David C. Richardson, the owner of Rhode Island Refrigeration in Providence, Rhode Island, overheard two customers speaking Spanish to each other, so he asked them to produce proof of citizenship. According to them, he then threatened to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and make a citizen’s arrest, although Richardson denies he picked up the phone, but not that he made the threats. In fact, he says he’s done this “fifteen or twenty times” in the past and refuses to do business with those who won’t show their Social Security cards.
According to the article, Richardson is likely in violation of a state law that prohibits unfair sales practices, as well as state laws “prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race or national origin in places of public accommodation.” Even the group that Richardson claims membership in—Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement (RIILE)—is trying to distance itself from Richardson:
“There’s no way I can defend what he did. It definitely isn’t the policy of RIILE to go around and use your RIILE card to intimidate people,” said Gorman in a phone interview. “That’s not something that RIILE would promote … to make citizen’s arrest.”
When asked what proof he had to suspect their status, he replied, “What proof is there? I think the majority of people who don’t speak English in Rhode Island — at least 51 percent or more — are illegal aliens.” Both customers are Dominican natives with U.S. citizenship.
Genao said he is still upset over the encounter, which he called “loud in tone.” Richardson called it “a discussion.”“I told [Richardson] I’m a U.S. citizen by choice, whereas he was just born here,” said Genao. “I have every right to be here. I told him his behavior was shameful. And he went on to say that a lot of these illegal immigrants are criminals and we have to stop them, and he said he did this for his country — because it’s going downhill, because of all these illegal immigrants.
“What [Richardson] should have done was say, ‘Thank you for shopping with me.’ That’s all he had to do.”
(Thanks to ElizabethD!)
“Store owner asks to see shoppers’ Social Security cards” [The Providence Journal]
More From Consumerist
-
Speak Farsi At The Apple Store And They Might Say You Can’t Buy An iPad
-
Convenience Store Owner Calls Cops On Unruly Customer, Ends Up Getting Arrested
-
Gas Station Owners Protest Lukoil Price Discrepancies By Ratcheting Fuel Up To $9.99 Per Gallon
-
Target Probably Didn’t Check Spanish Dictionary For “Urine” Before Selling “Orina” Sandals
-
EmblemHealth Won’t Talk To Me About My Husband’s Coverage Because We’re Both Men
This post looks pretty much like the local newspaper where I live. Posting “news” about idiots without knowing much about the SSN. I am a Brit, proud of my Brittish accent (sometime people think I am Latina because I have brown hair and eyes plus an accent), I am legal and I do have a SSN. So, I guess, the Hispanics should do business with hat jerk of Mr. Richardson.
@amoeba: OOPS! shouldn’t, so he can loose biz.
the “native Americans” didn’t start out here either..@Dooley:
evryone in our country should start doing this…..what part of “illegal” is not understood?????????
.
@moviemoron: Stretch out and reach for something to argue about, we are talking about a persons Race something that you can pretty much determine by looking at them in most cases.
So since you obviously dont have a working common sense thinking process let me break it down for you.
How am I going to know if a potential customer is a rapist or a child molester, or a terrorist?
Unless I saw their face on americas most wanted recently or they have explosives strapped to their chest?
Come now, please take your, I am going to open my mouth and try to get one over on this guy that doesn’t discriminate against a person because of their race.
Just a word of advise, you might want to think about something before you post it because you are making no sense at all.
So go ahead and tell me how someone can determine if a person is a Rapist, Child molester or a terrorist just by looking at them? See how dumb your comment looks now?
So what point were you trying to make?
Shop somewhere else. Many stores will be happy to take your pesos if that idiot won’t.
@clevershark: and? everybody else seems to want to keep their “culture” with them, English is our culture, why shouldn’t we want to keep that? again, I’m not supporting the store owner, just saying English is our cultural language and since I have no desire to leave this country, I feel I shouldn’t have to learn a different language either to do business in this country…
however he was free to leave at anytime, so therefore he was ALSO a citizen by choice@chrisjames:
sounds like a douche bag, i never carry my social security card, don;t want to get it stolen so illegals can use it
@greensmurf:
Well, maybe you should re-read your post before you open your mouth. You stated that you would sell your products to anyone as long as they have cash. Did you not state this or do you have a brain disease. In that case, I forgive you. But let me check. YOu wrote:
“”"
I run a business I make leather products, I am an equal opprtunity seller. If I have something to buy and you have the money to pay for it. I will happily sell you the product I have to sell.”"”"
I think that summarizes it up. If I go by your reasoning, then it would be okay to sell bullets to a teenager because hey, they have the money and you have the product so you would be very happy to sell it to them.
