Business Owner Calls out 'Mafia Tactics' of BLM Activists Against Louisville Businesses

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
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With St. John’s Church in the background, people walk under a new street sign on Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. “The section of 16th street in front of the White House is now officially ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza,'” District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted. The black and white sign was put up to mark the change. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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This is a BLM story for the books. And maybe for the FBI as well.

Remember the old-time protection rackets?

Read on.

BLM activists in Louisville have come up with a new tactic. They sent around contracts with a list of demands in them for local NuLu area businesses to sign and comply with.

These demands, titled “Occupy NuLu” are purely insane, demanding that you bend the knee, do what they say. Or else.

Read the whole contract — it’s straight-up “demands” with “repercussions for non-compliance”

Some of those demands?

Businesses must hire 23% black employees (including in management) by August 17 and agree to increase it by 5% every month. Businesses must agree to buy 23% of their inventory from black businesses or give up 1.5% of their net sales to black organizations. Businesses must agree to diversity training for their employees with ‘educators’ approved by them. Sounds an awful lot like re-education for right-think. You must also put a sign in your business either the one they give you or something similar, confessing your guilt in the gentrification of the neighborhood and support for reparations. Non-profits in the area must “submit” to a voluntary audit of their boards, and have that 23% representation on their boards.

What are the “repercussions for non-compliance?”

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They will go after you on “social media blast,” push a “public boycott coordinated through social media” of any business you own, protest outside your establishment and even place booths outside your business where people will try to sell whatever you are selling to interfere in your business.

What’s also insane was that some businesses apparently signed this and went along with it,

But at least one business said no. Fernando Martinez, who is a partner in the Olé Restaurant Group, publicly denounced the letter’s demands in a Facebook post, calling them out as “mafia tactics.”

According to a press release from Cubans in the community:

La Bodeguita de Mima was forced to close July 24 during a demonstration that shut down East Market Street, at which several protesters presented Martinez with the list of demands and said he “better put the letter on the door so your business is not f*cked with.”

The restaurant remained closed the next two days because “management and staff were concerned about safety,” according to the release. “30+ staff members (mostly immigrants) were unable to earn a paycheck.”

After Martinez said no, they came to his La Bodeguita on Thursday and allegedly broke a flower pot outside the restaurant while others confronted Martinez and his employees explaining why they should comply.

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About 100 members of the Cuban community came out to a rally yesterday to support Martinez and decry the “mafia tactics.”

Martinez spoke and explained how he had come to this country from Cuba on a raft when he was 18 years old in search of a new life and hope and believed in the promise of America. He stood with his mother and his relatives. He spoke out against the effort to slander him.

From Courier-Journal:

“La Bodeguita is open to everybody,” Martinez said. “If you’re gay, this is your home. If you’re Black, this is your home. If you’re white, this is your home. If you’re human, this is your home.”

He also condemned the criticism his business had received over diversity concerns.

“How can I be called a bigot and a racist when my family is Black? When my son is gay?” he asked. “I’m the proud father of a gay son, and I’m gonna fight for him against anybody.”

While most of the people at the rally were supportive of Martinez, he was criticized on Facebook.

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Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, voiced her displeasure on Facebook and announced that she will no longer go to El Taco Luchador and La Bodeguita De Mima, two restaurants that Martinez owns.

“Rather than respond to demands tendered, even in the negative, and affirm that he is aware of the pain our people are in, instead he chooses to highlight what he believes is his superiority,” she wrote. “I’m not sure why any human, other than a racist, would choose this time to tell us how little our lives matter.”

Unbelievable. How do you get that from the situation? And how do you support such an attempt against businesses?

Luis David Fuenteswith El Kentubano, a publication for the Latin community of Kentucky, spoke before Martinez, noting that he and the Cuban community “as a minority group and as immigrants” have “fallen in love with this city and nation” and chose Louisville in which “to pursue the American dream.”

“Although our community has achieved great success in this city,” Fuentes said, “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.”

Fuentes went on to say many had risked their lives to pursue “freedom, respect and prosperity,” values he said are under attack “because of the diffusion and expansion of Marxist ideas.”

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Some in the rally warned against embracing socialism, including with a sign that said “We left Cuba because of socialism, be careful what you wish for.” You can see more of their signs and the rally here.

Good for Mr. Martinez and all these folks for standing up for what’s right.

These “demands” need to be loudly condemned and investigated.

So how many went along with this? And how prevalent is this?

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