Ok, this situation is screwed up, so let me walk you through the mess.
Britanny Brown owns a hair styling business in Texas. She shut down her establishment because of Governor Greg Abbott’s stay at home order, and non-essential businesses could only be opened. She’s also pregnant.
Brown had initially purchased ads on Facebook for her business that continued to run during the stay-at-home order, even though she wasn’t opened. It was a mistake that she didn’t take the ads down, but she probably wasn’t thinking about that at the time.
That’s when the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations contacted her about having her business open when she was supposed to be closed. From there, the department allegedly publicly shamed her, which resulted in mean and hateful messages filling her inbox.
Brown told WFAA that before the pandemic hit, she set up automatic advertisements on Facebook for her hair salon. Despite Brown temporarily shutting her business down because of the coronavirus and her pregnancy, the ads continued to run.
Brown said she received dozens of angry messages after the government agency saw one of the old Facebook ads for her business and posted about it on April 6.
“Please be advised that in addition to the criminal penalties under the executive order, there are potential TDLR violations that could subject you to administrative fines and sanctions,” the agency wrote on Facebook.
Despite being publically bashed by the agency, Brown said white businesses had defied government orders and started to reopen.
“I started getting like all these nasty comments and inboxes basically saying that I was, you know, doing services when I really wasn’t,” she told WFAA this month.
“I didn’t hear anything from them prior to that tag — no email, no phone call, no anything. I got inboxes saying I’m spreading the virus, I’m putting people at risk, I should be ashamed of myself,” Brown said in an interview with CBS DFW.
The community praised Shelly Luther for openly defying the Governor’s order, and a GoFundMe raising thousands of dollars was set up, while Brittany received unwelcomed ridicule. What is going on with people? On top of that, she didn’t even open her business.
The TDLR apologized and released this statement on their Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/TDLRLicense/posts/3944626998910626
According to the report, the TDLR has not apologized to Brown, just defended its actions. TDLR spokeswoman Tela Mange said, “We’re sorry this caused a lot of comments toward her, it’s caused a lot of comments toward us, as well.”
This piece was written by Wayne Dupree on May 19, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.
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