Vaccinations are good, so who could question the decision of New York City’s intrepid mayor in requiring restaurants to only seat people who have been vaccinated? At this point, the assertion that “vaccinations are good” might irk people who either still harbor doubts or drank dewormer because that makes more sense than a vaccine, which we’re reliably informed causes testicles to swell. But that’s the sort of concern that typically takes one’s eye off the sucker punch about to land on the left side of your head.
It began as a simple request that is becoming part of New York’s pandemic routine: A hostess at a popular Italian restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side asked three would-be customers for proof that they had been vaccinated as required for those seeking to dine indoors.
The 24-year-old hostess was instructed to nicely ask for proof of vaccination, not as a political cause but because that’s what her boss told her to do, and that’s what Bill deBlasio told him to do by issuing his mandate to turn this 24-year-old hostess into his covid cop. Did anyone consider who would become responsible for making the mandate happen?
But the encounter quickly escalated, as the customers, women from Texas, became irate and refused to provide the proof needed to enter the restaurant, Carmine’s, the police and a restaurant spokesman said. The hostess offered to seat them outdoors, where such proof is not required.
This didn’t need to escalate, but you know those crazy right-wing MAGA Karen anti-vax conspiracy nuts, right?
The tourists involved in the episode at Carmine’s were identified by the police as Kaeita Nkeenge Rankin, 44, and Tyonnie Keshay Rankin, 21, of Humble, Texas, and Sally Rechelle Lewis, 49, of Houston. They were arrested and charged with assault and criminal mischief before being given desk appearance tickets and ordered to return to court on Oct. 5.
Late Friday, a lawyer representing the women issued a news release in which he said they all had vaccination proof that had been “questioned arbitrarily and unjustifiably” because they are Black and that they had not tried to “forcefully violate” the requirement that they show it to enter the restaurant.
Nothing adds up here. The hostess was doing her job, as mandated by the City. The putative patrons, three black women were, according to their lawyer, vaccinated and in possession of proof of vaccination. That the hostess requested proof is hardly “arbitrary and unjustified,” but the ordinary means by which the restaurant complies with the mandate. And yet, they beat the hostess?
The lawyer, Justin Moore, also said the hostess had been injured when other Carmine’s employees restrained her after she took offense at being “called out for racial discrimination.”
Is the contention that asking black women for proof of vaccination racial discrimination? Are they off limits because of their race, or was the hostess supposed to “believe the women” when they said they were vaccinated, and that should be good enough? Maybe the hostess said nothing different than she would have said to any other potential diner, but she was white and they were black and her asking, when black women didn’t feel like proving their word, was racist? Okay, not in the minds of most, but what if that was their “truth,” and if a black person feels that they’re being discriminated against, what white person can disagree? Only a racist, which is their point.
And, of course, if black women feel racially slighted, aren’t they entitled to give the racist white woman a whuppin’? After all, if words are violence and a beating is violence, didn’t the hostess just get what she deserved under the new rules?
As for the hostess being hurt when other restaurant employees restrained her, as opposed to the beating delivered by the three women, that’s a hard sell given the many witnesses present.
When someone gets hired to seat diners, they don’t assume their job is to be on the front line of violence from irate customers. They assume their job is to smile, seat them and hand them a menu. But the mayor changed the job.
Manuel Roque, a line cook who works at restaurants in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint sections of Brooklyn, said he was frequently dispatched from the kitchen to ease tensions with customers and did not feel equipped to deal with conflicts over the mandate. The city, he said, had not provided enough formal training on how to deal with such situations.
There’s a video online supposedly teaching people how to “identify signs of aggressive behavior and to help them communicate and empathize with customers.” which would no doubt magically make everything better if anybody bothered to watch it. It had 3,000 views as of yesterday. It includes such deeply helpful advice as “acknowledge and validate their experience, even if it’s different than yours.” It’s crap.
“You don’t pay me to be a bouncer,” Mr. Roque said. “Now restaurant workers have to deal with hungry people, and angry people, and doing an extra job, and we’re not getting paid for that.”
Getting vaccinated should be so controversial. But it is. Requiring proof of vaccination to be seated indoors in a restaurant shouldn’t be required. But it is. Restaurant employees shouldn’t be turned into covid cops at the risk of massive fines by the city. But they are. Putative patrons should take out their feelings or politics on restaurant employees. But they do. And people who feel offended by all this shouldn’t engage in violence, regardless of their race and the litany of rationalizations for why they are entitled to do whatever they feel like doing. But they do.
And because the beating of this hostess is such an atrocious reaction to her enforcement of a mandate not of her making, the first reaction of the unduly passionate is the syllogism.
“Assaulting a restaurant worker for doing their job is abhorrent and must be punished,” Mr. Rigie said. “We’re calling on City & State to increase penalties for assaulting restaurant workers in NYC in conjunction w/enforcement of Covid-19 protocols.”
The New York Times appears to have since deleted this quote, without noting its edit. Assault is already a crime in New York, and the three women were charged and released on a desk appearance ticket. Many are wishing them a stay in Rikers Island, which is doing very poorly at the moment, as black women beating up a restaurant worker over proof of vaccination finds its place in the scheme of good and evil in the city.
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