Store Fires Employee Who Refused Service To Marine

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The owner of a local convenience store tells NBC 5 he has fired an employee who mistreated a customer who is also a U.S. Marine.

The firing comes in response to protests at the store as well as an e-mail campaign circulating throughout Dallas/Fort Worth. The e-mail, written by Heather Dowell, tells of her brother's treatment while visiting the store.

According to Dowell's e-mail, her brother, Jason Young, attempted to make a purchase at the One Stop Grocery and Grill on 8th Avenue in Fort Worth. The clerk allegedly asked if Young was a Marine, and when he replied yes, the clerk left the counter and never returned.

Outraged, Dowell began the e-mail campaign calling for the boycott of the store.

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/4071942/detail.html

Just as it is wrong to arbitrarily refuse to service to anyone. I would have fired the clerk too.

in principle it is wrong but this clearly shows that the Christofascists have already won when they can justify not selling birth control to women on the argument that it conflicts with their beliefs.

nt

...because the patron said something he didn't appreciate. I'd sooner suspect someone saying "go back where they came from" of being at fault than someone walking away without comment.

9,002 Parlocks

I'd forgotten all about our unlucky friend Phil. :-)

Rush will be all over this like a goose on a june bug tomorrow and the whole thing is probably totally made up.

When reading this thread, Parlock was my first thought.

I can sympathize with his feelings to a degree, but anyone should be able to understand that not everyone in our military is an evil slimeball. Boycotting the store and threatening the livelihood of the owner of the business is probably a bit extreme, though. It's not like the owner of the store walked off that way, and he or she can't exactly watch his employees 24/7.

I guarantee you this incident didn't happen as described.

i'm suspicious. i just bet the marine in question FIRST made some silly comment, then the clerk left the counter. that email makes clear the attitude towards those of mideast descent. this smells.

The 'go back where they came from' part is very very ugly. ick.

Methinks you doth protest too much.

The QUALITY OF REPORTAGE of this story. We get Heather's email, the name of the store, the fact that the clerks were "middle eastern" (ooooooooh!!!!!), the details of the Marine's attempted purchase of a can of chew, the outrage from that side, and that's it, basta!

Where the fuck is the interview with the fired clerk? Who WAS the clerk? What the fuck does "middle eastern" mean? Was he a south west asian Afghan whose village was bombed? A Pakistani sympathizer of Bin Ladin? An Indian who has a daughter who was dating a marine and daddy don't like that shit? An Iraqi who lost his family in Falluja? A Palestinian? A Syrian? Lebanese, perhaps!!! Was the owner of the store, who rated a skinny little line at the end of the piece, even there when the event took place? What was the nature of the "misunderstanding?" How hard would it be, seeing as Heather so helpfully named the store and gave the address in her email, to waddle over there, get the guy's address, and ask ole Achmed what the hell happened? What ever became of the "two sides to every story" mantra?

Are Steve Glass and Jayson Blair working for those clowns at NBC5, or are they just a bunch of lazy fatasses who can't be bothered to do a decent job of covering this little dust-up?

This is more about faux patriotism than anything else....get the blood boiling, incite nationalistic fervor, make the sheep drink from the cup of psuedo-patriotism, and then, rule the fucking world.

Sick. Lousily written article, too!

This will soon turn up as an Urban Legend as thousands of Toothless Witless Parents rush down to MARINE recruiting office.

Dragging their chidren on leashes, to Pump up the Corps and supply their offspring to the Bush Criminals to kill "RAG-HEADS"

Its fake and only one side of the story.

Such "reporting" is as common in ANY Totalitarian Nation, not just ours.

I'm glad Eric Sevareid and Ed Murrow didn;t live to see this.

It's like you want the TRUTH or something. This is America. Truth doesn't matter in reporting news. /sarcasm off

It has a hair trigger. I guess I should get it looked at by a mechanic... who here services BS meters?

:)

Scares me, too realistic!

It's a re-do of an older one.

:D

E-mail 'idiots' have sender thinking twice
Posted on Sat, Jan. 08, 2005
By Bud Kennedy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

A freedom fracas is brewing in Fort Worth, where a Marine veteran of the Iraqi battlefield says he was turned away from a local convenience store.

His Richland Hills sister sent her friends a sizzling e-mail about how her brother was refused service by a store clerk because he was wearing a gray "USMC" T-shirt.

The friends sent the e-mail to their friends. They sent it worldwide.

Now several hundred forwarded copies, countless voice mail messages, one planned store protest and one state trooper's phone call later, Heather M. Dowell wishes she had never written the letter.
</snip>

There's more of the column with a better take on the whole story.


