After seeing our article, Tiki Bar Owner Fires Employees and Apologizes for Memorial Day Weekend Incident, Edwin Dowling called SMNEWSNET.COM, and asked if he could tell his side of the story.
Mr. Dowling sent us the following email and asked that we Publish it:
This my statement concerning the incident over Memorial Day weekend at the Tiki Bar.
As the employee who was directly involved with the incident May 28
th at the Tiki Bar, I would like to clarify what Ms. Lisa Gaskin Grandstaff posted on social media. The entire situation lasted less than five minutes. I did not leave and come back multiple times as stated. It was one incident. I walked up to a couple of ladies; one that had a black du-rag with the words “Harley Davidson” on the right side on her head and another that had a black and white scarf around her head. I asked both patrons politely to remove them because the Tiki Bar has a “no doo rag” policy as stated on the sign inside of the bar. Neither of these headwear had any sort of insignia on it. I did not confront anyone about vests or jackets. After I asked them to remove their headwear, a friend of theirs that was not a part of the conversation said “We don’t have to take this. We are leaving anyways.” If the Facebook picture is correct, Lisa is the woman that had the black du-rag. As a 5 year disabled veteran of the United States Marine Corps who served in Afghanistan during September 11
th, I would never disrespect any past or present Armed Forces member. The allegations are untrue and this seems to be a case of someone who wants to start trouble and is using bikers and military members to further their agenda.
Terry the owner never talked with me about what occurred that day. There was no investigation and no type of due diligence. If he would have looked at the cameras when the incident occurred, he would have seen the biker crew did not have any sort of military memorabilia on their headgear. I want to reiterate that the incident had nothing to do with a vest or jacket. Terry made a quick and irrational decision to fire myself, his general manager and any other security pertaining to that day in hopes to extinguish the bad publicity he was attracting from Lisa Grandstaff’s post. While I was initially upset with Terry’s post on Facebook, I quickly remembered the rules he has set aside in his bar. I will include the picture below. You will find “doo rags” which is my concern but also it states no motorcycle attire.
Respectfully,
Edwin Dowling
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