04-04-2017, 01:49 PM
...after video of violence with alleged shoplifter
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/nan-s-c-leader-tells-north-charleston-store-employees-to/article_90ddd04a-188e-11e7-bfd4-c3e471c22aaf.html
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/nan-s-c-leader-tells-north-charleston-store-employees-to/article_90ddd04a-188e-11e7-bfd4-c3e471c22aaf.html
Quote:James Johnson of the National Action Network stood flanked by relatives of a shoplifting suspect Monday, then pointed behind him toward a convenience store and told reporters the business’s employees need to “go back to their country.”
The civil rights leader’s comments came during a news conference he organized to address a cellphone video from Andrew’s Discount Market.
The recording shows its employees hitting the suspect with a sword and pushing him around the store.
Johnson, who is black, referred to employees of the North Charleston store as “Arab” and “foreigner” and questioned if they are in the country legally.
“We want (the store owner) out of our community completely. We want him gone out of the community,” Johnson, the state president of NAN, said near the Dorchester Road business. “They need to go back to their country where their laws are different from our laws.”
Tyrone Deon Mazyck, 38, was arrested and charged with shoplifting after the March 29 incident. The owner of the convenience store said
Mazyck threatened and fought with three employees after trying to steal incense.
The store’s owner, who identified himself only as Alex, said Mazyck started the altercation by pushing the clerks and cutting them with a knife. Alex was not working at the time and said the scuffle was captured on surveillance video. Police found a pocket knife at the scene, according to an incident report.
Mazyck’s family said the three-minute video that was recorded by a bystander and posted to Facebook, shows Mazyck being “brutalized” and held against his will. At one point, an employee with a gun in his waistband appears to strike Mazyck in the leg with a wooden stick, knocking him down to one knee. Another man then pulls Mazyck, knees him and proceeds to hit him with a sword.
The family called for the employees to be held criminally responsible. They accused the clerks of trying to make an unnecessary example of Mazyck.
Spencer Pryor, a spokesman for the North Charleston Police Department, said detectives have a copy of the bystander's video and are investigating. Mazyck is the only person charged at this time.
"That was an injustice,” said Latoasha Mazyck, his sister.
Johnson urged residents to boycott Andrew’s Discount Market, a move he said he hoped would force the business to close.
“We sending a message to all the Arab and the foreigner stores in North Charleston and the city of Charleston that we gonna stop you from taking money from our community and putting none back in it,” he said. At one point Johnson said the group was not going to allow such stores to "rape our community anymore."
The Rev. Nelson Rivers, a North Charleston pastor who is vice president of religious affairs and external relations for NAN, said discriminating against individuals based on their ethnicity is antithetical to what NAN stands for as a civil rights organization. He said he spoke to Johnson on Monday to express concerns about his comments.
“The perception may be that National Action Network is speaking against foreigners ... . Even the term 'Arabs' is not something we use because to a lot of people, that’s a pejorative,” Rivers said. “(Johnson) said if that’s how it came across, that was not his intent.”
Rivers said civil rights leaders cannot make blanket statements that blame a community of people for the conduct of a few individuals.
“Black folk more than anyone else know they always find themselves guilty as a whole for the conduct of a few,” he said. “That’s discriminatory. … And we can’t support that.”
A clerk worked quietly at Andrew’s Discount Market on Monday as calls from Johnson and other protesters to “close this store down now” could be heard. The employee said he was not part of the shoplifting incident and had “no time” for the protest, which included Mazyck’s supporters holding signs on the sidewalk and telling customers not to shop there.
Then a small group of adults walked in shouting accusations and angry statements at the clerk.
“Y’all can’t be hitting on black folks like that,” one man said.
The group, which Johnson said was not involved in the protest, drowned out the clerk’s voice when he tried to respond.
A woman who was among the group grabbed a Post and Courier reporter’s phone twice and threatened the journalist after she noticed a video was being recorded.
Quote:[/url][url=https://twitter.com/AngieJackson23] Follow
Angie Jackson @AngieJackson23
Woman who grabbed my phone said "Record it again and get yo (expletive) beat." They left shortly after man told employee "Y'all better move" https://twitter.com/AngieJackson23/status/848919601434038273 …
12:35 PM - 3 Apr 2017
The clerk asked why the people were talking about “black and white.”
“I’m brown, too. What’s wrong now? I’m African. You don’t know that?” the clerk told them before they stormed out.
![[Image: giphy.gif]](https://media0.giphy.com/media/1kwsTjL8BNqlszNtnCE/giphy.gif)
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
![[Image: ulVdgX6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/ulVdgX6.jpg)
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
For real Ninja.