On Edit: Check out the comments of Ruiz-Boling at the end of the column - good stuff.

written that e-mail?


--------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

.. and you can even download small extensions to your browser that makes it VERY easy to skip registrations-only sites.

holy crap, that's a cool little utility!

.. I use it all the time :D

email: prez@whitehouse.gov
password: drunkdriver

ROTFL!!

I went straight to the column from google, and I don't have an account with them.

Just in case:
Yes, the woman regretted her action.

The columnist pointed out the wrongness of her email with this:
"that line, of course, assumed that the clerks were not Americans."

The columnist talked to a woman from the Fort Worth's Community Relations Department who was not happy about the avenue this complaint took. Her take:
"We need to see what we can do from a community relations standpoint to make sure that tensions don't escalate," Ruiz-Boling said. If necessary, the Fort Worth Human Relations Commission will convene a hearing.

"We have a forum and a place to vent these kind of concerns," she said.

That place is not e-mail or the Internet.
</snip>

------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

It will take you directly to the story

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

"It is not fair that these people come into our country and enjoy the freedoms that my brother and so many others have fought for. They do not respect our service men and women who have died for them to be able to be here. They do not respect our country, and personally I think they need to go back to where they came from."

These people. They. Spewing hatred and ignorance. "The freedoms that my brother and so many others have fought for" makes me want to puke... We see every day how they are fighting for BushCo's "freedom". Like in Fallujah.

-----------------------

Remember Fallujah!

Bush to The Hague!

And that little redneck is cordially invited to kiss my ass.
John
To follow her logic, maybe we should turn this place back over to the Native Americans and we can ALL go back where we "came from." Still got some room left over there in Europe for me?

room for five - come on over

:hi:

-----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague

I'll bet Bush and the Neocon/PNAC cabal are quietly grinning and nodding.

Just has that smell to it, ya know?

They can't go back * destroyed where they came from bi+ch. She's talking out of her butt.

ask if you were a Marine? Or did this clerk ask everyone that? This is bullshit...What was the nationality of the clerk? Did the Marine say something disparaging to him? I can bet there is more to this...

I can spot a jarhead at a hundred paces. It ain't rocket science!

And the USMC tee shirt was probably a good clue in the event the clerk missed the unique haircut....

he was wearing a USMC T-shirt.

We shall see more of things like this...mark my words! Bookmark this thread! There is an undercurrent that is becoming more outstanding about hate toward "those people." The war is not going the way we were promised. Many of OUR people are dying and this is the fault of "those people." Why can't they just praise Jesus that they are free?! :eyes: The ONLY mandate this country has been given is to HATE THOSE DIFFERENT FROM YOU.

If the clerk refused service because the man was a marine, well, that is not very nice...but I have been to several places where the sign reads..."we can refuse service for any reason." They (right-wingers) don't have a problem when that motto applies to gays or (add group here)!

I read this to say "Store Fires Employee Who Refused To Service Marine."

If the clerk did, in fact, fail to serve him, the he should have been fired. The Marine had no more right to be served than anyone else. However, had he not been a Marine, or something that people felt strongly about, we'd never have heard about this.

On the other hand, if our military continues to support Bush who sends them to do his nefarious bidding around the world, they are going to have to be able to deal with the fact that many Americans don't approve of Bush's adventures and as as result, might try to "take it out" on veterans.

that read; "We reserve the right to refuse service". So if they have similar disclaimers the clerk should NOT have been fired and should not have needed to give a reason, just pointing at the sign would be enough. Now that said, I don't suppose that would be a good business practice either.

if the clerk refused service to a Mexican? How about a homosexual?

everyones right to service, unless that display some type of behavior that the establishment has clearly defined as unacceptable, i.e. no shirt in a restaurant.

I'm guessing there is more to this story than this.

The man - "of Middle Eastern descent" - probably wasn't even Middle Eastern. But, even if was, I'm guessing there was more to the exchange.

Methinks we need to write NBC5 and ask if they've talked to the employee and find out what the young Lance Corporal said to him FIRST. My ex is Middle Eastern and refused to serve a customer during the first Gulf War after he called him a "sand nigger." The regional manager forced my husband to serve him and so, my ex walked over the pizza dough before making the pizza. Hope the customer liked the added crunch.

this guy tried to use a military ID to buy either cigarettes or alcohol.

Military ID's are NOT permissable forms of ID in NC, or at least they did not used to be-- On edit: I just looked at the state alcohol law website, and military ID's are OK to use now. So much for that theory.

I seriously doubt that the clerk gave a rat's ass which division this guy was in--more likely was looking for an age--

even if the marine had joined on his 17th birthday he wouldn't have been able to make it through boot camp, school for his MOS, and a tour in the sandbox before he turned 18.

