Racist Rant At Pizza Place Condemned By Hatboro Mayor

HATBORO, PA —"Hate has no place here."

That was the message Hatboro Mayor Tim Schultz delivered during Monday night's Hatboro Borough Council meeting in regard to a customer who made a racist rant at a borough restaurant last week.

Speaking before a crowd of 25 people at the Pennypack building, Schultz read a statement in reaction to an irate customer's rant at Amy's Family Pizzeria that was captured on a Tiktok video last Thursday night.

"As Mayor, representing the Borough of Hatboro, I am proud to live and work in a place where inclusivity is a top priority to its leadership," Schultz said.

In the expletive-filled viral video, an unidentified customer confronts a counter employee over a Spanish-language channel being on in the eatery. She demands a refund and then threatens to "look up" the employee and "get them out of town." The woman claims her family has been part of the Hatboro community for 200 years and that her grandfather fought in World War II.

The Hatboro Police Department is continuing the investigation, Police Chief James Gardner told Patch Monday night.

Schultz's statement —in which he gave a copy to Patch —was broken into three parts: "Who We Are," "What We Stand For," and "What We Strive For."

The mayor said that Hatboro —which is 1.5 square miles —contains businesses, corporations, organizations, schools, houses of worship, police and fire departments, and neighborhoods.

"The men and women who live and work in our vibrant community are black, brown, Asian, Native American, and white," the mayor said. "We are straight, gay, bi, trans as well as disabled. We are fortunate to represent the melting pot of America within this 1.5-square-mile piece of earth."

In terms of what Hatboro stands for, the mayor offered five points:

• "We believe in the individual dignity of all members of humanity in all its wonderful diversity."
• "We believe that individuals and families have equal rights under national, state, and local laws."
• "We believe the Constitutional right of presumption of innocence is foundational to our rule of law."
• "We believe in compassion and forgiveness for those who are suffering, whatever the cause."
• "We believe in the rule of the law, the police who enforce those laws, and the court system and their fair judgments."

Schultz then went on to tell the crowd about what Hatboro strives to be in the last section of his statement, especially in the wake of social media posts in which people were posting the names of those who may have made the rant in the nearly five-minute video. Police later issued a "cease-and-desist" warning not to post names on social media.

"Last week's ugly incident and its aftermath will be thoroughly investigated by the police department, as it should be," the mayor said. "I remind the community that there can be unintended consequences to jumping ahead of this process."

"Passionate, angry posts, written in the heat of the moment, can be viewed as an encouragement of a hateful mob mentality. I caution my friends and neighbors to give pause and restraint, before suggesting online how justice should be served," the mayor concluded. "Hate has no place here. Trust our police. Promote peace."