lei Yan, the customers entered the restaurant without wearing any masks.
- As part of their safety measures, they asked the group to wear face masks.
- Instead of complying with the request, the group took offense from not being served drinks and turned violent.
- Lei Yan felt her husband’s life was put in danger during the commotion.
- “She was pushing my husband and smashed my front desk,” Lei Yan shared.
- It was later found that one of the members of the rowdy group was an off-duty police officer, reported WCVB.
- Restaurant co-owner Jimmy Tian said the officer said something along the lines of: “I’m a police officer, I don’t need a mask.”
- Tian narrated that the officer even showed his police ID to the people inside the entire restaurant.
- Quincy Police has reportedly launched an internal investigation regarding the officer’s conduct.
- No one has been arrested following the incident.
Damned if you do: Enforcing face mask regulations had not been easy for many small businesses like The Ming Dynasty, which was suspended a day for non-enforcement a month ago by the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
- After being cited for having customers without masks last month, Yan said: “I’m so sorry for what I did wrong. I know my difficulty is my difficulty, we don’t want to bring our difficulties to the government, even though we make less money than those on unemployment.”
- The restaurant has since been placed under regular spot checks by the Board of Health, according to WHDH.
Feature Image via WCVB Channel 5 Boston