@HOP: I’m convinced.
It’s illegal to steal. Would you please scan in and send receipts for your computer and vehicle?
Also, it’s illegal to view and purchase certain types of pornography. I’ll need to see copies of your credit card statements and your hard drive. Send those to gawker and they’ll forward them to me.
Finally, we’ll need to scan for use of illegal drugs. Please send a sample of your hair.
There’s a reason police have uniforms and badges, and we don’t.
I’m a little surprised at that too. We didn’t go over it because I was going to school during that time so it fell under “current events”@Eyebrows McGee:
@donTHEd: Ya both my brother and sister are spanish speaking, sister lived in Venezuela for a while. All of us are white and were born here though.
@Dervish: i honestly do believe anything i learned in depth about the civil rights was due to the learning channels and knowledge given to me by parents. things beyond common knowledge, like who rosa parks is, was not taught. the actual words in the civil rights act that have been listed here now a few times? definitely not.
of course, every february the little posters went up with an illustrated portrait of a famous person and a little blurb about them under it. same with the presidents and stuff. we stopped at ww2. mlk’s speech came up in english but we didn’t discuss the events just how language could be inspiring. i saw X on tv. i watched the history channel now and then.
i totally admit that my memory could be so bad i don’t recall any of this, but i can recall most of what my classes were and what they covered. american education is that bad sometimes.
@BStu: 20th century, then the Africans?
Hmm, Africans came to the US much earlier than the 20th century. Wasn’t a pleasant trip, wasn’t a pleasant reception, but speaking only to the date – your timing is WAY off
@dlab: Would that also be the spanish language of the slave-trading, native-american exterminating, imperialist, colonizing Spain? The Conquistadors, perhaps?
@moviemoron: Let me see, What exactly was the subject of this post? Here it is just in case you cant connect the dots (store-owner-demands-spanish+speaking-customers-show-social-security-cards)Its about some guy requiring to see a persons social security card to prove they are US citizens, Where exactly did it state show proof that they are not a rapist, Child molester or terrorist?
And instead of only posting part of what I originally posted why don’t you post it all and not parts that “help” your wanna be argument that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the original subject of this post.
Here is what I posted, go back and check if you want.
–”I run a business I make leather products, I am an equal opprtunity seller. If I have something to buy and you have the money to pay for it. I will happily sell you the product I have to sell.
You can be an illegal alien from across the border or from outerspace. I dont care because it is not my job to check every persons ID as I am a retail business. Now if you want to apply for a job I may have an opening for I would have to do a background check and follow US employment laws. But I am a sole owner and operator so I dont have any employees”–
Obviously (but not to you) I was referring to race as this post is the subject of.
Oh and I love your post here again going off topic and referring to crap that has nothing to do with the original post.
“”"”I think that summarizes it up. If I go by your reasoning, then it would be okay to sell bullets to a teenager because hey, they have the money and you have the product so you would be very happy to sell it to them. “”"”
WTF are you trying to get at I sell leather products, also You still dont reason with any common sense, Why don’t you make some more creative assumptions
In my post I said,
“Now if you want to apply for a job I may have an opening for I would have to do a background check and follow US employment laws.”"
So obviously (but again not to you) If I were in the business of selling bullets and guns I would be following US Federal laws and I would be doing background checks. I sell freaking Leather products and seriously you pulling shit out of your head based on assumptions on one statement is pretty stupid.
So again I will ask you How exactly and I supposed to tell if a person is a rapist, a child molester or a terrorist?
The people he was harassing should have demanded to see HIS social security card. Who the hell is stupid enough to carry one these days?
@ darkend.
Eres un sombrero de culo! (asshat)
Some of the comments are just mindblowing. Depending on local laws the owner has every right to do some things (e.g. you causing a disturbance -> kicking you out legally), but that doesn’t mean there are no applicable laws at all for the owner..and it’s pretty stupid what this guy did. We still have to comply with all sorts of other labor laws, for starters. There’s so many. They give me a headache.
I think this guy is a douche for expecting something unreasonable. I speak two languages fluently and two more at a conversational level (on top of the half dozen programming languages I already know *duck*). Sometimes I talk to employees at stores in other languages. Sometimes I talk on the phone in another language. I write things in another language. If I decided to pull this ridiculous stunt here in los angeles i’d be lynched by a mob given this city has a majority minority. And if someone decided to do this shit just cause I was talking in..omg is that korean? mandarin? spanish? french? heaven forbid, southern california accented english with college level vocab?..doesn’t mean I’m not a citizen, doesn’t mean I’m unpatriotic..doesn’t mean anything!
