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*Bernice King has seen enough violent cop activity at the Waffle House and has called for a boycott of the restaurant chain following the second forceful arrest of a black person in three weeks.
Last month, video surfaced of an Alabama woman whose breasts were exposed in a police scuffle and arrest at a Waffle House. This week, video of a North Carolina man being choked and slammed by a police officer has gone viral (see video above), prompting the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. to tweet Thursday: “Stay out of Waffle House until the corporate office commits,” to a discussion on racism and employee training.
Family, let’s stay out of @WaffleHouse until the corporate office legitimately and seriously commits to 1) discussion on racism, 2) employee training, and 3) other plans to change; and until they start to implement changes. https://t.co/NJWFOBKN7i
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) May 10, 2018
King, the CEO of the King Center, posted a second tweet about the previous Alabama incident, concluding it with the question, “Do Black Lives Matter?”
A @WaffleHouse employee called the police on #ChikesiaClemons after she asked for the number for the corporate office. Ms. Clemons was violated by police. Her breasts were exposed. It barely garnered national attention. Do #BlackLivesMatter? Do #BlackWomenMatter?
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) May 10, 2018
Pat Warner, a spokesman for Waffle House, which has 1,900 restaurants in 25 states including more than 400 in Georgia, said he welcomes conversations with anybody, reports WSB-TV Atlanta. He said that the company has already launched extensive investigations into the two incidents and spoke directly with a woman from a third high profile incident, where she claimed that another Alabama Waffle House intentionally locked her out.
In the Pinson, Ala. incident, Warner said an employee at the restaurant “panicked” because only two people were working, and a large group had just left: “She got behind, panicked and locked the door. That should not have happened. She should not have locked the door.”
In the North Carolina Waffle House incident, a Facebook video posted May 8 showed a Warsaw, N.C. cop choking and slamming 22-year-old Anthony Wall to the ground. Dressed in a tuxedo with a gold vest, Wall had just returned from taking his 16-year-old sister to the prom. In describing the video to a North Carolina television station, Wall said: “I was pretty much trying to scream for air and trying to breathe because he was holding my throat and that’s when I got aggressive with him because you are choking me.”
In the same television interview, Wall admits arguing inside the restaurant with Waffle House employees. He was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for arguing with Waffle House employees.
The Wall video comes on the heels of the April 22 arrest of 25-year-old Chikesia Clemons at a restaurant in Saraland, Ala. Video of the incident shows Clemons, who is black, being thrown to the ground and having her breasts exposed during a scuffle with several police officers.
“This is an epidemic of the culture around Waffle House,” said Gerald Griggs, an Atlanta attorney and activist, who has been leading a series of restaurant demonstrations since May 4. He’s already planning a demonstration for 9 a.m. Saturday (May 12) at a Waffle House on Cobb Parkway across from SunTrust Park. He said Chikesia Clemons will be there.
Waffle House was also the site of a violent Tennessee shooting on April 22 that left four people dead, before James Shaw Jr. disarmed the shooter.
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