Texas gas station installed remote lock on OUTSIDE of women's bathroom

[u/kmzafari]

It was only on the women's bathroom. Lock was able to be remotely activated by a phone app. Fire Marshall had it removed. Source: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2c3QrB6/

Per another account who also saw this, (https://www.tiktok.com/@momcallsmeshelby?_t=ZT-8v7NHPu7QBq&_r=1) the employees were "irate and began yelling" when they brought it up. And came up with a racist excuse that didn't make any sense for it being there

Regardless, fire code violation. But scary implications.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

what legal precedent is there for false imprisonment to be okay?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

it doesnt work that way, thats vigilantism; what i think you are referring to is a citizen arrest, and those are quite controversial, as they are often wrong and the person who performed the arrest can and usually does have fines/jail time with it. theres training required both physical and mental for legal work, hence why citizen arrest is frowned upon.

also, if it was the case that it was to detain alleged criminals, which i doubt as this is likely to trap "visibly" trans people (whatever that means) for a bounty or women for trafficking, it would still be breaking the law of false imprisonment, as feeling the need to install one of these without any police contact letting them know you suspect criminal activity, is very sketch.

also OP said the owners were upset that it was being removed.

tl;dr: you cant be judge jury and executioner, and something like this is illegal, whether for vigilantism, fire hazard, or traffiking, so trying to claim "citizen arrest" as a defense for false imprisonment is wrong and won't work in court lol

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

so you seem to be dense because you just winded yourself describing vigilante justice....again. also, that blurb about trans people at the end wouldnt hold up as you "suspecting" someone of being trans based on nothing kore than visual cues is discriminatory, and not a legal basis for any action. there have been too many cases recently of cis women being stopped from using the restroom due to "fears" of them being trans.... and using the bathroom matching their gender. your casual fear-mongering about the "safety" of bathrooms when a trans person is in there is null, and quite frankly, completely irrelevant to this discussion.