Lawyer Berates Staff and Customers for Speaking Spanish at Midtown Restaurant
  • 6 years ago
A lawyer berated some customers and employees for speaking Spanish at a Midtown Manhattan restaurant on May 15, and threatened to call immigration officials on workers he said were “not documented.”Deena Gonzalez and Emily Serrano said they were were ordering lunch at Fresh Kitchen on Madison Avenue when a man, later identified as lawyer Aaron M. Schlossberg, began complaining that both they and the worker had spoken Spanish to each other.In the video, Schlossberg is seen complaining to an employee that he had heard several staff members and customers speaking Spanish. “It’s America,” he says.Gonzalez and Serrano are heard laughing and mocking Schlossberg, with Serrano calling him “ignorant” and saying he shouldn’t be allowed in the restaurant.Schlossberg is then heard telling the employee, “My guess is they’re not documented, so my next call is to ICE to have each one of them kicked out of my country.” He then suggests that the two women are welfare recipients. “If they have the balls to come here and live off my money – I pay for their welfare, I pay for their ability to be here. The least they can do is speak English.”At the end of the video, Schlossberg exchanges heated words with Gonzalez and Serrano. He again threatens to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and tells Serrano, “Maybe you shouldn’t eat that sandwich today.” As he walks away, she replies, “Maybe you should get hit by a car, you piece of s**t.”Speaking to Storyful, both Gonzalez and Serrano identified Schlossberg in a May 2017 video shot by Isaac Saul of A Plus. In that video, he is seen with Donald Trump supporters, berating Jewish people who were demonstrating in support of Palestine, and chanting in support of former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos.According to a profile on his law firm’s website, Schlossberg “focuses on complex commercial and insurance coverage matters involving corporate clients, entrepreneurs and individual policyholders.” It also says he “drafts and negotiates high-level contract documents and appears frequently in state and federal courts throughout New York State.” He is said to have studied English at The Johns Hopkins University and law at the George Washington University Law School. Schlossberg is fluent in Spanish, the profile says. Credit: Emily Serrano via Storyful
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