A married couple who fled Haiti for Virginia achieved their American dream when they opened a variety market on the Eastern Shore, selling hard-to-find spices, sodas and rice to the region’s growing Haitian community.

When they added a Haitian food truck, people drove from an hour away for freshly cooked oxtail, fried plantains and marinated pork.

But Clemene Bastien and Theslet Benoir are now suing the town of Parksley, alleging that it forced their food truck to close. The couple also say a town council member cut the mobile kitchen’s water line and screamed, “Go back to your own country!”

“When we first opened, there were a lot of people” ordering food, Bastien said, speaking through an interpreter. “And the day after, there were a lot of people. And then … they started harassing us.”

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      9 months ago

      I am sure that according to some nonzero number of his constituents, damaging property and screaming to drive away brown immigrants who are threatening the white people’s investments is 100% his job and what they elected him for.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They claim that this particular person is also in the public works department or something, arguing (I guess) that he was authorized to do that. In reality, you’d probably need to have gotten the courts involved by that point before just summarily doing what you like.

    • Maeve@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Lol! You got me, there, but I was hyper-focused on if the business passed requirements or off some other permit would be needed.

      Still, that guy just sounds cray/hateful.