I was born here and I am ashamed of the behavior of some of the others who also were born here on this story. For most of us, at some point we or someone in our family was an immigrant, illegal or legal. And there may be some that don’t pay taxes and just leech support and money from this country, but there are also others who do indeed pay taxes and give back to the community in better ways than I’d think some of the more racist commenters here. Stupid to brush everyone with the same brush when it is a diverse collection of people who decided to work here.
Really, looking at the hard work some illegal immigrants are doing..is a lot easier on the eyes than watching some fucking retarded US citizen sit on his/her arse leeching undeserved money from others.
i understand how frustrated this guy is with illegal immigrants, but he should be more tactful if he really wants to turn down money from illegals. i personally wished, more companies would turn down illegals in the name of principles (granted some have better principles than others). like don’t give them jobs just because your trying to not pay an american a decent wage. it’s this guy’s right to not want to do any business period with an illegal, but if that’s what he wants, he should make you sign up for a membership or something. i would prefer to shop at a place that is willing to turn down the money from illegals based on their beliefs (and the fact that by even being there they are breaking the law).
***notice i’m talking about “illegals” and not “mexicans” b4 u try to flame me. and i don’t believe speaking mexican means you are an illegal. i don’t agree with what he did/does, but i do feel the same way about illegals as he does.
@EtherealStrife: Yeah, much less show it to random people. That’d be a great identity theft scam. “Yeah, I need your social security number to, uhm, check your citizenship, yeah!”
Besides, a social security card isn’t exactly iron-clad proof of citizenship. I mean, it’s cardboard. You could fake one convincingly in ten minutes with a computer, scanner, and color printer. The hard part would be making the printing look as crappy as it does on the real cards.
American is not a language. It is just discrimination against non whites, including Native Americans.I do not speak Spanish, but continue to be discriminated due to the color of my skin. I AM U.S. CITIZEN.I have been stopped by white police, who demanded my “green card”. U.S. citizens do not have green cards.
This thread is fast becoming a monument to ignorance and bigotry. Seriously, people… have you never heard of the Civil Rights Act? Martin Luther King Jr.? Do you even know what Montgomery, AL is famous for? Do you know what Jim Crow was, and why it’s dead? Did you learn anything at all in history class?
I’m opposed to illegal immigration myself, but seeing this assclown and all the ignorant douchebags defending him in this very thread, I’m starting to reconsider my stance. I mean, do I really want to be on the same side as you?
It’s ok people. The next time my better half and I are in the states, we’ll visit said merchant. I’ll speak French and my honey will respond in German and we’ll watch his head explode. FUN!
My Grandparents learn English (American) and used English in all public venues and their native language at home.
Speaking a foreign language in public is rude.
man, I wish I could speak something other than English so I could talk and laugh about asshats like this store owner right in front of them. wtf is wrong with speaking another language? yeesh.
or was it simply because it was Spanish, and the guy is racist?
or maybe he was just scared because he’d never heard it before? try moving out of White Town, RI and into a more diverse area. (I really have no idea how white RI is, but I assume it pretty white).
@timsgm1418: didn’t anyone ever tell you in elementary school that what makes this country so great is that it’s a giant melting pot of cultures? I’m sure that being homogenous has it’s advantages, but in the US we (are supposed to) tolerate diversity, enjoy it, and learn from it.
sure, a store owner could demand to do business only in english, but to accuse someone of being illegal simply because they were carrying on a conversation in another language? WTF.
what if they were tourists? what if a lot of things.
@darkened: You DO know American isn’t a language, don’t you..?
@StevieD: You’re having a laugh surely? Or are you just unbelievably arrogant and idiotic? People have a right to speak whatever language they like to each other. Get a life and get a grip on reality.
@Hawk07:
Mr. Hawk07, it is illegal to discriminate based on country of origin or race. There is no hypocrisy here.
HTH
HAND
Just for the record… This guy’s a complete asshole.
Asking for SS card and judging just based on the language is a bad idea I DO however applaud his refusal to sell to an illegal aliens. Some one needs to step in and stand up to them since the politically correct government seems incapable of it. Where live there are LOTS of illegals hired by a local egg farm and other business taking the jobs away from needing citizens and the welfare office is packed with them draining the taxes from citizens. Not sure how but there needs to be a way to prove citizenship and if you dont have it you are cut off from EVERYTHING and your ass is deported IMMEADIATLY.
