Following last week’s attack against a hostess at Carmine’s between 90th and 91st Streets on Broadway, three Black women from Texas were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief.
READ MORE: Texas Women Face Charges for Assault on Carmine’s Hostess
Headlines initially indicated that the altercation began when the hostess requested vaccination proof from the women. (New York City requires all restaurant patrons to provide proof of having received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine). It was later reported that all three women were vaccinated, but two of the men who later joined their party were not. Those who showed proof of vaccination were escorted inside. Lawyers for both the restaurant and the women confirmed this part of the story with the NY Times.
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A lawyer for one of the women – Justin Moore (representing Kaeita Nkeenge Rankin) – also told the Times that the 24-year-old hostess hurled a racial slur at the women at some point during their interaction. Moore also told the publication that the hostess assaulted them and that it was “mutual combat.”
This claim led to a protest held by Black Lives Matter of Greater NY outside of Carmine’s on Monday at 5pm.
https://youtu.be/pQhHDttpll4
During the protest, members and supporters of BLM chanted “Cancel Carmine’s” and called for the restaurant to release its own security footage. Jeffrey Bank, Carmine’s owner, has now released it.
Restaurant security footage shows the hostess walking past the three guests and through the front door. The position of the camera makes it difficult (if not impossible) to tell if the hostess said anything at this point. But as she’s opening the door, one of the women reacts and begins to follow her outside (while it appears that the other two in her party attempt to restrain her).
As the hostess walks outside, the women follow, at which point video shows one of them initiating a physical assault against the hostess. The video appears to refute Moore’s claim that the hostess carried out an assault against the three women.
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During the protest, co-founder of BLM Greater New York Hawk Newsome also objected to the requirement of COVID-19 vaccine passports, claiming that they disproportionately impact Black people.
Carmine’s owner Jeffrey Bank made the following statement:
“None of the attackers offered any reason for their attack. None of the hosts – all of whom are people of color – uttered a racial slur. None of the attackers mentioned anything about race to our managers, staff, or the police who arrested them, and the Texas criminal defense lawyer’s false assertion otherwise is a deeply cynical ploy to try to excuse wanton violence.”
Here’s the security footage from Carmine’s [via NY1]: start at about 1:20
Come on. A waitress in a West Side restaurant (the west side is VERY racially diverse) just tosses a racial epithet at a customer? And the accusation is made after the fact by Texans who were arrested? Does anybody actually believe this?
Why are Black Lives Matter not addressing
Compliance . If Black Lives Matter .
This race card being played out in this protest is harmful to every person of color if your intention is
Is to protect . Are you actually encouraging people of color to not get vaccinated. Really??? The protestors
Obviously don’t know anything about Carmine being a
one of the most diverse restaurants on the upper west side .
Totally agree. I support BLM (mostly), but your point is well-taken. Why are they addressing a (possibly never uttered) racist slur, but not the bigger issues of vaccination and compliance therewith? In this instance, they are being narrow-minded and wrong-headed. 🙁
nope!
Who needs Fox News when BLM is happy to destroy their own movement? Can’t believe the stupidity of this.
Completely agree. Doubly moronic: siding with the Texan group that who were clearly the aggressors/attackers (and believing the BS about a racial slur that was so obviously invented to justify this nonsense), and perhaps dumber yet, decrying the restaurant protocols in general as discriminatory against people of color because they disproportionately don’t get vaccinated. It’s almost too absurd and self-defeating to be true, but there it is.
BLM has actually come out with a statement that this Newsome guy is NOT associated with them: https://blacklivesmatter.com/for-immediate-release-statement-by-kailee-scales-managing-director-of-blm-global-network/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_RykS_CVtkYKg_U7SULlJAP3TrL3l2ohYtSReU1dB3Rg-1632589149-0-gqNtZGzNAnujcnBszQi9
In short, he proclaimed himself president of a BLM Chapter, but that is false.
how drunk were they?
