Op-Ed
D.P. Dough co-owner responds to racist allegations
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To the Editor:
We at D.P. Dough hope that people are interested in the truth of what happened the night of Sept. 18. For this reason alone, we are giving you a play by play of the situation that occurred that night. In addition, we encourage anyone who wants to verify the actual facts to exercise their right under the freedom of information law to see the Ithaca Police Department’s official report.
We hope this resolves any confusion about how the events unfolded that night.
At approximately 1:30 a.m. the assistant store manager was in the back office when she heard screaming. She went to the front of the store to see what was going on and saw four females screaming at two males at the doorway to the store. She told everyone to calm down in an effort to keep the peace. She was then screamed at by one of the females for in her words “condoning” the situation. After being screamed at and after the females refused to quiet down after several warnings, the assistant manager called the police, as our policies and procedures dictate for this type of problem. Upon the police arrival, they calmed the situation down and everyone went their separate ways.
As far as the two males being former employees, that is in incorrect statement. One of the males involved was a former employee for a brief period who happened to be eating at the store that night. They were not acquaintances with the assistant manager on duty. In fact, the former employee had his employment terminated at D.P. Dough for attendance problems by the very same management staff last year. He has not been employed by D.P. Dough in approximately one year.
D.P. Dough does not condone any discrimination or harassment in any shape or form. No such discrimination or harassment has ever been alleged or reported against D.P. Dough. Should any instances of discrimination or harassment at any level be found, that employee would be terminated at once. In addition the matter would immediately be forwarded to the police for investigation should it appear any laws may have been broken.
In short, I sincerely apologize that these customers had a bad experience at D.P. Dough. Unfortunately, as in any business, we are not able to verify the backgrounds or question customers’ personal views prior to serving them food. If we see a situation that seems like it is escalating, it is our policy to immediately call the police BEFORE such incidents get out of hand. This is to protect ALL parties involved, as well as our employees, and innocent customers/bystanders.
Should these customers feel we handled this situation in any less than a professional and courteous manner to everyone involved, I would encourage them to contact me directly as soon as possible, rather than publish outright slanderous lies about our establishment that has been part of the diverse Ithaca community for over 10 years.
Joel Rosenthal, co-owner, D.P. Dough
wonderful. i really hope
wonderful. i really hope that students and particularly members of the Cornell Administration take up this offer and check the facts. as one sun article mentioned yesterday, god was this embarrassing to have everyone just jump to conclusions on what happened. (if only we had a top law school on campus, we could have been a bit brighter about seeking facts). how many students, and even the Administration, have now played a role in hurting the reputation of a local small business because they had to jump on the racist business bandwagon before finding out what really happened. was this disgusting, sure. is racism alive and well in ithaca? sadly, it is, and we need to take serious steps to cure this problem. but jumping the gun by smearing a persons' or business's reputation and boycotting their services before anyone has had time to breathe, let alone get the facts, is really irresponsible. way to go CU. if only we kept those diversity arches up, none of this would have happened in the first place.
Was that a letter of apology? Defensive backlash. Disgusting.
I would encourage them to contact me directly as soon as possible, rather than publish outright slanderous lies about our establishment -- what a synic. You don't write a letter of apology insulting the victims. He should go back to college (if he ever attended one) and learn some Human Resources Management, DP Dough's managements logic is flawed. I still think they are racist.
Maybe you should just pay attention in class...
It wasn't an apology, it was a response to the outrageous allegations against his business. And I agree with exactly what he said, outright slanderous lies. Get your diploma first before you tell someone else to go back to college. This is why he has a business....and you don't.
EDUCATE
Thankfully someone was willing to stand up and fight back. The two male people that made the comments that night at DP Dough are absolutely wrong and I wish what they did could be deemed illegal so they get some penalties for it.
One thing that has NOT BEEN PUBLICIZED is at least one of them IS A CORNELL STUDENT. I hope now that the truth is slowly starting to come out about this incident that a light goes off in someones head and they try to handle this internally at Cornell. If you can't press charges on these two morons why can't you make them do sensitivity training on racial/sexual equality, make them do a 300 page research paper on rights of ALL people and acting humanely ... and why they shouldn't do what they did. They were reportedly very intoxicated when they did this act so why not 6 months of alcohol awareness classes.
Cornell is supposedly one of the best educational institutions in the world, so why don't we use this incident to EDUCATE the people who started this whole big mess. If the point of publicizing this incident was the continuous fight for equality among all, it would seem this would provide the best chance for that.
The only way to fight hate/racism/bigotry/sexism/bias is to EDUCATE.
I would think cornell students would be the first ones to see that.
This fight needs to be turned back on the two guys who started this mess, and they should not just fade off into the sunset.
I agree. And for now on,
I agree. And for now on, anyone who says a bad word, steals, publicly urinates, violates noise ordinances, drinks while underage, uses a fake ID, has overdue library books, cheats on their partner, cheats on an exam, forgets a friend's birthday, treats another person with disrespect, etc. etc. etc. should write papers on why these things are bad. If they write papers, they will see the light and finally understand that they shouldn't be mean and that all people should be treated with respect.
How is this a 'play by play'
How is this a 'play by play' when it starts in the middle of what happened? This guy wasn't there, and the Asst. Manager was in the back. These aren't facts, they are stories. This really tells us nothing except that two people were screaming, they never bothered to find out why, and that DP Dough policy says to call the police.
I'm not screaming racism, because I wasn't there either, but this definitely sounds like a complete lack of understanding by DP Dough and the IPD especially. As for the two jerks who started all of this, they have done their part to remind us all that ignorance and intolerance will run rampant even among the (supposedly) top tier of society. Thanks guys.
Thank you for making the point.
I think that may have been part of the point of the letter from the owner. The report said that DP Dough did not get involved in the incident until it became very loud and disruptive, and all attempts to find out what was going on failed because the girls were hysterically screaming at everyone, not making any sense while trying to explain themselves.
Once again, it seems as if DP Dough came into the middle of something and had to make a decision with the best information they had at that time. If that decision was to get rid of the disruptive people, to call the cops to calm everyone down so they can do the real "investigation" so be it.
As far as IPD misunderstanding the situation, just because IPD tells these girls they can not press charges because there is no incident, i fail to see how that is racist? They recieve a lot more training in law matters than the general public, so how are we supposed to read about accounts from an incident and question the fact that they thought they were unable to make any charges stick to these two guys.
AGAIN, where the heck is the personal responsibility?? No one asked these two guys to act like idiots, and no one asked them to start this whole incident. Hold these two guys accountable already!!!!
One of my friends knew the two guys involved in this incident. He said that these two guys were in the military! These are some of the people protecting all of our freedoms. That is a scary thought. Why don't the girls use their energy to find out where these two guys work in the military and let them know of their soldiers indiscretions? I don't know about you but I don't want two drunk, racist, sexist, inhumane, disgusting animals representing my country at home and abroad, and I certainly don't want them having guns.