No sympathy for tantrumthrowing anti-maskers
Maxwell: Taking out frustrations on front-line workers while on someone’s private property is not something to condone.
Here in Florida, the stories about people throwing tantrums over masks and getting arrested are as common as palm trees.
“Florida woman who coughed in face of cancer patient pleads guilty”
“Disney World workers get spit on, yelled at and pushed trying to enforce COVID safety rules”
“Florida man coughed, sneezed, spit throughout a Best Buy after refusing mask, deputies say”
I have sympathy for many people. But not these rule-breakers and scene-makers.
Aside from the fact that many take their frustrations out on innocent, front-line workers and uninvolved fellow customers, these folks seem not to understand a very basic concept:
They are on someone else’s private property — upon which they voluntarily stepped.
If they don’t want to abide by that property owner’s rules, there’s a simple solution: Go somewhere else.
Hang out with your fellow anti-maskers where you guys can sneeze, cough and spit on each other until your hearts are full and shirts are soaked.
See, this is what I call a “sky is blue” column — a piece where I make a case I used to think everybody already understood ... like the fact that the sky is blue. I thought we all knew it was improper to spit in other people’s faces or force yourself onto private property. But we’re still seeing these headlines more than a year into the pandemic. So,
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program provides a way to get a permanent resident card through an investment in a U.S. business, a benefit that extends to an investor’s spouse and children under 21.
As the project lender, BC Immigration Fund LLC accepted the investment funds and loaned them for the development of the Marriott project, the suit says. Brevet Capital Management is named in the suit as the manager overseeing the funds collected from EB-5 investors.
The suit says BC Fund aimed to raise and spend up to $70 million, with contributions from up to 140 EB-5 program investors, to finance the development, construction, and operation of the Marriott project. The investments were intended to create more than 4,900 new jobs in the Orlando-area, court records said.
An EB-5 investor must fund the minimum amount of capital required in a new commercial project that will create full-time positions for at least 10 permanent employees.
According to court documents, the firms returned the three plaintiffs’ money in February 2020, saying the origin of the funds couldn’t be verified and suggesting the investors resubmit their wire transfer and visa paperwork.
But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security changed the criteria for the visa shortly before the money was returned, increasing the minimum investment amount from $500,000 to $900,000. The former threshold applied to projects located in areas designated with a high rate of unemployment, which the hotel qualified for at the time.
The investors said in the complaint that they “lost a prime investment opportunity by [the firms’] untimely and unlawful refund of their investment.”
Marriott is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
In a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, Brevet Capital Management said that investors are required to comply with specific terms in its EB-5 investment program.
“Brevet has always acted appropriately and sought to accommodate these investors, but the Fund’s external administrator determined that they did not comply with applicable requirements and we returned their capital,” a Brevet spokesperson said in an email. “This lawsuit has no basis, and Brevet intends to defend itself vigorously against these baseless allegations.”
Tran Vu Khai, the son of Bui Thi Kim Chi, is also listed as a plaintiff in the suit, because too much time passed and he aged out of being eligible for a visa as a dependent under the program’s rules.
The group is asking for a jury trial and unspecified damages.