Black Lives Matter activist is protesting pizzeria he says fired him because Trump supporters gave them bad reviews
Protesters stormed a pizzeria in Charlotte, N.C. Monday night to decry the firing of an activist who says he lost his job over backlash to social media posts supporting Black Lives Matter.
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Local news station WSOC reports that protesters chanting “Black Lives Matter” came out in support of former Pizza Peel bartender Andrew Woods, prompting local police to be called.
Woods has claimed on Facebook that he was fired from the pizzeria last week because a conservative, pro-Trump group angry at his personal posts had started making angry calls and leaving negative reviews for his employer. Screenshots shared by Woods show that management wanted to “talk about [his] social media posts.”
He also says that management “called the police to threaten me” — which is why he’s now urging his supporters to protest Pizza Peel.
“I’ve been fired, I know how to take a firing, that’s not the problem,” Woods told WSOC. “The problem is the weaponization of police against me as a person of color.”
“This isn’t just me, an angry bartender,” he added in an interview with local newspaper the Charlotte Observer. “This is a grieving black community.”
The paper reports that the termination occurred after Woods riled up members of a pro-Trump Facebook group called “Deplorable Pride” by posting that white Trump supporters deserved “brutal harm.” In response, Deplorable Pride urged its members to leave negative reviews about the “communist employee” on Pizza Peel’s Yelp page.
The group later shared a post celebrating Woods’s dismissal.
But Will Bigham, who heads the restaurant group, Stomp, Chomp and Roll, which owns Pizza Peel, told the Charlotte Observer that Woods was let go for “inciting” violence, citing a Facebook Live video the bartender posted in which he allegedly urged Republicans and white nationalists to fight over death threats he said he’d received.
He also explained that Pizza Peel management called the police — with three officers responding shortly before they met with Woods to inform him of his termination — out of concern for the safety for customers, staff and Woods.
“Our mission is to intentionally spread the love — and that’s love for everyone,” Bigham said. “Hate against hate is never gonna win.”
Bigham told the newspaper that he supported Woods’s right to free speech, but WSOC reports that he and restaurant management denied the requests Woods and his fellow protesters made Monday night. The group asked for Stomp, Chomp and Roll restaurants to display Black Lives Matter signs, make donations to charities supporting the homeless and black children, and have black women lead mandatory training for restaurant staff.
Woods has reportedly vowed to continue his protests.
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