But, alcohol is 21 in all states now, and without the proper ID, clerks, and bartenders don't give a rat's ass if you are in the military or not-

Back in the day, military ID's were not acceptable forms of ID.

Stephanie

and if you are old enough to kill and die for your country, you're old enough to have a beer

...and you can thank Ronald Reagan for the 21 yr old minimum drinking age state laws. He blackmailed the states with federal highway funds - if they didn't raise the minimum age, they wouldn't get their funds. He also tried to do the same thing with the 55 mph speed limits, as well (but failed)...

but they left a provision that anyone with the green ID card could still buy no matter their age...check out the drinking age poll in the drugs and alcohol forum

Every damned time I read it it looks like: "Store fires employee who refused to service marine"

It's too damned late.

Oh and I guess so I don't completely drag to thread down, something doesn't seem completely right about the story. I like the store owner though, it was just a misunderstanding... but we fired the bastard anyway.

a certain amount comes with working in the service sector. Every employee and buisness owner has choices. The former to work there or not the later to do buisness with these people or not.

but lo and behold! her email address is toast. :shrug:

Power of the Internet. :eyes:

the onLy missing detaiL is the cLerk spitting on him.

*rolls eyes*

What the hell did the clerk think would happen?

That seems to be the eggshells that this news story is tip-toeing around.

"...need to go back to where they came from..."

Some Native American groups need to email her and tell her the exact same thing.

I guarantee we'll find out in the end that this never happened. Just another tempest-in-a-teacup fake "controversy" like the "Happy Holidays" nonsense a month ago.

Redstone

big effing deal, i am sure he walked right down the street and got a min wage retail clerk job at blockbuster, or walmart or target or petco or rite aid or 7-11. whatever.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

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Just seems odd and disconcerting that neither of the articles here (although the one from the Star-Telegraph is of much better quality than the NBC5 one) even bothered to talk to this mysterious clerk. Does he have a name? Anything? Am I expected to just take it at face value that what this guy told his sister is the way things happened? This man just doesn't exist, he isn't real, he doesn't matter because he's "Middle Eastern".

Man, I'm calling bullshit on this. I'm not saying the guy didn't deserve to be fired if he wasn't doing his job, but the response to it is representative of some scary attitudes.

Nobody has talked to the marine in question unless I have missed it. Star Telegram article said that he didn't return their calls.
The two principals--Marine and Store Clerk--yet no word from either on this subject. Only the rantings of a stupid sister.
And those 4 from CBS were fired why?lol.
That sends my bullshit alarm off.

as what we've been seeing the past few years is not remotely journalism. We're seeing, literally, infommercials on the evening news (healthcare ads masquerading as news paid for with our tax money), Armstrong Williams being paid, again with our tax money, to flog Bushian policy on his rightwing talk show, (and, how many others?), and career liars fueled by oil money to bring down Democratic candidates who are given unlimited air time and treated as unimpeachable sources.

We do NOT know the entire story because the reporter did not question the store clerk and for all we know it is total bullshit. You cannot take ONE side of a story and create a set of events and remain a legitimate story. If this customer was a skinhead and not a US Marine--nobody would give a rats ass that he got his Skoal or not. And yes...if the clerk refused to serve ANYONE for any reason of discrimination, they should have been fired.
But is it possible that the clerk asked the man for ID(in Texas you have to be 18) and he didn't have it with him and the clerk refused service on that basis and not because he was a Marine? At which point he may have told the clerk he was a Marine--and the clerk without absolute proof had no way of knowing and just walked away from the counter to avoid a confrontation? We will never know because this story is simply one-sided and now the author is wishing she didn't write it--perhaps she doesn't want the entire truth to come out and make her look stupid?
I guarantee this story is bogus to some degree.
Only time will tell.

employee.

but as it is no one knows for sure...

to me, you have to wonder if her brother isn't the same way. Maybe he told the clerk to get out of his country.

There could be a wave of racist Arab-looking convenience store clerks running around persecuting marines.

:eyes:

I mean, they're going to bother asking this out of the blue?

That doesn't make sense. Why is the media so stupid? They don't even ask basic questions, like "Why is the E-mail you sent so racist and anti-American?"

And he was trying to buy a tin of Skoal tobacco. (This latter detail from a story now in the Google cache).

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:LL6LKte2YnAJ:www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/10598181.htm+fort+worth+marine+%22convenience+store%22&hl=en

I'll bet the clerk had the nerve to ask for ID--as required by law. Then it got ugly.

And the sister who started the story is quite a piece of work.

He asked for ID and the Marine got pissed off.

:shrug:

Coulda happened that way just as easily as the way described by the sister.

