Oct 30, 2023
UPDATE: NAACP Starts Petition Against Denny's Manager
- 11 minutes
This is an update to
an Indisputable exclusive,
we brought you this story first.
Remember the Denny's Restaurant?
The workers who engaged in
discrimination against two black
[00:00:15]
truck drivers of South Dakota?
Well, we have an update, the NAACP,
the Sioux Falls Chapter in South Dakota,
they have launched a petition,
they all also went to the Denny's and
gave the Denny's a bunch of pennies for
their purchases.
[00:00:30]
It was quite ironic.
We have the background to that.
I wanna remind you of
the situation that started it.
Here it is.
>> Speaker 3: So to make the situation
more calm cuz we do have a lot of people
here, it would just be nice
if you guys could leave, but
I cannot wait on you guys.
[00:00:46]
>> What did we do?
>> Speaker 3: I have no idea.
I'm not in the situation, but
just to make it more calm, she said,
you guys can calmly leave because we
do have a lot of people around or
the police will be out there cuz they are,
so.
>> Speaker 4: So why do we have to leave?
[00:01:02]
We just came to order food.
>> Yeah, of course.
>> I don't understand, what did we do?
>> I don't know.
>> Speaker 5: That's kind of right, man.
>> Speaker 4: We were planning on leaving,
but we wanted to wait for
the police to get here
because we wanted her name.
[00:01:18]
>> Speaker 5: Yeah,
she didn't wanna give us her name.
>> Because we wanna submit a complaint.
>> Speaker 4: Okay, yeah.
>> Speaker 4: She refused
to give us her name.
>> Speaker 3: She doesn't
have to give her name.
>> Speaker 4: But she works here, right?
We're waiting for a manager.
>> Speaker 3: Okay, yeah.
>> Speaker 3: Do they have a manager?
>> Speaker 3: Did you guys do anything?
[00:01:33]
No, we don't have a manager in today,
they're all off cuz they've
been working all week, so.
>> Speaker 4: So if we leave and
the police get here,
she could just come up and
say anything, I tried to rob the place.
>> Speaker 3: But did you guys do anything
to disturb her or disturb any customers?
>> Speaker 4: No, when she walked by,
I said, excuse me?
[00:01:51]
Cuz it seemed like she was going around-
>> Yeah it's really busy today, so.
>> Speaker 4: No, obviously,
so I said, excuse me,
because we've been sitting here for
15 minutes.
>> Speaker 3: Yeah, of course.
>> Speaker 4: So when she left,
she came back with the menus and she said,
well, I don't wanna be yelled at.
[00:02:06]
>> Speaker 4: Yeah.
>> Speaker 4: And I said,
I didn't yell at you,
I was simply, yeah hello.
>> Can we talk outside real quick?
>> Record this.
>> Speaker 4: I am.
>> Speaker 1: Can we
talk outside real quick?
[NOISE]
>> Speaker 5: All right,
[00:02:22]
just outside here.
[NOISE]
>> Speaker 4: Wow, it's crazy,
they're refusing to serve us,
that's crazy.
>> Speaker 5: Can you hold this for
a second?
>> Speaker 5: You should hold down here.
>> Speaker 4: That's crazy,
they're refusing to serve us.
[00:02:37]
>> Speaker 1: I wanna remind everyone
that those truckers contacted Denny's.
They sent an email,
called the 1-800 number, nobody responded.
They then contacted media,
no one responded.
They contacted Indisputable,
we listened to them.
[00:02:52]
We reviewed what they recorded,
we interviewed the truckers.
Talk about nice gentlemen,
these are good people.
And I've maintained contact with both
of them since covering this story.
The manager, whose last name is Fletcher,
[00:03:11]
Fletcher is the one who
actually called the police.
But Fletcher was not even at the store,
the waitress in question called Fletcher.
Fletcher called the police and told
the police two black males are acting in
[00:03:29]
a particular way that was
contrary to the truth.
The waitress happens to
be married to Fletcher.
So when Denny's came out
with the statement and said,
we have fired the person who did this,
we learned from obtaining the 911 call.
[00:03:50]
Yep, we know how to do
that at Indisputable,
that it wasn't her who even called 911.
So they retained the employment of the man
who actually called the police and
fired the waitress who
did not call the police.
[00:04:08]
But in my opinion,
violated at least the public
accommodations of these two gentlemen.
Now I bring you to the NAACP.
Put them up full mast.
They have started a petition,
from left to right,
[00:04:25]
you have Julian Beaudion,
Vice President of the Sioux Falls Chapter,
and Langston Newton, President of
the Sioux Falls Chapter NAACP,
put up the protest they led
inside of that Denny's.
[00:04:41]
They bought very small items and
paid everybody with pennies.
They did this for a while, recently.
