On Tuesday, a video was released showing a white woman spewing hate speech at three Somali Muslim women in their car. The verbal attack took place in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The white woman has been identified as Amber Hensley of Mapleton, North Dakota. Hensley claims the cars were parked too close together. The video shows Hensley seething with odious hostility and threats:
“We’re going to kill all of you. We’re going to kill every one of you fucking Muslims.”
Hensley asks the three women, “Why are you in our country anyway?” Sarah Hassan, who filmed the incident from inside the the care, says harassment like this is common in Fargo, and called Hensley a racist. When a passenger who was with Hassan told Hensley they were going to show the video to the police, Hensley replied:
“Police won’t care.”
Many would say such a response is clearly a result of Trump normalizing and/or enabling hate, violence, racism and bigotry—something that was greatly feared during his campaign.
Trump is known for making uncharitable statements about Muslims, including the false claim that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks. In more recent news, the president has issued a ban on travel from six predominantly Muslim countries, Somalia among them, because he believes people from these countries could be sleeper agents for terrorist organizations.
The Hassan sisters said their family actually fled Somalia because of the threat of Al Shabab, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda.
Hensley has expressed support for Trump on her Twitter account. Parked at her Mapleton home is a pickup with stickers in the window supporting Trump and the Trump-Pence presidential ticket.
Here is a video via Red State Dems on Facebook, explaining what happened:
This second clip plays more of the audio:
Days after the video was released, Hensley made an apology, but she was still fired from her job as a secretary. After being flooded with calls, Hensley’s employer made this statement:
“Horab & Wentz does not agree with or support the statements expressed by Amber Hensley in the recently posted video,” it read. “Ms. Hensley is no longer employed with Horab & Wentz effective immediately.”
Amber Hensley’s actions will remain on the Internet and be visible to the entire world forever. Perhaps the consequences of losing her job, and fear of possible fines/prison time, inspired Hensley to apologize. Either way, the results will hopefully serve as a warning/reminder to other hate-mongers. Due to our First Amendment similar offenses often go unexposed and unpunished. Thanks to cellphone cameras and social media, such acts can go viral and reach millions. And every now and then—justice just might prevail.