A Miami doctor who racially abused a Hispanic man and vandalized his car was charged with hate crime, according to local police. Dr. Jennifer Susan Wright was arrested on Friday in connection with the Jan. 20 incident, in which she punched the victim and allegedly told him to "go back to his country."
Wright, who works as an anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, abused the Hispanic man at a Publix grocery store in Hialeah after he asked her to follow social distancing guidelines while in a line at the shop, the Miami Herald reported. Initially, the man asked her in Spanish to maintain distance from him. The man repeated the request in English after she ignored him the first time.
According to an arrest report, Wright doctor started to mumble "bad words" at the victim, who did not pay attention to her and walked toward his car. Wright allegedly confronted him but was enraged when the man told her to move back. Following this, she called him a "spic" — a racial slur for Hispanics — and proceeded to scratch his car with her keys, the Herald reported, citing an arrest report.
"We should have gotten rid of you when we could," she allegedly told the victim, according to the report. "This is not going to be [President Joe] Biden's America, this is my America" and "we should have burned it all," the report stated, adding that she told him to "back to his country."
The doctor went on to punch the man when he tried calling 911. The assault caused his phone to fall on the ground. When he tried to pick it up, the woman kicked him and tried to stomp the phone, police said, according to the Herald.
Wright was arrested on Friday and charged with criminal mischief, tampering with a victim and battery with prejudice. Of these, two are felony charges.
Who is Jennifer Susan Wright?
Wright is a 58-year-old licenses anesthesiologist, who has a bachelor's degree in microbiology from the University of Florida, according to her profile on the Florida Department of Health. In 2004, she earned her medical degree from the University of Miami.
Wright is a registered Republican in Miami-Dade County since December 2000. She is an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump. According to the Herald, she installed a Joe Biden mannequin on Halloween with a sign that read "Expose the Biden Crime Family." On Feb. 12, she reportedly posted a meme that said: "They don't want you to have free speech. So they invented the term 'hate speech' to shut you up."