I completely agree with JS. This brings up the “bad old days” of Al Sharpton and Tawana Brawley and only demeans what BLM is all about. Just look around the Carmine’s restaurant and you’ll always see African-Americans dining, lunching…no problem. Yes, the anti-BLM crowd is really loving this flap.
Just for the sake of argument, even if the hostess offended the Texans verbally, the aggrieved Texans may well have committed assault — which is a legal no-no. Other than to repel a physical attack, their reason for apparently striking the first blow doesn’t matter.
I can’t believe the violence and disrespect of these disgusting subhuman slime bags. They should’ve been arrested with a high bail and left there until their court appearance. The blm became a violent and racist group of Neanderthals, black and white
okay, but for the record – there’s no evidence that Neanderthals were any more violent than Homo Sapiens..
The BLM protests in front of Carmine’s are not furthering their cause. They have real issues to tackle! There is real racism in our society. But I see no evidence of it at Carmine’s.
This is all so sad. We need to pray more. G-D help us. When men finally turns to G-D, asks for forgiveness and Mercy, He will Heal His Land.
Without even seeing the video, the hostess herself looks like a minority. So WTF is up with that?
That stupidity is enough to make we want to eat there for the first time ever. I feel bad for the waiters at Carmine’s, I bet the tips are small compared to the size of the bills.
Why are these people protesting on Monday? Don’t they have work to do to pay for their living expenses?
The whole situation is surreal. The mandate comes from the city government. BLM should direct their anger towards the mayor and not the restaurant. Everyone in the neighborhood knows this restaurant serves a lot of black patrons. So a notion that anyone at Carmine’s can use a racial slur with customers is preposterous. And the waiters are mostly not white. Trying to “cancel” it they will take away their livelihood. And they discredit themselves by supporting violent behavior that we see on tape. Sadly, our society has passed the stage of common sense and reason. Left it behind. The stupidly of wokeness is winning.
Excellent comment! Agree 100%! Thanks.
Now that there is more info…little has changed. The three women WERE admitted after showing vaccine ID. Shortly thereafter, three men who were coming to meet them showed up, and two did NOT have vaccine ID. The three women then came out to try to convince the hostess to let the men in. The hostess refused to let the two men in, and the women attacked her. THAT is when the melee began.
The hostess was, of course, completely within her right under the new law. And even if the hostess HAD used a racial slur (which I, like others here, do not believe; I believe it was a cynical post facto “add” by the women’s attorney), that would not have given the women the right to attack her physically. So no matter what actually happened, the Texan women were in the wrong. Period.
As for that “racial slur,” I applied for a position at Carmine’s a couple of years ago, and know their interview and screening process. It is very vigorous. The idea that they would somehow “let through” a racist hostess is absurd, particularly in a place where better than half the staff is people of color (mostly Black and Latinx), and much of the clientele is also people of color.
Since when did we become a country of people void of manners- basic damned manners.. what is with this attacking and being violent when you don’t get your own way? Classless trash. Arrest them. and have them sit in jail..
Agree. And I think there is a partial answer to your question. It began – or at least got worse – when a certain someone allowed everyone to get in touch with, and express, their inner narcissist. We all have one, and many are unaware of it, so it is easy to “nurture” it without realizing it. As for those of us who know that we have one, most of us know how to “control” it so that we do NOT become selfish, classless a-holes. Sadly, narcissism and its many bad behaviors have been on the rise for the past four or five years… 🙁
The BLM folks are barking up the wrong tree here. Seems opportunistic and desperate for attention tbh.
Let’s give Texas back to Mexico.
Some have short memory spans because there are problems of intolerance and young people get unduly profiled.
Dealing with the general public takes hospitality training.
When service people become angry bad words can slip out so, who knows what the frustrated hostess said but it did trigger a reaction. Hopefully, everyone can break bread.
If the awful N-word was uttered it is reasonable things escalated.
