A California prison guard is out of jail on $50,000 bail, was put on leave from his job, and faces hate crime charges for — get this — “beating a Wells Fargo branch manager and calling him a racial slur after being asked to wear a mask inside the bank,” Huffington Post reported on Saturday, September 18, 2021 (read story here).
“James Allen Jones, Jr., 50, was arrested at his job,” Huffington Post said, adding, “Police said Jones, who is white, made racist comments to the Hispanic victim.”
Here’s how it allegedly went down, according to the local newspaper: The unnamed manager asked the suspect to “put on a face mask.” The suspect then “became extremely aggressive, called the manager a racist slur and caused a commotion in the bank lobby. Later that evening, … the man showed up in the parking lot and attempted to beat him up.”
Jones (photo, left) was identified as the suspect after a 10-day investigation. After 27 years working in that job, he’s now “on administrative leave pending the outcome of his case, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is cooperating with the investigation,” Huffington Post says.
What kind of person lies in wait in a parking lot because he was told to put on a face mask? What’s going on here? A fragile white guy feels pushed around by a Hispanic, and erupts in uncontrollable anger? Or something happened at work, and he took it home with him? I guess we’ll find out when the case goes to trial.
But you know what? If these allegations are true, it shouldn’t matter what his reason was. Bank employees aren’t paid to be punching bags for every customer who has a bad day at work. Neither are restaurant servers, airline cabin attendants, or store clerks. They’re just employees, and nobody has a right to take out their frustrations on them.
If he’s convicted, Jones could lose his job, his pension, and maybe go to jail. If you ask me, it’s not worth it. But incivility in this country has gone too far. It’s out of control. When it escalates to criminal behavior, there needs to be consequences. We’re either going to remain a civilized country, or we’re not.
Anti-maskers who erupt in violence need to do jail time. The U.S. Capitol rioters who committed acts of violence need to do prison time. Same goes for people who engaged in rioting, arson, looting, and assaults of police officers during protests. The people who threaten public officials and election workers need to be hunted down, prosecuted, and sued. We are a rules-based society, and if the rules aren’t enforced, there are no rules.
The Founding Fathers never envisioned “freedom” as throwing punches because someone asks you to wear a mask as part of their job.
Related story: Women who ripped up a Trump sign and snatched a “MAGA” hat from pro-Trump protesters at the 2020 Democratic convention get probation in a plea deal (read story here).