The owner of a Los Angeles County restaurant, Bread and Barley, used his truck to block a health inspector who was harassing him for not shooing people off a public sidewalk in front of his business.
Carlos Roman says he has followed all the regulations, shutting down indoor dining to obey the government edicts Gavin Newsom alleges will stop COVID-19 from spreading. Data, however, shows that restaurants pose very little risk to the spread of the Communist Chinese virus plaguing the nation. In LA County, restaurants have been linked to only 4% of COVID transmissions. Even so, local health departments are laser-focused on ensuring that restaurants are shut down or operating below their ability to survive, while Walmarts and other big-box stores are jam-packed with shoppers.
Roman’s interaction with the LA County health inspector and police was caught on camera. “If we can’t work, he can’t work!” Roman tells a police officer who asks him to move his truck, which he had pulled behind the inspector’s car, impeding him from leaving.
According to Roman, the health department wanted him to police a public bench outside his property, where two of his customers had allegedly sat to eat the food they had bought from Bread and Barley. The ban on outdoor dining spurred the Johnny-on-the-spot health inspector to race over and cite the restaurant owner for not shooing away his customers. ABC reported:
Roman said he’s been working hard to comply with the county health order, especially during the pandemic, and was upset that his actions to stay safe were being misrepresented.”I think the pandemic is 100% real. My mom is recovering from covid right now,” he said.
To keep his restaurant open, Roman, like many other restaurant owners, spent thousands of dollars for an outdoor patio for when outdoor dining was still allowed in L.A. County.
Operating at a deficit, he says he took money from his savings to keep his staff working and continue serving customers.
“I think we have entered into the realm of a lose-lose situation,” Roman said.
Now after the confrontation with the health inspector, he is facing two $500 fines for failure to comply and interfering with the health officer.
Restaurant owners in locked-down states are desperate to survive. Unfortunately, the left has trained the public to view business owners as clones of Scrooge McDuck, rolling around on piles of money at the end of the day instead of scraping and saving and pouring personal funds into a dream that is being taken away through no fault of their own.
Most restaurant owners have at one time (or many) slept on the bar, pulled 24-hour days, worked through holidays and weekends to turn a profit. It is hard, grueling work. Not only do restaurant owners carry the weight of their own family’s future on their shoulders but the futures of everyone they employ.
“I’m desperate. Who is going to pay her car payment? Who is going to pay my cook’s rent?” Roman yelled to the health inspector, who still collects a paycheck every week for terrorizing small businesses.
Perhaps the worst part of the video is the police officer telling…
Continue Reading