They’re not happy customers.
A cadre of Korean-American groups fuming over the attack of one of their own inside a Queens McDonald’s threatened on Tuesday to boycott the fast-food joint until it trains employees to be more sensitive to Asian patrons.
“All employees should be trained . . . how to build a healthy relationship with Asian culture,” Christine Colligan, co-president of the Korean American Parent Association of Greater New York, said Tuesday during a protest she organized outside the Flushing outpost of the chain.
“This is the heart of Queens for so many Asian customers,” Colligan said.
The rally was sparked Monday by the release of a video of a February altercation in which a Korean-American patron, James Jin Kim, was attacked by a McDonald’s employee wielding a broom.
Security footage shows Jin Kim, 60, trying to take a cellphone video of the employee who he said disrespected him.
The employee confronts him with what appears to be a broom handle, waving it and smacking Jin Kim’s phone out of his hand.
The Feb. 16 conflict was sparked when Jin Kim complained after waiting more than 10 minutes to order coffee at the store, according to paperwork filed in Queens Supreme Court.
The filing alleges that an employee Rooshi Sajjad started shouting at him, “We don’t serve coffee to people like you” and “Get out of my restaurant.”
Jin Kim, a Flushing resident, now plans to sue the company for a whopping $10 million.
His lawyer Christine Bae is arguing her client, who has been in the U.S. for more than 30 years, sustained injuries to his hand in the attack and was mistreated because of his race.
A representative from the Queens district attorney’s office said Sajjad pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges related to the attempted assault earlier this year, which will be dismissed if she stays out of trouble until February.
She was not charged with a hate crime.
A manager at the Flushing McDonald’s would not say Tuesday whether Sajjad still worked at the store.
In an emailed statement, the franchise’s owner Luigi Solimeo said he cares “greatly about the safety and well-being of our customers and our employees.”
Earlier this year, another Flushing McDonald’s drew the ire of the Korean community – and calls for a similar boycott – after the store began booting groups of senior citizens who camped for long periods in the store.
Colligan, who was joined Tuesday by Korean leaders such as Paul Yoo, the president of the Korean American Association of Queens, and Hyung Bin Lm, the president of the Korean Amiercan United Senior Citizen Voters Commission, referenced the other incidents as well.
“McDonald’s says they’re a family restaurant, there are a lot of kids in the store,” Yoo said.
“But that’s not a family restaurant.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/video-mcdonald-worker-patron-article-1.2061341
