Footage of a Canadian anti-masker has gone viral on Reddit, showing the man being tackled to the ground by security for refusing to comply with a Polo Park store's policy.
The video, posted on Monday, starts as the irate customer puts down his shopping basket and begins pushing a Winnipeg Home Depot security guard away after he is approached.
As he begins a tussle and starts to overpower the single guard, compassionate customers rush over to help restrain the anti-masker.
One even gets him in a chokehold and pulls him to the ground, which prompts other customers, including the woman the anti-masker entered the store with, to ask the group to stop.
"Sir, stop choking him, stop it!" one concerned passerby demands. "Everyone has to wear a mask!" he retorts.
After the anti-masker is let go, he turns his aggression toward the man who put him in the chokehold and nearly knocks over a display in the process. Security is able to break up the fight, as his female accomplice admonishes a customer for saying they needed to wear masks.
"You want to support this choice, it's my body!" she says.
Another viewer demands the two customers who got involved to back off. "You're not security!" she yells. "Let security do their job! Let go of the man!"
The anti-masker yells at the security guard for "pushing him" first, as well as a customer who asked him and his partner to put on a mask.
"No you don't, you idiot. You're an idiot!" he says. "This is privilege."
"You're reeking of privilege," the customer responds.
Reddit viewers were appalled at the scene but expressed support for the team of men who subdued the anti-masker.
"I've just spent 3 months on a COVID ward. Antimaskers need punching," one commenter wrote. "Poor security guards. You can't make enough money to deal with that s**t," said another. One Reddit user claiming to be the security guard even weighed in, saying, "Honestly, we are paid far better than most people think, especially if we are working tactical."
Some commenters believe that the anti-masker has been causing similar scenes in other Winnipeg establishments, with several claiming he is the same man caught on camera in a Canadian Tire fighting the owner on the mask policy. In that video, the owner kicks both the anti-masker and his partner out of the store.
"You guys are absolutely ridiculous. An embarrassment to public health and I don't give a s*** who you are," the store owner yells. "Everyone appreciates what's going on in this stupid pandemic, but you guys don't! So thank you for shopping at the store, get out!"
"That's your opinion," the anti-masker says. "You're obviously a real winner."
"Get the f**k out!" he hits back with. "Stop embarrassing people ...You are a f*****g loser!"
This is not the first time Home Depot has been the center of an anti-mask controversy. In February, a woman entered another location spouting COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
