In the wake of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, you would think men around the nation would be more hesitant about how they interact with women. While some topics within the movements may be questionable, one thing is an obvious condition. Do not touch women in private areas without permission. It sounds like a simple enough task, right? Still, one customer at a Savannah, Georgia Vinnie Van Go-Go's couldn't keep his hands to himself.
In a video that has since gone viral, 21-year-old waitress Emelia Holden is busy on her POS when 31-year-old Ryan Cherwinski walks by and grabs her butt. The grab is quick and premeditated, and Holden immediately turns around and slams Cherwinski to the ground. Speaking with People, Holden admits that she didn't realize how much strength she had. “I looked at him and I said, ‘You don’t touch me, motherfucker,'” Holden revealed. “I didn’t even think, I just reacted. I don’t know how I reacted the way I did. I’ve never done that before.”
Cherwinski must not have expected to get throttled by a woman half his size, so when police arrived he claimed that he was just trying to move her out of his way, and that he barely touched her. After reviewing the tapes, the cops arrested him. “When I felt that happen, my first thought was that it was one of my friends … it was a really intimate touch,” Holden continued. “His hand went further than it should have so I was thinking, ‘There’s no way a stranger just did that.’ The guy claimed that he was just trying to push me out of the way and, ‘Oh, I barely touched you.’ Once the police saw the video, they immediately arrested him. There was no doubt that he did it. It actually made me really happy,” she concluded. “I knew something like that would happen eventually. I’m just happy that it was handled.”
