Hostess Attacked at NYC Restaurant for Enforcing Proof of Vaccination Policy

As New York City becomes the latest city to roll out proof of vaccination requirements as a condition for entry at indoor spaces like bars and restaurants, enforcing those policies has largely fallen on workers with likely no training in handling such matters. And these staffers are definitely not being paid extra to ward off blows from irate customers willing to literally kill people for a hamburger.

Yesterday, a hostess outside a New York City restaurant called Carmine’s was physically beaten after asking patrons to comply with the city’s executive order requiring proof of vaccination before entry into the restaurant. Per NBC New York:

“The 22-year-old hostess asked the group of Texans to show proof of getting the COVID vaccine in order to dine in the restaurant, part of NYC’s executive order that went into effect this week. Law enforcement sources said that the hostess was then repeatedly punched in the face and body, and sent to the hospital.”

While it’s unclear from the video footage exactly what happened, the beating is just the latest in a long string of abuses leveled at workers who have consistently been forced to enact covid safety policies handed down by governments and upper management without a whole lot of support. In August, a California teacher was hospitalized following an attack that occurred after asking a parent to wear a mask. A July 2020 survey found that 44 percent of surveyed McDonald’s workers said that they had been physically or verbally assaulted for trying to get patrons to wear masks.

As the Hospitality Alliance calls on lawmakers to increase penalties for those who beat the shit out of average citizens just trying to do their jobs, which now include being the vaccine police, there has to be a better solution than making every 22-year-old just trying to seat people at Applebee’s a public safety officer.