Lawyer caught making a racist rant on video receives an 'education' with a 'Latin Party' held outside his house
Aaron Schlossberg has had a rather tough time recently after being caught on camera spewing a racist rant at a group of Hispanic restaurant workers. The lawyer has been evicted from his office, forced to go out in disguise and widely criticized online. But having an actual Mariachi band show up to protest outside his apartment is probably the last thing the New York lawyer would have expected.
Schlossberg was eating in a Midtown salad bar when he threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials because he heard the restaurant workers talking in Spanish. He apparently assumed that the workers were illegal immigrants. The video promptly went viral leading to the lawyer facing a barrage of criticism for his antics.
Millennials for Revolution, a leftist grassroots movement that was previously known as ‘Millennials for Bernie Sanders’ decided to protest Schlossberg by arranging a “latin party” outside his apartment on Friday, May 18.
"This message that we're sending to him is not just to him. It's to every single person in America - every single racist. If they think they can openly attack our communities, man, there's going to be a response," organizer Carlos Jesus Calzadilla said, according to ABC13.
The event has received a lot of support online. More than $1000 has been raised for the band through crowdfunding. The protest “fiesta” featured taco trucks, a Jarritos truck and a live Mariachi band performing songs like "La Cucaracha".
Despite the loud noise from the event, Schlossberg’s neighbors did not seem to mind one bit.
It is presently unclear whether the lawyer was home to enjoy the “festivities”, but the protesters outside did not seem to really care one way or the other. "If not for him," one of them said, "We would never have come together."
Since the video went viral, two elected New York representatives, the congressman Adriano Espaillat and the Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr, have made formal complaints to the New York court system, The Guardian reports. It is unlikely, however, that Schlossberg will be disbarred for the incident.
Schlossberg has also been forced to move around in disguise after being hounded by reporters asking him about his comments. Some people have questioned whether “harassing” the lawyer is the proper way to deal with the issue. The organizers of the event definitely do not feel that way.
“This isn’t hounding him,” Moumita Ahmed, one of the organizers, told the Guardian. “We’re celebrating Latin culture and showing the world that for one racist there’s thousands of people who will come out and uplift a community. We have to hold him accountable, especially when we have a president who is upending communities by calling them animals and from shithole countries. We have to put these people in place, and this man has a history of going to protests and harassing people.”
The protest party reportedly had hundreds of people in attendance. Police officers arrived early to set up protective barriers around Schlossberg’s $1.2 million home.
Songs including Luis Fonsi’s Despacito and Selena’s Bidi Bidi Bom Bom were reportedly blasted over the PA. The party reportedly ended without any violence. The New York Observer reports that Carlos Jesus, president of the Young Progressives of America, spoke to the crowd, chanting: “Racists are not welcome here ... if you wanna speak Spanish, speak Spanish!”