New York woman assaulted employer who asked her to wear mask at workplace, resisted troopers arresting her
SAND LAKE, NEW YORK: A woman from Sand Lake, New York, has been charged for allegedly assaulting her employer who asked her to wear a mask. According to reports, state troopers arrived at a business on September 24 sometime before 1 pm after receiving a complaint of a fight. It was said that when the boss of the business warned Tina Hoch to wear a mask within the premises amid the coronavirus pandemic, she created a row. The 51-year-old suspect allegedly threw things at her employer and physically harmed them. Besides, she also threw items around her workplace.
Hoch was later found by troopers somewhere else and when they proceeded to arrest her, she reportedly resisted before being taken into custody. The woman has been charged with Assault 3rd degree (a class A misdemeanor), Resisting Arrest (a class A misdemeanor), Obstructing Governmental Administration (a class A misdemeanor), Criminal Tampering 3rd degree (a class B misdemeanor), and Disorderly Conduct (a violation).
Earlier in April, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered people to wear masks in public areas. At the time, he said, “Stopping the spread is everything. How can you not wear a mask when you’re going to come close to a person?” Again on Tuesday, September 29, he repeated his stand and said that masks were “a sign of respect.” He continued, “I don't care what your political opinion is at one point. I don't care what your religious opinion is. Mask-wearing is a law,” adding: “Your actions determine your consequences. That's it. You enforce the mask ordinance; you'll have a lower infection rate. If you don't enforce the mask ordinance, you will have a higher infection rate. Those are the facts. We know the facts.”
In another incident, a woman allegedly broke two shelves of wine after she apparently got furious over coronavirus restrictions. The incident caught on camera reportedly happened in May inside the Co-op store on Lingfield High Street, Surrey. When the unidentified woman was asked to follow the newly imposed one-way system to help stop the spread of Covid-19, she reportedly became angry and began “punching and kicking”. She also threw a number of wine bottles on the floor and screamed at the employees of the store.
“One day in May at the height of lockdown, a female customer became very agitated when we asked her to follow the store’s one-way system. She got very angry and started shouting at me and my colleague who were serving customers from behind the protective till screen,” a staff member at the store said. “She stormed up to the till screen and just flipped out, punching and kicking it before rushing over to the alcohol aisle where she started grabbing bottles of wine, sending them smashing them to the ground. Two entire shelves of glass bottles came crashing down. She then picked up a basket containing milk and eggs and threw it across the store.”
The worker added: “Just last year I was actually punched in the face by a female customer because I had refused to serve her alcohol as she was clearly intoxicated. I’m still recovering from the mental strain that this has caused me. People like me are key workers, we get up every morning to serve the communities in which we live and work. It simply isn’t part of our job to be attacked and I desperately hope the government does more to help us.”