Texas salon owner chooses jail over coronavirus lockdown
A defiant Texas salon owner says she’d rather go to jail than close her chop shop in compliance with local stay-at-home orders, according to reports.
Shelley Luther has become a figurehead for the Open Texas movement by keeping Salon À la Mode in Dallas open despite a $1,000 citation as well as a cease-and-desist legal order from local officials.
The City of Dallas has accused her in legal papers of chancing “irreparable injury” to locals with the “substantial risk of continuing the spread of the deadly COVID-19.”
But Luther ripped up the court papers, to cheers from supporters outside her hair and nail salon — acknowledging that there was “a very good chance that I’m getting arrested,” according to footage from KTVT -TV.
“I will do everything I can to keep the shop open because I’m not closing the store,” she insisted.
“If they arrest me, I have someone that will keep the store open — because it’s our right to keep the store open,” she said to the crowd outside her salon Wednesday, according to the local station. “It’s our right for those women to earn income for their families.”
She accused Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins of “abusing” his power by forcing the lockdown. “Follow the science. The science is Texas needs to get back to work,” Luther told CBS, later comparing the dangers of the disease to those of driving accidents.