Members of the local NAACP and allies met
at Denny's in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
[00:04:56]
for a gathering to help draw attention
from Denny's corporate office and
elicit a response to request for
engagement sent weeks ago.
So the NAACP says, hey,
listen, we want to engage,
we wanna talk about what has
happened at this location.
[00:05:15]
No response, according to the NAACP.
So they have a petition now, and
you can find that petition at change.org.
I just put in the information for
South Dakota Sioux Falls NAACP.
It says, in part, this petition is
born out of a deeply personal and
[00:05:32]
disturbing incident that
occurred at a Denny's Restaurant
located at 5201 North Granite Lane,
Sioux Falls,
South Dakota, on August 16th, 2023.
The restaurant's regional manager,
Mike Fletcher,
[00:05:50]
demonstrated not only unethical behavior,
but
also misused law enforcement resources
in a manner that endangered the lives
of two innocent black men who were simply
looking to dine in the establishment.
Mike Fletcher's actions are a stark
reminder of the systemic racism and
[00:06:09]
discrimination that persists
in our society today.
His misuse of power has
caused emotional distress and
potential physical harm to innocent
individuals based on their race,
an act which is unacceptable and
should not be tolerated.
[00:06:24]
The community of Sioux Falls deserves
better from its local businesses.
We deserve establishments where all
customers are treated with respect and
dignity, regardless of their race or
ethnicity.
Therefore, we call for immediate action
from Denny's corporate office to
[00:06:41]
address this grave issue by demanding
the resignation of Mike Fletcher.
Once again, the man who called 911,
we have the tape in our earlier coverage.
We believe this will send a strong
message that such behavior would not
[00:06:59]
be tolerated within our community or
any other place across America.
It is time for change.
It starts with holding those accountable
who misuse their positions for
perpetual harm, stereotypes,
and discrimination.
[00:07:15]
Put up those leaders of
the local chapter again.
I wanna say thank you personally and
publicly to this dynamic
leadership in Sioux Falls.
You all in the area are blessed
to have solid leadership.
[00:07:35]
The National President of
the NAACP attorney at Law,
Mr. Derrick Johnson.
Lawyer, humanitarian,
previously served as President
of the Mississippi State Chapter, and
Vice Chairman of its Board of Directors.
[00:07:57]
Mr. President thank you, dear brother, for
having such dynamic
leadership yourself that you
empower your local leaders to do what
the organization is meant to do,
[00:08:14]
to advocate for the advancement of us.
I want to say thank you, President
Johnson, to the auxiliary staff obviously,
that's always required in order
to make things like this work.
[00:08:30]
Together, we make a closed fist when we
go after injustice and discrimination.
Ricky, thoughts here.
>> Brother Derek man is a good brother,
he's also a member of
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated.
He's my friend and brother, we often
meet every time we have our conclave.
[00:08:47]
I absolutely love him.
He represents not only the NAACP,
but Mississippi very well.
I've been a member of the NAACP since I
gave my life to Christ back in the day.
When you joined the church,
you joined the NAACP and the SCLC,
[00:09:03]
and I'm a lifetime member.
And we thank God as black folks for
the NAACP and
organizations like the SCLC and
the Urban League for taking a stand.
Because there are some people, Dr.
Richey, that just can't fight back.
[00:09:19]
>> Speaker 2: Yep.
>> Speaker 2: You get put in a situation
like that and then these people came and
weaponized the police department and
have two black men that work hard,
make an honest pay,
have them step outside.
Anything could have happened
when they stepped outside.
[00:09:35]
We know what happens, especially when
you're getting up in North Dakota,
South Dakota, where you are outnumbered.
There's not a whole lot of black
folks that live in that area.
Stuff like that can be really dangerous,
it could have cost them their lives.
[00:09:52]
And Denny's nasty anyway,
I don't know why we keep going in there.
We've been knowing Denny's
was nasty since the 90s.
I'm just being real, I don't eat there.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah.
>> Speaker 2: Man, look,
I'll make an egg sandwich or something and
take it with me to South Dakota if I had
to go there before I sit up there and
[00:10:09]
eat at any Denny's.
There's one next door to
the radio station in Miami and
I ain't never ate in there at 99 jams.
I don't go to Denny's.
And I'm not saying, you go do what you
wanna do, but I'm not going to Denny's.
How they racist and their pancakes nasty?
Come on now.
>> [LAUGH] Man, I'm done.
[00:10:25]
And I wanna say this about the NAACP,
I'm a member of the Atlanta Chapter,
state of Georgia.
And you don't have to be black to join,
all right?
This is an allied organization, we care
deeply about our allied relationships.
[00:10:41]
And I had the great pleasure of being
the keynote speaker in San Jose
at the San Jose NAACP in
California just a few days ago.
Dynamic leadership there as well, but
you saw a diversity of individuals who
were part of the leadership matrix.
Big ups to the active
NAACP Chapters all across America.
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