Chinese restaurant owners in Philadelphia are suing over what they consider the city’s discriminatory enforcement of its 11 p.m. ordinance.
Philly.com reports the lawsuit by 23 restaurant owners alleges police confiscated food from customers while not doing the same at other eating establishments that stayed open past 11.
The city implemented the law in an attempt to stem late night criminal activity.
“What we’ve said is this is clearly unconstitutional, it’s discriminatory,” Philadelphia City Councilperson David Oh said to NBC News. “But my colleagues have said, ‘no it’s not.’ We have tried to have a discussion for over a year.”
Oh says out of 583 code violations issued, 562 were to Chinese restaurants. The restaurant owners believe the law is extremely vague and that has led to “selective enforcement.” The lawsuit accuses the city of “invidious discrimination against certain Chinese people and their Chinese take-out restaurant businesses.
The city has had no comment to the complaints.
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RE: Philadelphia Police Accused of Targeting Chinese Restaurants: It is quite plain for an attorney. If the law was not applied equally in it’s application, then the City and police violated the owners’/patrons’ rights established by the equal protection clause of the Constitution of the United States of America.