Word traveled fast through the San Francisco Bay Area city of Palo Alto after a customer went on a racial rampage at a long time Japanese restaurant.
Before long, everyone from the mayor to the police chief to the city council came to express their disappointment and support.
Palo Alto Online reports Lumi Gardner’s family has owned Fuki Sushi for three generations. An irate customer subjected one of its servers to a verbal tirade after she informed him the restaurant did not accept cash as part of its COVID protocols.
Gardner heard the commotion and came to her worker’s defense.
“He proceeded to scream back at me ‘I don’t understand you (through your mask). You are un-American! Where were you even born? Did you even go to school here? You are not American! Go back to your country! You don’t belong here! We don’t want you here!'” Gardner wrote on Facebook.
The Palo Alto Daily Post reports the man tried to leave without paying, but eventually paid with cash.
Before long, Menlo Park Councilman Ray Mueller and Palo Alto Vice Mayor Pat Burt came to comfort Garner. They were followed by Palo Alto Mayor Tom DuBois, City Manager Ed Shikada and Police Chief Bob Jonsen.
“I went from feeling like this guy is going to get away with this, and he is going to feel justified in his actions and that he did nothing wrong. That makes you feel worthless. That makes you feel powerless,” she said. “When they came by and spoke to me, I didn’t feel like that anymore, Gardner said to the Daily Post.
Burt says he wants to organize a city event also involving neighboring Menlo Park and East Palo Alto to address the issue.
“Here’s what we are as a community, and if there are outliers, we’re going to stand up to them,” he said to Palo Alto Online.
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