VIDEO SHOWS STORE OWNER CHOKING AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN, PROTESTORS CALL FOR BOYCOTT (3244 hits)
NORTH CAROLINA--Community leaders and customers of a west Charlotte beauty supply store showed up to the store Sunday, calling for a boycott after cell phone video showed the owner - an Asian man - kicking and choking an African American woman.
Sung Ho Lim is the owner of Missha Beauty. He said this all started when the woman in the video, who has not been identified, was caught stealing.
In the video, you can hear the woman tell Lim, "Check my bag. I don't have anything."
You then see the two shove each other, at which point Lim said, "You hit me."
Moments later, Lim kicks the woman, knocks her to the ground and puts her in a choke hold. WBTV showed Lim the video, and he confirmed it is him, but he also said the part when she stole an item is not captured by this video.
Outrage grows as video of beauty supply worker choking Black woman goes viral
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FinalCall.com)—Once again, the city finds itself in the national spotlight for rising tensions in the Black community.
A patron at Missha beauty supply captured cell phone video of a violent exchange involving store supervisor, Sung Ho Lim, an Asian man, and an unidentified Black woman allegedly accused of shoplifting. The video shows the customer being confronted by Mr. Lim and another store employee, an Asian woman. After a verbal exchange, she hands store management a bag telling them to check it. The store supervisor and employee start shoving the customer to keep her from exiting the store at which time, things quickly escalate with Mr. Lim kicking the woman; both he and the employee shoving her to the ground. Mr. Lim proceeds to violently choke the woman as she pleads for him to stop. Once posted on social media, the video went viral, sparking outrage and protests calling for an economic boycott of the store.
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Missha Beauty Supply opened its Charlotte store two and a half years ago at 3416 Wilkinson Blvd, in the Westerly Hills Shopping Plaza. Concerned community leaders, activists and citizens confronted Mr. Lim at the store to express concern over what they saw in the video. Local civil rights activist John E. Barnett condemned Mr. Lim’s actions. “You cannot take police matters in your own hands. You can’t act like the police whatever the case may be,” he said. Mr. Barnett went on to say, “we know he cannot be keeping someone in a choke holds [whether they’re] stealing or not.”
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department issued a statement March 15 via Twitter saying: “On struggle between shoplifter and store worker, Chief Estes says an employee is allowed to use reasonable force to detain a suspect. Video provided to police gives a more complete picture what occurred in beauty supply store. @CMPD has not identified shoplifting suspect.” To date no charges have been filed in the matter. During a Black leadership community March 15 meeting at the River Church in Charlotte, Yolanda Trotman, attorney and spokesperson for the woman, said no further statements will be made pending their independent investigation. In response to how her client was doing, Attorney Troutman responded, “She’s been traumatized, she’s been victimized, she’s been violated. She wants justice.”
In an interview with The Final Call, a store employee said they’ve been inundated with phone calls and messages from across the country. “We’re getting about 60 voicemails an hour,” said the worker. That same employee cited Mr. Lim’s frustration with shoplifting in general as a possible reason for why things escalated.
Corine Mack, president of the NAACP Charlotte Branch, said, “I think that we not only shut Missha down but that we address all of the non-Black different store owners and companies that continuously disrespect Black people as a whole.” Ms. Mack thinks the strained relationship between the Black community and its non-Black immigrant businesses is because “they bought into the Western civilization way of thinking who Blacks are [and it’s] disturbing.”
B.J. Muhammad host of the B.J. Murphy Morning Show on WGIV 103.3 FM in Charlotte says what happened at Missha is not an isolated incident. Other women have come forward to share similar experiences with beauty supply shops in the greater Charlotte area, he said. “The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us to that we must protect and respect the female. We as Black men must begin to show our women that we are alive and we are their protectors,” he said.
There have also been protests in Chicago at Missha beauty supply in the city. Demonstrators want justice in Charlotte and were angered by the assault captured in the North Carolina video.
Friday, March 24th 2017 at 12:47PM
Siebra Muhammad
