Updated 8:30 p.m.
There is no “all black and Hispanic” police force in Philly, and Philadelphia Police do not serve as a security detail to “protect” certain citizens.
PPD spokesperson Tanya Little confirmed the above to Billy Penn Monday afternoon, responding to questions about an incident that transpired earlier in the day.
On the morning of Aug. 6, in the middle of the regular red-velvet-pancake gorging that goes on at Center City brunch favorite Green Eggs Cafe, a group of protesters interrupted a man and woman as they were eating, showering the duo with shouts and eventually forcing them out onto 13th Street. The man was then drenched in thrown glasses of water.
The pair being harassed was conservative commentators Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk, who were in Philadelphia for a board meeting of Turning Point USA, the pro-Trump youth organization they head.
Local members of Antifa, the nickname adopted by “antifascist” coalitions of progressive activists, had apparently discovered the pair’s whereabouts and organized a group to disrupt the conservatives’ breakfast.
The protesters entered Green Eggs Café about 20 minutes after Kirk and Owens sat down, Kirk told PhillyVoice.
In a video posted to Twitter by Owens, the protesters can be heard shouting: “They’re not Nazis, they’re soft fascists!,” “Fuck the bourgeoisie,” “Fuck white supremacy,” and “Cops and Klan, hand in hand.”
Police were indeed on the scene of the disturbance, PPD’s Little said. However, she clarified, they try to show up at every protest in the city, regardless of who or what is being protested. As for Owens’ statement posted along with the video, “I don’t know what that means,” Little said. “There is no all-black and Hispanic police force in Philadelphia.”
Local activist groups Abolish ICE Philly and Antifa Philly have not responded to Billy Penn’s request for comment, but both organizations also posted photos of the Monday morning melee on their respective Twitter accounts, depicting a liquid being thrown on Kirk (presumedly water flung by a protester)
In the videos posted by Owens and Kirk, it’s unclear how staff members at Green Eggs, which is located in Philly’s Gayborhood, reacted to the commotion at their establishment.
In one video, there’s a blonde waitress looking perplexed, and diners looking equally stunned as Kirk tells them to “have a wonderful day” and to enjoy their “capitalist breakfast.”
The manager, Malik Joe, told The Washington Post that people started “jeering” and throwing “food and objects” at Owens and Kirk from other tables and from outside. He initially thought that the formation outside of his establishment was a “vegan protest.”
On social media, the bruncherie received some backlash for serving the right-wing personalities. A Green Eggs employee told Billy Penn that “at this moment in time, we’re only allowed to say that we’re open for everybody. People are saying we’re on one side, or on the other side, and no… We’re not siding with anybody. All are welcome here.”
Owens is notorious for her anti-Black Lives Matter stance, as well as for her theories that Democrats have brainwashed African-Americans, that single and/or childless women are “biochemically” inferior and that climate change does not exist.
Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, which has been lambasted for its “Professor Watchlist” — a project that exists “to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom” — and for allegations of racial bias.
After both of them posted about their experience at Green Eggs, right-wing media outlets and conservative figures immediately jumped on the opportunity to provide commentary and decry the incident.
Local sports podcaster Tony Bruno tweeted that “our paid protesters are just props.” Former Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro suggested it was proof of “mob violence,” and One America News Network correspondent Jack Posobiec made a snide reference to segregation.