Tourist coming to spend good money should have been handled professionally and not criminalized. The short video shows a cartoonish piling on, pushing and shoving a real donnybrook whereby, in all fairness everyone should have been arrested!
“If the awful n-word was uttered it is reasonable things escalated.”
I disagree. Ever heard the phrase, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me?” There was ZERO excuse for the Texan women to become violent at all. None, nada, zero, zilch. It is never okay to resort to physical violence. Even if the hostess used that word (and, as I noted, I seriously doubt that), there were many other options the women could have taken without striking the hostess.
The hostess was simply doing her job. Obeying the law, and the management’s policy based on that law. If the Texas group didn’t like that, they had options from complaining to a manager to taking their business elsewhere. As you say, it was “cartoonish” (in a bad way) that a melee ensued.
As an Asian American. I have never cried about the jokes/ racism directed at me. You have to brush it off and confront it like a civilized human. I can tell you that it came from blacks, whites, and Hispanics. Oh wait, black people can’t be racist. So how can and Asians be racist?
Quoting: “If the awful N-word was uttered it is reasonable things escalated.
Tourist coming to spend good money should have been handled professionally and not criminalized. The short video shows a cartoonish piling on, pushing and shoving a real donnybrook whereby, in all fairness everyone should have been arrested!”
Why should “everyone” be arrested if — as appears infinitely more plausible and clear — one side was in defense of themselves after an unprovoked attack? Why bend over backwards to be conciliatory to a side of the equation that is dead wrong? Race should never have entered this (and was not mentioned in the immediate aftermath) but was introduced as a distraction and justification (as if!) after the fact by a cynical lawyer, and some BLM folks embraced that as good enough for them, and piled on with an insane accusation that POC are discriminated against by the indoor dining policy because they are less prone to get vaccinated.
You are absolutely right. The restaurant staff should not be punished. I hope those characters don’t try to get a lawsuit going and win tons of money. That would be most revolting
Perfect comment! Thanks!
Throw the “racecard” when needed.
BLM just going back to the what they stand for Burn Loot Mayhem.
Just subhumans who can’t control themselves as usual.
Just to note I am AGAINST this entire BS of showing Vax cards. What’s next? A chip? A tattoo?
We have to listen to these buffoons? DeFlabbio? Fauci? I am so hoping in Nov Bill Pepitone can turn the city back around as Mayor. We need him so bad
BLM may be wrong here, but that is no reason for YOU to use racial epithets against THEM.
And the mandate for vaccination is a GOOD thing, and protects EVERYONE: staff and customers.
If you don’t like this City or its center-left politics, you are free to leave.
Seen this dozens of times in different guises. Just a side show that backfired. The ladies were grifting a free meal.
Thank you for allowing me to comment and to share.
I do understand the criticism from others against the tourists and their alleged conduct. I just wish a mature professional could have intervene diplomatically to stop the melee. Criminalizing young people puts roadblocks in their future as well as their psyche.
The old welcoming UWS at one time was a gorgeous mosaic.
This global pandemic may divide US, stay safe!
Sadly, I’m not sure that even a “calm” voice would have been able to stop people intent on expressing their anger with violence. 🙁
Did you see the verbal assault on the gay guardian angel. Let’s fast for award 500 years. Are BLM s gonna keep up a narrative that is ridiculous? So long as you let them yes. There are many minorities in this country. We work. We are strong families. . Our people aren’t continuously on film robbing stealing or participating gang violence as a majority. When will african American own up to the role their people play?
Now that we have new footage (even without sound), it is even clearer that the Texan women were in the wrong, and that it is HIGHLY unlikely that the hostess used a racial slur.
To the first, from the time the three women emerge to the time one of them essentially bear-hug tackles the hostess is just seconds – barely any time for provocation of ANY sort.
To the second, the hostesses two colleagues are both women of color. And the male colleague who is doing the most to defuse the situation is a person of color. And these women want us to believe that the White hostess would use a racial slur? REALLY?!?!? I think not.