QAnon Karen Attacking Masks At Target

Submission 8,877

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About

QAnon Karen Attacking Masks At Target is a viral video of a believer of the QAnon conspiracy theory ripping masks for slowing the spread of the coronavirus off the shelves at a Target store. A follow-up video shows the woman in the video, QAnon influencer Melissa Rein Lively of Scottsdale, Arizona, confronted by police officers.

Origin

On July 2nd, Melissa Rein Lively, under the Twitter handle @wtpnewscorp, tweeted a video from a Target store in which people were lined up at registers and abiding by social distancing regulations. She screams at the people in line, calling them "fucking idiots." She wrote, "LIVE REPORT: People at @target are fucking stupid #Q #WeAreTheNewsNow." The post received more than 13,000 views in less than one week (shown below).

LIVE REPORT: People at @target are fucking stupid #Q #WeAreTheNewsNow pic.twitter.com/gCTXUPQzJ2

— Melissa “Fucking” Reinbows 🇺🇸 (@wtpnewscorp) July 2, 2020

Days later, on July 5th, Twitter user @davenewworld_2 shared an Instagram story from the private @wtpnewscorp Instagram account of Lively tearing masks from the shelves. They wrote, "Woman from Scottsdale, AZ was so upset with Target for selling face masks that she attacked their display…" The post received more than 8 million views, 3,300 likes and 2,700 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Woman from Scottsdale, AZ was so upset with Target for selling face masks that she attacked their display… (cont.) pic.twitter.com/Mwp3w2Iw7C

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 5, 2020

Spread

Later that day, @davenewworld_2 tweeted a video from the @thebrandconsortium Instagram account that showed police confronting Lively. They wrote, "…then she got arrested on IG Live saying she is a spokesperson for QAnon & the White House and to 'call Donald Trump and ask him' because she can’t share any 'classified information.'" It is unconfirmed whether or not police arrested Lively. The post received more than 3.6 million views, 2,800 likes and 1,300 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

…then she got arrested on IG Live saying she is a spokesperson for QAnon & the White House and to “call Donald Trump and ask him” because she can’t share any “classified information.” pic.twitter.com/Bg1OPaimUQ

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 5, 2020

Twitter^[7] user @RexChapman shared the video that day, receiving more than 72,000 likes, 46,000 retweets and 10,000 comments in less than 24 hours.

That day, Redditor^[1] Romano16 shared the video on the /r/PublicFreakout subreddit. The post received more than 9,700 points (97% upvoted) and 980 comments in less than 24 hours.

Several media outlets covered the video, including The New York Post,^[2] The Daily Dot, ^[3] PopCulture,^[4] Newsweek,^[5] TMZ^[6] and more.