According to a report from the Logan Police Department in Ohio, a school resource officer tased a woman for refusing to wear a mask at a middle school football game on September 23, 2020.
She would later be arrested.
Officer Chris Smith reportedly approached the woman in question, Alecia Kitts, while working a shift during a football game last week. Smith told Kitts that she needed to wear a mask per Logan Hocking School District policy. Kitts refused initially, claiming that she has asthma.
According to an account of this incident, Smith reportedly told her on multiple occasions to put on her mask. She was then told to leave the premises or receive a trespassing citation.
In a video of this incident, a game attendee caught the scene of Smith trying to arrest Kitts. The woman was protesting and not complying with Smith’s attempt to put her hands behind her back. Another woman came to Kitts’ aid during this incident.
Smith would later pull out his taser and stun Kitts. The police officer warned her beforehand that he would do so if Kitts continued to not comply, according to a police report. The resource officer ended up handcuffing Kitts.
Kitts would later be escorted out of the stands in handcuffs and then placed in a police cruiser. She was charged with criminal trespassing.
According to a statement from police, additional charges will be pressed against Kitts and the other woman who aided her. In the statement, the police insisted that Kitts was not arrested for refusing to wear a mask, but for her refusal to vacate the premises when she was ordered to by the resource officer.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine eventually caught wind of the incident and was asked about it during a Wuhan virus briefing. DeWine claimed to have contacted the school district for information and was told by the Superintendent that Smith behaved reasonably in this instance.
“To anyone judging that school, that officer, that person: they were trying to follow the guidelines of Ohio High School Athletic Association to let the kids play,” DeWine remarked. “It’s sad when we see something like that happen.”
Regardless of the rational for this arrest, this goes to show how zealous a number of localities and states are becoming when it comes to Wuhan virus policies.
Thankfully, American operates under a federalist system, where states are allowed to experiment and offer differing responses to controversial issues. As far as the Wuhan virus concerned, some states have embraced coercive policies to tackle this virus much to the detriment of their citizens’ civil liberties.
