The clip, which lasts for several minutes, shows the man at the Burly Coffee & Better Read Than Dead store in the Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn repeatedly calling the sign offensive and demanding it is taken down.
“You need to take off the sign, it’s offensive,” the man, later identified as Abraham “Avrumy” Knofler, says. Pointing to the sign, he adds: “This is the most racist thing out there, I’m not a racist.”
The footage was filmed by Rohan Singh and uploaded to YouTube. The video went viral after a clip of it was posted onto Twitter, where it has since been viewed more than five million times.
“So, this was my morning. I just wanted to get some coffee. But this racist a*****e decided it’s time to educate us and ‘make a protest’ about how ‘all lives matter’,” Singh tweeted, sharing a clip of the video.
“It honestly wasn’t that tough of a situation for me personally, once it was clear the person was probably nonviolent,” Singh added in a follow-up tweet. “But it was a horrible situation for the barista who was trapped there. I feel really bad for her.”
Elsewhere during the footage, Knofler addresses the small crowd who were confronting him and urging him to leave, saying: “The sign caused the whole problem.”
“When you’re offended by something, you burn down a whole city. What am I doing?” Knofler says, prompting Singh to say “she didn’t burn down anything, what the hell are you talking about?”
Knofler later says he is making a protest and starts chanting “all lives matter.”
Speaking to Gothamist, Knofler explained why he confronted staff at the store. “I was making a protest—all lives matter,” he said. “They don’t have to take it down, I just wanted to defend all lives matter.”
In a statement, Burly Coffee said this was not the first time they had to deal with Knofler.
“We strongly stand with Black Lives Matter and applaud our staff for standing up to the blinding hate that has appeared at our door,” the statement said.
“Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident with this person and our priority continues to be the safety and well-being of our staff.
“We are overwhelmed by the generous support of our staff via our Venmo Tip Jar. The baristas that experienced this hatred will receive the tips directly. Burly will be making a contribution in support of the community we love and are thankful to be a part of.”
