
(Courtesy Multnomah County Jail)
An Portland, Oregon woman was charged with assault this week after she allegedly punched a Black bus driver who asked her to leave the bus over her refusal to wear a mask.
Local news station KATU reports that the bus driver told police that Portland resident Virginia Hendon got on his bus without a mask and refused to sit down.
The driver said that when he asked her to sit and put on a mask, she called him a racial slur. The driver then tried to get Hendon to leave the bus, at which point she hit him.
Hendon admitted to police that she struck the driver, but nonetheless claimed she was acting in self-defense.
All the same, she was arrested now faces assault and bias crime charges.