…..and SS card is not proof as you can still be a citizen and opt out of it.
have to agree, I don’t think many of them came here by choice, and I’m not sure they got to enjoy the buffet or live shows on those particular cruise ships@noasalira:
@StevieD: Wrong. Expecting people to speak English when they aren’t speaking to you is rude. Nobody is required to make it easy for you to eavesdrop on their conversation.
Asking for SS card and judging just based on the language is a bad idea I DO however applaud his refusal to sell to an illegal aliens.
@evilhapposai: But the people he refused to sell to weren’t illegal aliens so why bother applauding?
You do not have to be a citizen of a country to buy something there. There are other was of being in the country legally other than being a citizen. Ever hear of work visas? College? Tourism? It makes no sense to make people prove citizenship in order to buy an $18 refrigerator part.
@hmk: and I also have the right to disagree with some of our policies. Different races? no problem, different language? problem. I voted several times for English as the official language when I lived in AZ, and would definitely vote for it again. That said, I really don’t care if people speak another language at home or in public, doesn’t bother me a bit. And I think it’s a great idea to teach children 2 languages at home. However I do have a problem with trying to buy things or get service from people that don’t know our language. It is very frustrating and has made me go to different merchants many times. I don’t stand with signs outside their business or anything, I just don’t go to those merchants anymore.. Money speaks louder than anything else
good for him. this was discrimination of language spoken. not against the law.
@hmk: I don’t think I ever said anything bad about people speaking another language to each other, I don’t really care if they do. when I was in my teens I babysat a little girl who’s father was Haitian and spoke french. He spoke to the little girl in French and the mother spoke English to her. With my very limited French (3 years in elementary school) I would use whatever French words I knew to her. I thought it was a fantastic idea to teach her both languages. However I don’t think she should have expected merchants or government papers to be in French when she grew up. If I moved to Germany, I indeed would learn German, as quickly as possible, and expect to have to use it in dealing with the just about everybody there, but in my home I would still use English and would probably speak it when on the street with my family. In the article it stated the men were speaking Spanish to each other, but English to the store owner. I see nothing whatsoever wrong with that.
oh gosh no. I was born in 1960, so really never saw a lot of the discrimination that was going on, but I’ve always thought it was wrong to treat someone badly because of something they can’t control. If they still had those laws, I would probably break them.@Corydon:
I believe what we speak is unofficially called American English, because it is definitely different than British English@shufflemoomin:
@LorneReams: And how does a non-spanish speaking person suposed to know if they are deciding to do something not kosher?
Haven’t you seen the movie, I forget which one, where the korean ladies at the nail salon are talking trash about the people who’s nails they are doing in korean?
I was always taught that it was impolite to speak a foreign language in public (around others who didnt speak that language).
And I agree that (legal) immigrants NEED to learn to speak english in this country.
@bonzombiekitty: I am pretty sure the 1st amendment covers the legality of asking stupid questions.
@forgottenpassword: So if you visit a foreign country, do you first learn their language fluently and not speak a word of English around the people who live there? How on Earth is it impolite for people having a conversation near you and NOT WITH YOU to be speaking in another language? Guess what – it’s impolite for you to be listening to their conversation or to call them rude because you can’t understand what they’re saying. It’s also stupid.
I’m so disgusted at the level of nationalistic hatred and spite I’ve seen in these comments. I’m also jealous, because I guess your lives must be pretty damn sweet if this is the biggest problem you have – complete strangers speaking a language you don’t know. Holy hell.
@darkened: Holy crap! People didn’t get your joke (which was only mildly amusing). But, they didn’t get it AND demnostrated so much PC anality in their reactions, that it made your mildly amusing joke 1000x funnier.
Asshats for everyone!!!
@StevieD: grow the hell up. This nation was founded by people who spoke many languages: French, German, Dutch, Yiddish, and yes English. If the person I’m speaking to understands me, that’s all I need. Eavesdroppers can get over themselves.
American citizen who speaks French, Spanish, and English.
This dude is a loser. OMG I grew up in RI and it is a hugely multicultural state so he is a tool for trying this crap. I hope his business fails and he loses it.
I speak english, french, spanish, german, mandarin and malaysian. My wife actually speaks more languages than me.
We routinely speak in other languages when shopping, so we can ask each other a question or two about price, quality, etc without letting the salesman influence the discussion.
I honestly hope that some idiotic racist fuck does this to me, so I can shove my American (and Native American) heritage down their throat, while hopefully getting them cited for an enormous number of illegal actions.
Fuck racism. Historically speaking the newest immigrants have always been vilified outrageously, and the integration has always been for the best. But some mentally retarded hateful bigots always do the same thing, and they always claim it’s for noble reasons.
@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: You’re an idiotic bigot. Please die k thx.