BROADCASTS.com

December 13, 2021 -- What began as an act of civil disobedience in front of a store turned unlawful on Saturday, December 11, when 15 maskless protestors and their children boldly entered The Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op in Ukiah, California, to demonstrate their fury over the need to wear a mask and follow COVID protocol to shop inside the store. Apparently unsatisfied with the Co-op\u2019s online shopping and curbside pick-up option for those who cannot or will not wear a mask, the maskless protesters began their action in front of the entrance doors to the business, holding signs reading \u201cFauci is a Facist\u201d, \u201cThe Mandate is the Beast\u201d, and \u201cFreedom over Fear\u201d. \nThe protest grew unlawful when the group entered the Co-op to purposefully disrupt business. For almost an hour, the angry mob occupied the store. They blocked aisles with their shopping carts so customers could not shop. They allowed and encouraged their children to roam freely through the store opening packages and eating food without paying, they damaged merchandise by filling plastic bags with copious quantities of bulk items which were later abandoned in their carts, and they harassed the staff and customers with fallacies comparing the conditions and policies of the Co-op to Nazi Germany or the Jim Crow era of segregation.\nGrey Wolf was working at the Co-op cafe during the protest. He described what took place during his work day. \u201cWe were flooded with a group of people who refused to wear masks. They were demanding that we check them out. They gathered in a wall by the cash registers and refused to leave unless we checked them out.\u201d \nThe protestors\u2019 tactic is to fill their carts with groceries and inundate the cashiers, who are not permitted to sell items to unmasked individuals. This serves to disrupt business as compliant shoppers are not able to access available cashiers.\nTen phone calls and sixty minutes later, the Ukiah Police Department arrived on scene. The protestors left the business, and got a talking-to from the police. \nWhen the police left,the protestors cheered for their perceived victory, took a series of group photos holding their signs in front of the store, and took off in their cars. Traumatized, the Co-op staff were left to clean up the mess, discarding a hundred dollars or more of half-eaten food items, and reshelving salvageable merchandise. \n\nUnfortunately, the scene was not unfamiliar to Grey. \u201cThis is the second time it\u2019s happened in the last month by the same group of people.\u201d\n \tGrey, along with other floor staff, had to manage the mob's angry questions. \u201cThey were asking questions about what the policies were, what the details were, had any of us read the mandate.They were throwing out comments, calling people Nazis and asking us if we knew anything about the Civil Rights Movement or 1930\u2019s Germany. It was a lot of angry, hateful energy.\u201d\nGrey notes that the Co-op employees are community members who have no control over Public Health protocol. \u201cThere are a couple of high school students who work as cashiers. We have moms. These are the people who work here.\u201d\nGrey wants the protestors to know that the employees, who had to take the abuse and clean up the mess of over 100 dollars\u2019 worth of trashed merchandise, are not responsible for the mask policy. \u201cI fully respect your right to protest peacefully outside,\u201d he said. \u201cBut coming inside, disrupting the flow of business, and agitating the workers who do not have control over this rule, is not respectful.\u201d\nSylvia Fogel is another Co-op employee. She explained that the protestors realize that the Co-op will not sell items to unmasked individuals, so the protestors fill carts with food, wait in line to pay, get denied service, and leave the cart and its items behind to be dealt with by store employees. Some of the items had been opened and half-eaten. As a stocker for the store, Fogel was burdened with cleaning up damaged merchandise and throwing away half-eaten food. \u201cThey are very disrespectful when they come in. They say things like, \u2018It\u2019s illegal to tell us to wear a mask. You\u2019re discriminating against us.\u2019 It makes me really sad for the people who actually have been discriminated against because it\u2019s not discrimination and you are misrepresenting the term. That is not o.k.\u201d \nFogel shared how the presence of these unmasked marauders affects her. \u201cI live with my 90-year-old grandma and I worry about her health every day going to work. My household needs my income, so I can\u2019t quit. It scares me when people like this come in. You are putting my Grandma\u2019s life at risk every time!\u201d\nFogel found the behavior of the unmasked children particularly disturbing. \u201cThe children were even opening up chip bags and running around the store eating them and puffing up their chests at one of our cashiers. It is so disrespectful. It is scary to me that someone would teach their children that.\u201d\nAubrey Lowther, another Co-op employee who was working as a cashier during the prot...