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Cuban Community Warns Americans After Facing ‘Mafia Tactics’ from BLM Activists: ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’

Photo by Tony Zhen/Unsplash
Photo by Tony Zhen/Unsplash
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By Tré Goins-Phillips
Editor

August 3, 2020

Using what Louisville locals are calling “mafia tactics,” a group of people associated with the Black Lives Matter movement are threatening Cuban business owners with repercussions if they don’t submit to a list of racially charged demands.

Fernando Martinez, a partner at the Olé Restaurant Group, is charging the Louisville chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement, led by Phelix Crittenden, with using “mafia tactics” to intimidate Cuban immigrant entrepreneurs, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

During a demonstration Sunday on East Market Street, in front of the La Bodeguita de Mima restaurant, Louisville’s Cuban community warned Americans about what they’re allowing to happen around the country.

Rally-goers held signs that read, “No 2 socialism in America,” and, “We left Cuba because of socialism. Be careful what you wish for.”

“This is not a protest. This is not a riot,” said Luis David Fuentes from El Kentubano, a publication for the Latin Conmunity of Kentucky. He and his wife drove from Frankfort today.

— David J. Kim (@_DavidJKim) August 2, 2020

pic.twitter.com/CFi0ktYt12

— David J. Kim (@_DavidJKim) August 2, 2020

Luis David Fuentes of El Kentubano, a publication for the Latin community in Kentucky, spoke during the rally. He and his fellow Cuban immigrants, he explained, have “fallen in love with this city and nation” and chose Louisville “to pursue the American dream.”

“Although our community has achieved great success in this city,” he said, according to the Courier Journal, “we continue to miss our homeland, our neighborhoods we grew up in, and our families we left behind. We did not want to leave all of those, but we had to. We had to escape the socialist government that took away our grandparents’ private businesses in 1959 and continue to restrict our civil and political rights today.”

Cuban Immigrant Warns Americans Against Communism Taking Over US: ‘Don’t Lose This Place’

Many Cubans, he went on to say, risked their lives to chase “freedom, respect, and prosperity” — American values he argued are now under attack “because of the diffusion and expansion of Marxist ideas.”

What are the demands?

At Crittenden’s behest, the Black Lives Matter chapter created a group called “Blacks Organizing Strategic Success,” claiming to be a “creative cooperative designed to level the playing field” by “empowering minorities with business resources [and] networking opportunities.”

Businesses in the East Market District were given the following demands:

  • Adequately represent the black population of Louisville by having a minimum of 23% black staff
  • Purchase a minimum of 23% inventory from black retailers or make a recurring monthly donation of 1.5% of net sales to a local black nonprofit or organization
  • Require diversity and inclusion training for all staff members on a bi-annual basis
  • And display a visible sign that increases awareness and shows support for the reparations movement

There are a total of eight demands. You can read all of them in the tweet below:

NuLu protesters' demands posted on East Market Street. East Market is blocked between Clay and Shelby Streets. Protesters unloaded three trucks of barricades, buffet tables, canopies, even a piano to "occupy" the area. pic.twitter.com/od87L2Js5l

— Chris Turner (@ChrisTurnerWDRB) July 24, 2020

To hold businesses accountable to their list of demands, the Black Lives Matter group has created a rating system, tracking how many of the demands to which each establishment has submitted.

The group gives businesses one of the following scores: “ally,” “complicit,” or “failed.” They are giving businesses “the standard 25-30 days to remedy any violation,” the group noted on its website. “We will offer them a realistic opportunity [and] resources to raise their grade.”

Should any business fail to comply with the list of race-based demands, “protesters would respond by launching negative reviews and social media posts about the businesses,” according to WDRB-TV.

“There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in,” Martinez wrote in response to the Black Lives Matter demands. “All good people need to denounce this. How can you justified [sic] injustice with more injustice?”

Venezuelan Activist Warns Americans: ‘You Need to Guard Your Country’

La Bodeguita de Mima was forced to close July 24 during a violent Black Lives Matter protest on East Market Street. During the demonstration, protesters presented Martinez with the now-infamous list of demands and said he “better put the letter on the door so your business isn’t [expletive] with.”

The Cuban-owned eatery remained shuttered for two days because “management and staff were concerned about safety.” More than 30 mostly immigrant employees “were unable to earn a paycheck.”

Crittenden claimed the demands, the bullying, and the protesting weren’t meant as a threat, the Courier Journal reported. Instead, he suggested, it is all just intended to start a conversation with business owners about how their establishments can better support black people.

One Christian professor, Denny Burk, asked on Twitter if what the Black Lives Matter chapter is doing to the Cuban business owners could be considered racketeering. In response, a lawyer, Gus Nelson, argued it could not, but added it may be a violation of a Kentucky law barring “terroristic threatening.”

This certainly might be considered terroristic threatening under KRS 508.080 (Kentucky law). In order to be "racketeering," at least as defined under federal law, there has to be more than one act by the person/entity making the threat. The demands themselves are not crimes.

— Gus Nelson (@glnelsoniii) August 2, 2020

According to the statute, “a person is guilty of terroristic threatening in the third degree when … he threatens to commit any crime likely to result in death or serious physical injury to another person or likely to result in substantial property damage to another person.”

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