A man has now been charged with assaulting a British Transport Police officer in connection with a fight that began over the wearing of face masks.
Footage of the incident, which has since caught unfortunate fire among those who might best be described as anti-maskers on social media, shows the man who declined to vacate a train after being approached by an officer. According to the Independent, authorities had been called to the scene on Wednesday due to reports of "a man coughing at passengers" on a Merseyrail service to Liverpool Lime Street station.
Initially, a heated argument took place between the two men, with the maskless passenger claiming that he didn't have to follow mask guidelines due to an undisclosed medical condition. The officer, meanwhile, is heard telling the man that he will be forcibly removed from the train if he fails to do so on his own will.
Eventually, as the headline of this and other articles makes quite clear, a mere argument became a full-on fight between the man and the officer. At one point, "incapacitant spray" was discharged. In a statement from British Transport Police shared on Friday, the man in the video was identified as 34-year-old Anthony Baldwin. And per the Independent's report, a complaint with the British Transport Police's department of professional standards department "is being assessed."
As for medical reasons to not wear a mask amid the COVID-19 era, legitimate instances—as explained in this recent CNBC article from Monica Buchanan Pitrelli—are quite rare.
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