A California accountant is out of a job after her attempt to shame an elderly man wearing a MAGA hat at a Palo Alto Starbucks backfired spectacularly, and now she wants police to do something about the threats she’s receiving in response to her stunt.
Parker Mankey, a radical liberal activist who dons an outlandish black Mohawk, posted to Facebook about her encounter with a 74-year-old Jewish Palo Alto man at the local Starbucks on Monday, describing how she verbally berated the senior citizen and forced him to leave the establishment.
Parker Mankey is doxxing an old man on Facebook because he wore a MAGA hat in public.
I’ve messaged Parker & let “her” know that I will be contacting “her” husbands work that “she” publicly posts on her FB page, to show them the violence their employees’ wife is promoting. pic.twitter.com/r45rU8RVPO
— Amy (@RightHookUSA) April 2, 2019
“I yelled at him. Called the entire Starbucks to order and yelled at him more about how it was not ok to hate brown people. He threatened to call the cops. I left after yelling at him some more,” Mankey wrote in the post, which included several pictures of the man.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Mankey, co-chair of the Bayshore Progressive Democrats, continued her attack when she passed back by the store a short time later, taking her torment to a whole new level.
“I went back in and yelled that I had changed my mind and wanted him to call the police because I wanted to know his name, where he lived, his wife’s name, and where his kids went to school,” Mankey wrote.
“I called him more names and told him to call the police. Then I yelled and asked someone else at Starbucks to call the police. He wouldn’t call the police, so I called him a wimp. He got his stuff together to leave. I followed him to the register while he complained about me. Then chased him out of Starbucks yelling at him to get the f**k out of my town and never come back.”
Mankey wrote that it was “heartbreaking” other Starbucks customers didn’t join her unnecessary protest. She described the old man as a “freak” and solicited information about his identity.
“It is the duty of every white person in America to stand up to this every time they see it,” she wrote. “You do not want to be the person who didn’t speak up as we slipped into fascism.”
Folks online seemed to agree, though not in the way Mankey intended.
“Parker Mankey is doxing an old man on Facebook because he wore a MAGA hat in public,” Twitter user Amy posted. “I’ve messaged Parker & let ‘her’ know that I will be contacting ‘her’ husbands work that ‘she’ publicly posts on her FB page, to show them the violence their employees’ wife is promoting.”
Amy also captured Mankey’s Facebook post, which is no longer available.
The incident has since exploded online and the backlash has been fierce.
The woman’s employer, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, was inundated with calls from all over the world – “100 percent” against Mankey, manager Matt Lynch told Palo Alto Online – and she was eventually fired.
“It’s been a tough day,” Lynch said. “What she did in no way reflects Gryphon or how the company feels.”
“We understand how passionate she is regarding politics. We never could have imagined it would have escalated to this kind of ordeal,” Lynch told the Palo Alto Daily Post. “Putting political beliefs aside, you know, we are just not going to tolerate that kind of harassment from any of our employees, no matter what position they hold here.”
The victim of Mankey’s love and tolerance spoke with KTVU about the incident. The man, identified only as Victor, said his attacker’s over-the-top reaction to the MAGA hat he wears regularly is an example of the country’s eroding public discourse.
“This woman came over and not only started screaming at me, she turned to the Starbucks audience and said, ‘Hey everybody come here! This guy’s a racist! This guy hates brown people!’” Victor said. “It’s called Trump derangement syndrome: people acting crazy. If you can’t tell the difference between a hat that says ‘Make America Great Again’ and a Nazi helmet or a Ku Klux Klan hat, I’d say you’re deranged.”
Victor told the Palo Alto Online he’s often approached by folks when he wears his MAGA hat, but it’s almost always people who would like to do the same but fear the public backlash.
“There’s a fear in the air,” he said. “I hope this doesn’t start a trend of people getting in your face.”
Palo Alto Police told KTVU Victor hasn’t contacted the department about the harassment, but Mankey has complained of receiving threats in response to her social media posts.
Margaret Okuzumi, who co-chairs the Bayshore Progressive Democrats with Mankey, blamed the ordeal on President Trump and complained that Mankey is now facing harassment.
“We live in highly polarized times due to nearly unprecedented levels of economic inequality and the struggles of many to obtain basic necessities of life such as housing and healthcare,” Okuzumi said in a prepared statement. “The President of the U.S. has contributed to an atmosphere that encourages open hatred and scapegoating of brown people for this structural inequality, causing many to live in fear.
“Parker felt strongly that she wanted to use her privilege as a white woman to stand up for those who are living in far because of the hateful atmosphere fostered by Trump,” she wrote. “Unfortunately the manner in which she chose to stand up against a slogan that stands for racism led to an even stronger hateful response that has endangered her and her family.”
Mankey and her family are now reportedly receiving death threats.
Mankey serves on the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan Working Group, but city officials wouldn’t discuss her future on the board in light of her recent publicity stunt.
“We are aware,” city spokeswoman Claudia Keith said, “but don’t have any comment at this point.”
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