This week, a viral video of a woman stepping in to defend two strangers being harassed made its rounds on the internet. In Colorado, an older white woman accosted two Hispanic women, who are Mexican, for speaking Spanish in a grocery store, before she was interrupted by another shopper.
According to BuzzFeed News, the two women are Fabiola Velasquez and Isabel Marin. As they shopped at a City Market in Rifle, Colorado, a woman named Linda Dwire harassed them and told them to learn English. Shortly after, Dwire was interrupted by another local, Kamira Trent, who defended the two strangers. “She just got angrier and angrier. I was trying to get her away from the two women, but she wasn’t going to leave them alone,” Trent told BuzzFeed. “What she said and the way she said it was wrong.”
Per Trent, Dwire used phrases like, “You’re in America,” “You’re in my country,” “You can’t speak Spanish here,” and “You need to speak English if you’re going to be in America,” when addressing Velasquez and Martin.
The viral video, which you can watch below, shows Trent defending the women and yelling at Dwire to leave the store as she threatens to call the police.
“I’m calling the cops. You leave these women alone! Get out! Go!” Trent tells Dwire in the video.
“You come from a generation that’s destroying this country,” Dwire replies.
“No, I do not. I have respect, and it does not matter. You do not harass people,” Trent responds.
Since the video was taken, Dwire was arrested and charged with two counts of bias-motivated harassment. She’s currently out on bond. Dwire argued that her actions were motivated by patriotism, not racism, but Velasquez, who has been in the country for eight years, said Dwire made them feel unsafe.
"It felt good to see someone who was born here defend us that way," Velasquez said.
