Barber is known in North Carolina for his work standing up for the rights of others.
Cheeky.
Absolute bullshit to require disabled people to phone ahead to talk to a manager about being able to sit in a theatre. He was prepared; the staff needs to be at all times as well. AMC had better sort their shit out after their meeting with him.
Says that’s exactly what he did. He used the allotted area for handicap patrons. But they determined since it’s not a wheelchair that he’s got to go. But I don’t expect you end up a manager of an AMC in Greenville, South Carolina for making good decisions.
Imagine seeing this man in this condition and thinking “na can’t do it bro”? Someone was a real dope.
I worked retail for a while early in my career. I don’t know what led to this - I am assuming the manager on duty had to have gotten involved. Sometimes people can let that ounce of power that comes with being the night shift manager go to their heads and either become complete martinets or throw their employees under the bus in front of the customers. Sometimes both depending on the day or mood.
I also can’t help but wonder if race had something to do with this reaction - would it have been the same with a 90 year old white woman?
In any case, I hope that this is a teachable moment for the company.
Honestly, I can understand how this happened. You have assholes bringing dogs that aren't genuine service animals everywhere because they feel entitled. So a low-wage, untrained employee makes an honest mistake when confronted with something they haven't seen before and calls bullshit at the wrong time. He shouldn't have been kicked out. But our society taught the untrained employee to be suspicious. It's sad.
I feel like bringing your own chair to a movie theater, and bringing an animal that has the potential to cause real damage to either property or persons and could be loud and annoying, are two different circumstances.
But I have a little anecdote about people bringing their damn pets everywhere. Currently, I have a kiosk set up in my local mall for the holiday season (we're almost done anyway) and I've seen SO MANY PEOPLE bring their pets to the mall - which isn't pet friendly, btw - one of which is an old woman that brings her fully grown Great Dane to just roam the mall for a while. Just last night, that old woman almost lost control of her giant dog, because he decided he felt threatened by something/someone and started barking really loud and trying I snap at them. Another time just last week, someone just let their dog shit all over the floor and didn't even bother to clean it up.
Apparently my state didn't actually require any official paperwork, let alone training, to say your dog is a service animal. They can just fucking say it's a service animal, even if it's a tiny teacup poodle that they literally push around in a stroller, and no one can do a damn thing about it. And it's not like there are rules posted that say "service animals only" - oh wait, there is!
If he bought a ticket, let him sit wherever as long as it's not an isle or fire exit. If he was occupying a wheelchair space (I believe he was) and there was actually demand for the space, then I could see asking him about moving, but once spoken to you'd know he's entitled to the space as well and it becomes first come first served, unless someone else called ahead and reserved the space.
Regardless of all that... police? Really?
“We have a number of accommodations in place at our theaters at all times, and our theater teams work hard to accommodate guests who have needs that fall outside the normal course of business.“
Uhm no. That’s not a hardworking team. They literally just called the police. Did they talk to him at any point? Like, before calling police? No? Then they are not a hardworking team. They were lazy and possibly racist. 😤
That statement is from AMC corporate, they're distancing themselves from this and throwing the theater manager under the bus (rightfully so) by stressing that this isn't their corporate policy.
Probably but unfortunately the story doesn’t talk about what happened before the police were called.
It doesn’t. But there police apologized to him for it. So I’m betting even they thought this was stupid as hell
Which is just stupid, they have empty slots where people can park a wheelchair, sell him one of those and let him set up his chair! It's not rocket science.
That’s what he bought and where he was. You know you screwed up when even the police were apologizing to the man.
Reverend Barber is an amazing advocate for civil rights. This is a disgrace.
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