{"id":23043,"date":"2025-03-21T22:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T04:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-charged-in-durango-recreation-center-maha-hat-incident\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:24:28","slug":"man-charged-in-durango-recreation-center-maha-hat-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-charged-in-durango-recreation-center-maha-hat-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in Durango recreation center \u2018MAHA\u2019 hat incident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Donald
Donald Ratcliff of Durango has been charged with disturbing the peace under Durango\u2019s municipal code after an alleged confrontation with a woman exercising in a \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d hat last weekend at the Durango Community Recreation Center. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A man was charged with disturbing the peace under Durango\u2019s municipal code after allegedly confronting a woman <\/a>wearing in a \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d hat at the Durango Community Recreation Center last weekend.<\/p>\n

Donald Ratcliff, 69, of Durango, was charged with disturbing the peace and issued a summons Wednesday. The Durango Police Department provided a response to The Durango Herald<\/em>\u2019s open records request seeking details of the complaint at 4:53 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

Ratcliff was not immediately available for comment Friday evening.<\/p>\n

The victim, Bernadette Lake, posted about the incident on social media and spoke with The Durango Herald<\/em> via email on Friday.<\/p>\n

Ratcliff is accused of acting in a verbally aggressive manner, according to a Durango Police Department news release. He allegedly \u201cencroached upon\u201d Lake\u2019s personal space and \u201cflicked\u201d her hat, according to the release. Under municipal code, he could face up to a $2,650 fine and\/or 364 days in jail.<\/p>\n

\"Bernadette
Bernadette Lake was working out while wearing a red \u201cMAHA\u201d hat when a man estimated to be in his 60s confronted her. Lake posted her version of the event on X, formerly known as Twitter, where her story had gathered 8.2 million views and 18,000 responses as of Friday. (Screenshot)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

News of the incident gained traction on social media after Lake posted about it on X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

Lake was working out at the city-run facility when Ratcliff approached her. According to her post, the man was \u201cscreaming at me 4 INCHES from my face, calling me every name in the book \u2018f-ing B\u2019\u2026\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>, Lake said \u201cthe man was in a full force rage, he used all four fingers of his hand to aggressively attempt to physically knock that hat off my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two male patrons came to Lake\u2019s aid, and an employee who did not witness the interaction called 911 and intervened. The employee \u201cwas unaware of the confrontation\u201d according to police, and her actions \u201cmay have given (Lake) the impression of bias, though that was not the employee\u2019s intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I am still disappointed in the initial reaction, I understand now she may have had more information about the gentleman involved and his previous political outbursts,\u201d Lake wrote in her email to the Herald<\/em>. \u201cI feel even after the police had the situation under control, she could have inquired if I was OK and felt safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Durango Community Recreation Center on Friday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One of Lake\u2019s previous \u2013 and now-deleted \u2013 posts on X referenced how she \u201cloved\u201d the \u201capoplectic\u201d reaction people had to a shirt espousing her anti-abortion stance at the same facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe context of my previous post was that if you dare show a different view in Durango, people become apoplectic,\u201d she explained in her email. \u201cI \u2018loved\u2019 it because it makes people realize there are other people who think differently, have different experiences and that is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward, both Lake and the Durango Police Department called for civil discourse free of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom of expression is a fundamental right, and we will not tolerate attempts to silence or intimidate others through aggression,\u201d Police Chief Brice Current wrote in the release. \u201cNo matter what the message or viewpoint, resorting to violence, threats, or intimidation is never the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story has been updated from its original version to include the name of the man cited with disturbing the peace<\/em>.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citation issued for disturbing the peace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1551,1065,28,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-community-recreation-center","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77955,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23043\/revisions\/77955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23043"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}