But it tittilates RW bigotry so it MUST be true!

Here's the email, since I don't believe this comes under copywrite protection:

Subject: Marine refused service at local store

Thought I would pass this along.

On December 19th, 2004, my brother Jason F. Young Lance Corporal in the United States Marines was refused service at a convenience store named One Stop Grocery and Grill at 2001 8th Ave. in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

He was refused service because he is a Marine.

He went in to the store and asked the clerk (a man of middle eastern descent) for a can of tobacco, at which point the clerk asked him if he was in the military. (He had on a USMC shirt) After my brother replied, "yes sir" the man said nothing to him and looked at the other middle eastern man in the back of the store. Then both men proceeded to go in to the storeroom and did not come out. My brother yelled back to them a time or two and they did not respond.

Jason waited a few minutes and finally left the store.

I am very proud of the way that my brother reacted to the situation. I can honestly say if it had been me I would have cleared their counter and taken my can of tobacco. It is not fair that these people come into our country and enjoy the freedoms that my brother and so many others have fought for. They do not respect our service men and women who have died for them to be able to be here. They do not respect our country, and personally I think they need to go back to where they came from.

My main point in writing this is to get the word out about this particular store and discourage people from shopping there. If they can't respect or even sell to the people that are responsible for the rights they have, then they don't deserve to be in business.

Please email this to everyone you know to discourage them from shopping at this store.

Heather M. Dowell

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/4071950/detail.html

NT!

how she has the pc-ness to call this person a "person of middle eastern descent" but then procedes to talk about them as though they're people from another planet..."They...They....they need to go back to where they came from..."

the RW bigotry machine at work...

and yes, this sets off my bs meter too...

Is that the email is true and the employee's termination is true. Barbara isn't saying the original incident happened like Dowell said. Also, Barbara takes a swipe at the RWers protesting at the store.

While it is not clear if the incident described in the e-mail was witnessed by others (and thus could be substantiated by those other than the participants), it is also clear no one involved is disputing the account. Munirah Kabani, owner of the One Stop Grocery and Grill, terminated the employee in question when news of the incident reached him. "When we heard about this thing last week, we fired the guy that minute, but we apologized to the mom and everybody," he said.

To our puzzlement, despite the days-earlier firing and apology to the family, protests continued at the store, an 11 January news report claiming "The demonstration brought a sense of resolution to family members."

Thank God (or whomever your spiritual divinity or lack thereof is) for Snopes, without whom BWS would surely have reigned supreme.

She don't spin it, she just kicks it where it needs kicked and leaves the rest to us.

:toast:

Edit: damn HTML tags!

Any DUer in Fort Worth to investigate?

no doubt about it. :puke: And even if it's so, they call this news? Who gives a damn? Poor baby marine.

How about the media focusing on the REAL ISSUES like the election fraud, * authorizing torture, pundits getting paid by * to spew right wing propoganda, etc., etc. :eyes:

"And even if it's so, they call this news? Who gives a damn?"

I guess since it seems that the story was true after all and we can't call her a racist bitch or crucify her brother the Marine it's not newsworthy anymore.

and I don't see each and every story on the news. If you don't know that the MSM is biased by now, and that it reports frivolous trumped up "news" and ignores important crucial information from getting out to the public, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe that you're on the wrong message board.

"I guess since it seems that the story was true after all and we can't call her a racist bitch or crucify her brother the Marine it's not newsworthy anymore."

Even if the story is true, that doesn't mean she's not a racist bitch.

Does it?

Redstone

Sound point.

we most definitely CAN call her a racist bitch based on her email:

"It is not fair that these people come into our country and enjoy the freedoms that my brother and so many others have fought for. They do not respect our service men and women who have died for them to be able to be here. They do not respect our country, and personally I think they need to go back to where they came from."

Until we hear all sides, we probably still wouldn't know. But, I'm betting there was a "raghead"-type comment thrown in somewhere.

I can't imagine the clerk just walking away for no reason.

If he was refused service for having been a marine then I'd have fired the clerk too. Just as I would have if he had refused service to a teacher, a police officer, someone who is unemployed, whatever. What the clerk did was wrong.

The part that doesn't seem to hold together (especially) is when the first clerk is reported to look at the second one, and they both walk away. That doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would happen in a retail store. There has to be more. The fact that the sister now regrets starting the email cascade tells me that she or he left out some important details.

"The part that doesn't seem to hold together (especially) is when the first clerk is reported to look at the second one, and they both walk away."

Perhaps both employees had limited English skills? Perhaps the jarhead had some kind of attitude when he noticed that the store was run by "middle easterns"?

For having the temerity to request ID from the marine who wanted to buy Skoal.