The mayor of a small town in Kansas resigned her position after receiving death threats following a city commission vote forcing residents to wear masks.
Dodge City Mayor Joyce Warshaw resigned Tuesday, citing concerns for her safety. Her resignation is effective immediately, Yahoo News reports.
Warshaw was one of the city commission members who voted to force a mask mandate on the town. But town residents didn’t take the news sitting down.
“I understand people are under a lot of pressure from various things that are happening around society like the pandemic,” Warshaw said in her resignation letter. “I think it’s best for me and the city that I love to remove myself from the commission at this time and from the mayorship so that the city can move forward and be the best that it can be because I believe in the city.”
Warshaw tendered her resignation following the Dec. 11 publication of a USA TODAY article in which she tried to shed a positive light on the mask mandate.
“We just felt like we had to do something so everybody was aware of how important it was for everybody to be responsible for each other’s health and well-being,” said Warshaw in the USA TODAY story.
After the article was published, the mayor received a flood of hate emails and phone calls from residents, some making threats on her life. The threatening emails were turned over to police.
In an interview with the Dodge City Daily Globe, Warshaw broke down in tears as she explained her reason for resigning.
“This is harder for me than people realize. I really love this city with all my heart. I still believe in this city and I believe in their ability to not harm one another.”
Unlike blue states where the Corona “cases” are surging despite forced mandates, corona deaths remain low in Georgia and Florida where there are no mask mandates or lockdowns.
