An Iowa business owner was kicked out of his storefront after his landlord saw a photo of him at a protest.
Jeremiah Johnson, owner of Stylent Brands, claims his landlord broke his lease at a space near Des Moines, Iowa, after he saw him at a protest while watching the news. In a video posted on the entrepreneur’s Twitter page on Saturday, Johnson and two others argued with the landlord.
“We got kicked out from our business office space by our landlord cuz he saw us on the news peacefully protesting,” Johnson captioned the video. “Violating our 1st amendment rights and the lease. Please share this video! When other people protest for haircuts, it’s great! But when I protest peaceful it’s bad!!”
Johnson explained he was protesting peacefully and did not participate in any rioting or looting. He questioned the landlord on why his mere presence was an issue.
“I was protesting the right way,” he told the man. “Why get mad at me then? So, you’re not OK with the riots and you’re not OK with me peacefully protesting? Is that your concern?”
The landlord claimed he was concerned about illegal activities at the event.
“If there’s something illegally going on at a place that I’m at, I don’t want to be a part of it,” the man said. “I’m personally going to leave.”
Johnson explained there were two different groups at the protest, but the landlord insisted they exercised “poor judgment” because they did not leave. The video went viral after Johnson shared it on Twitter. As of this writing, it has gotten about 3.9 million views.
“Find you a Black owned space,” recommended one person. “We seriously have to stop giving our money to White owned spaces, because as you can see, we have no say or control over what others can do to us.”
“All that bubbling stumbling double talk is the man just doesn’t support what you brothers protested for, and with that he wanted you negros out of ‘his building,’” stated another. “He was too scared to say what was in his heart. We have got to get OUR own commercial properties.”
“Why couldn’t he have the balls enough to simply say he doesn’t support the #Blacklivesmatter movement, and the fight against police brutality,” questioned another viewer. “Instead he pulled a coward move and made a dumb-ass excuses for why he made that decision. Typical.”
Johnson told his Twitter followers he was taking legal action against the landlord and discouraged retaliation.
“Hi, thank you for all the love and support to our sport brand from the altercation that was caught on video with our former landlord. PLEASE don’t send threat to our former landlord because we at Stylent don’t believe in violence. His kids and family are innocent,” he tweeted.
“As Michele Obama said, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ We will take it the legal way.”
He also posted screenshots of parts of what he says are parts of an email the landlord sent Johnson’s attorney in which he claimed certain human rights must be earned.
“We live in a day [and] age where people demand rights who have never earned anything or done anything to deserve them … let alone respect,” the email read in part.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to Johnson for comment but did not hear back.
