Exclusive Interview: #WalkAway Founder Refused Service by Employee at NYC Camera Shop

  |  
Jul 5, 2018

Earlier today, the founder of the #WalkAway movement tweeted that he was refused service at camera store due to his political activity.

“I’m shaking right now,” wrote Brandon Straka. “I just went into a camera store to buy a camera and a light and mic, etc. and they recognized me from tv. I was refused service because they said it was for “alt right” purposes. That literally just happened.”

https://twitter.com/usminority/status/1014988925419638785

The camera store, Adorama, located in New York City.

Straka gave the specifics in an interview with Big League Politics. 

“This is a specialty shop,” Straka said. “They have a section for cameras, a section for lighting, and a section for microphones. I finished with every section except the microphones, and when I went up there, another customer recognized me from Tucker [Carlson Tonight]”

Straka said that the other customer was excited to meet him, pulled up the clip of Straka on the popular cable news show, and asked for a picture. He was excited to meet a fan.

“I was like, ‘cool,’ I made his day,” Straka said.

But then things turned nasty.

The employee in the microphone section who overheard the conversation refused to sell any equipment to Straka because it would be used for “alt-right purposes.” Straka asked that Big League Politics not name the employee.

Straka said that the employee was a fellow gay man, and that when he tried to explain what #WalkAway was, the employee was not interested in having a conversation. Straka was directed to another employee at the store who completed the sale. Straka could not help but point out the irony. He is trying to help liberate the political left from closed-mindedness, and was bewildered that another gay man, supposedly a tolerant liberal, would not simply hear him out.

According to Straka, though, everyone else in the store acted benevolently towards him.

“I want to stress that the service of everyone else in the store was professional and courteous,” he said. “It was just this one employee who treated me poorly.”

On Twitter, Straka sent a message of strength.

“What happened to me today will NOT slow me down or deter me in any way,” he wrote. “We will prevail. #WalkAway”

https://twitter.com/usminority/status/1015009997305065475

 

 

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